FORT MYERS, FLA.- Florida SouthWestern State righthander Ryan Gusto made waves this week as he has been named the #48 prospect among junior college players by Perfect Game for the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft.
Gusto will play just one season in Fort Myers after transferring to FSW from Broward where he played his freshman season. Last season for the Seahawks, Gusto was 4-3 with a save on the mound, striking out 54 in 46 1/3 innings of work. Pitching primarily out of the Broward bullpen, Gusto saw action in 19 contests, going a season long 5 1/3 and allowing just one hit to earn a win against Indian River midway through the year.
Earlier this Fall, Gusto signed at Western Kentucky University.
Last season there were 88 NJCAA student-athletes from 60 different schools selected in the MLB Draft. More than 1/4 of the players drafted (23) were represented by Region VIII, 15 more than any other NJCAA Region in the country. Last year's #48 NJCAA player selected was William Woods from Dyersburg State who went in the 23rd round of the draft to the Atlanta Braves.
The #1 juco prospect according to Perfect Game is Eastern Florida State's Carter Stewart who was the #8 overall pick by the Atlanta Braves in the 2018 Draft, but turned down over $2,000,000 to play for the Titans and give the draft another try in 2019. Behind Stewart and eight others, Gusto is ranked the #10 prospect in the state of Florida according to the list.
The Bucs will open up the 2019 campaign when they host ASA Miami on January 25-26 at the beautiful City of Palms Park in Fort Myers.
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CITY OF PALMS PARK
The FSW Buccaneers call City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers their home stadium for baseball and softball.
City of Palms Park, originally built by the City of Fort Myers, was the spring training site of the Boston Red Sox from 1993 until 2011, when the team moved for spring training in 2012 to JetBlue Stadium.
Since then City of Palms has seen continued use for sports tourism and community events, including 73 days of amateur baseball tournaments annually that generated more than 46,000 hotel room nights and $22.2 million in direct visitor expenditure. Events included Perfect Game, Roy Hobbs World Series, Minnesota Twins Sun Conference, USA Baseball and AAU Baseball. Community events at City of Palms included Easter sunrise and sunset services, Lee County Human Resources Health Fair, Homeless Coalition wellness event, Florida State Field Umpire Clinic and Team Puerto Rico practice.