PHILADELPHIA — The San Francisco Giants selected UC Santa Barbara Baseball's ace pitcher and single-season strikeout record-holder Jackson Flora with the fourth pick in the Major League Baseball Draft on Saturday. Flora is the 71^st Gaucho drafted under head coach Andrew Checketts and the 14^th ever selected by the Giants. Flora also follows in the footstep of 2025 second overall pick Tyler Bremner as the first pitcher selected in their respective drafts. UC Santa Barbara becomes the first school this century to produce the first pitcher selected in back-to-back drafts (the last to do it being Florida State in 1994 and '95), with Dillon Tate's selection fourth overall in 2015 making it three times that a Gaucho has been the first pitcher off the board, all coming under their current skipper, Coach Checketts.
 
Flora, a Pleasanton native and boyhood Giants fan, made himself the consensus top pitcher in the draft by assembling one of the best pitching seasons in the history of UC Santa Barbara Baseball, setting the program single-season strikeout record with 133 punchouts across a season in which he did not lose a decision and did not have an ERA above 1.50 at any point, finishing with a nation-best 1.06 mark. He earned a trio of National Pitcher of the Year awards and unanimous All-American status.
 
Flora joins 2024 draftee Zander Darby, also a Bay Area native, in the Giants' organization. The MLB Draft continues from Philadelphia Saturday and Sunday as part of All-Star Weekend.