The Minnesota Twins selected 2023 Mohawks shortstop Marek Houston from Wake Forest with the 16th pick in the First Round of the 2025 MLB Draft on Sunday.
Houston was a late arrival to the Mohawks in 2023 as he was the starting shortstop with Wake Forest as they were playing all the way up to the semi-finals in the College World Series in Omaha that season. His first game with Amsterdam wasn't until July 4th, and he began his Mohawks career on fire. Marek went 2-for-2 with 3 walks, a double, a triple and 4 RBI in his first game. That was followed up by a 3-for-3 performance the next game as he ended up with a streak 12-straight plate appearances of reaching base until he finally recorded an out in his third game.
Marek hit .429 for the Mohawks in the regular season, and including playoffs, had a .370 average in 21 games played with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 14 RBI and 16 runs scored. He only struck out 4 times in his 54 at-bats and made many remarkable plays on the field as the Mohawks went on to defeat the Elmira Pioneers in the PGCBL Championship that season.
This season at Wake Forest, Houston hit .354 in 61 games with 14 doubles, 15 home runs, 66 RBI, 61 runs scored, 19 stolen bases and had an OPS of 1.055. On March 7th, he had a 10 RBI game against Notre Dame and was named the Golden Spikes Player of the Week the first week of the season.
Marek becomes the third Mohawk former drafted in the first round, joining 2018 Mohawk Justin Foscue of Mississippi State who was the Texas Rangers 14th overall pick in 2020 and 2021 Mohawk Matt Shaw of Maryland who was the Chicago Cubs 13th overall pick in 2023.
Marek Houston is also a second-generation Mohawk as his father, Mark Houston, played for then Mohawks head coach and current team president, Brian Spagnola, in 1992 and 1993 out of Army.
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