ATLANTA – Junior Ike Irish was selected by the Baltimore Orioles with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft Sunday in Atlanta.
Irish becomes Auburn’s 10th first round pick, including the fourth under head coach Butch Thompson, and is the fifth highest drafted player in program history. He is the third highest drafted position player in program history, trailing only Frank Thomas (No. 7) and Gabe Gross (No. 15).
This year's draft marks the 51st consecutive season dating back to 1975 Auburn has had at least one player selected in the MLB Draft, tied for the longest streak in the Southeastern Conference.
A consensus All-American following his junior season, Irish led Auburn in multiple offensive categories including average (.364), on-base percentage (.469), slugging percentage (.710), runs (65), hits (78), home runs (19) and total bases (152) while ranking second in RBI (58) and third in stolen bases (11).
He finished the conference season ranked second in the league in average (.398), on-base percentage (.480), slugging percentage (.852), home runs (13) and total bases (92). Despite missing the first weekend of the SEC season, he also ranked top five in runs (38) and hits (43). Irish’s 13 home runs in SEC play were the most by an Auburn player since Josh Etheredge also hit 13 home runs in 1997, and 12 of his home runs came on the road.
In his three-year career, Irish hit .350 and reached base at a .435 clip while totaling 223 hits, 48 doubles, 39 home runs and 167 RBI. He is the fifth player in program history to amass at least 200 hits, 45 doubles, 35 home runs and 150 RBI – joining Frank Thomas (1987-89), Josh Etheredge (1995-98), Todd Faulkner (1998-2001) and Gross (1999-2001) on the list.