June 6, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern pitchers George Kontos (Lincolnwood, Ill./Niles West) and Dan Brauer (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton-Warrenville South) were chosen on day one of the 2006 Major League Baseball Amateur draft. Kontos was a fifth-round (164th overall) selection by the New York Yankees and Brauer a sixth-round (187th overall) choice of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Kontos and Brauer are the 53rd and 54th Wildcats in school history to be drafted and the 41st and 42nd under head coach Paul Stevens. Both players just ended their junior years.
Kontos ended his season with a nine-inning, complete-game win over Purdue in the 2006 Big Ten Tournament. He pitched a career-high and team-high 95.1 innings and was second in the Big Ten with 84 strikeouts. He started a team-high 16 games and tied with Brauer finishing seven of them.
The Phillies selected former Wildcat J.A. Happ in the third round of the 2004 amateur draft.
Brauer was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Year with a perfect 7-0 league record in eight Big Ten starts. Overall he was 7-2 in 15 starts and pitched 92.2 innings. He led the conference with 90 strikeouts and held opposing hitters to a .251 batting average. Brauer was a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection, his third at NU. He was a third-team selection as a freshman (2003-relief pitcher) and sophomore (2004-starting pitcher). Brauer ended the year with a .344 batting average, which includes one home run and 14 RBI. He had a .475 on-base percentage.