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Festa Selected By Minnesota Twins In 2021 MLB Draft
7/13/2021 3:36:00 PM | Baseball
The Verona, N.J., native was an All-BIG EAST First Team performer for the Pirates this past season
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Junior right-handed pitcher David Festa (Verona, N.J.), an All-BIG EAST First Team selection for the Seton Hall baseball team this past spring, was picked by the Minnesota Twins in the 13th round of the 2021 MLB Draft on Tuesday afternoon.
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Festa, the 399th player picked in this year's draft, becomes the 111th Seton Hall Pirate to be selected in the MLB Draft. Minnesota most recently picked two Pirates in the 2013 draft when they selected pitcher Brian Gilbert in the seventh round and outfielder Zack Granite in the 14th round. Granite made his big league debut and played in 40 games with the Twins in 2017.
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A Seton Hall Prep product, Festa finished third in the BIG EAST this season with a 2.00 ERA, ranked second with a .175 opponent's batting average and tied for ninth with 67 strikeouts. In conference play, he went 5-1 with a 1.54 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 41 innings pitched. Festa was a 2020 Preseason All-BIG EAST selection as a sophomore before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season. He lived up to the hype in 2021 though where, at one point, he allowed only three earned runs and tossed three complete games over five consecutive winning decisions from his start at Villanova on April 18 to his gem thrown against Creighton on May 15.
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In 2019, Festa was named Seton Hall's Freshman Male Athlete of the Year after spending most of the season as the Pirates' Sunday starter. He pitched to a 3-4 record with a 4.42 ERA and 58 strikeouts with 25 walks in 53.0 innings pitched and ranked third on the team in strikeouts and innings pitched.
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Festa, the 399th player picked in this year's draft, becomes the 111th Seton Hall Pirate to be selected in the MLB Draft. Minnesota most recently picked two Pirates in the 2013 draft when they selected pitcher Brian Gilbert in the seventh round and outfielder Zack Granite in the 14th round. Granite made his big league debut and played in 40 games with the Twins in 2017.
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A Seton Hall Prep product, Festa finished third in the BIG EAST this season with a 2.00 ERA, ranked second with a .175 opponent's batting average and tied for ninth with 67 strikeouts. In conference play, he went 5-1 with a 1.54 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 41 innings pitched. Festa was a 2020 Preseason All-BIG EAST selection as a sophomore before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season. He lived up to the hype in 2021 though where, at one point, he allowed only three earned runs and tossed three complete games over five consecutive winning decisions from his start at Villanova on April 18 to his gem thrown against Creighton on May 15.
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In 2019, Festa was named Seton Hall's Freshman Male Athlete of the Year after spending most of the season as the Pirates' Sunday starter. He pitched to a 3-4 record with a 4.42 ERA and 58 strikeouts with 25 walks in 53.0 innings pitched and ranked third on the team in strikeouts and innings pitched.
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