East Carolina sophomore Connor Norby was taken in the second round as the 41’st overall pick of the Baltimore Orioles in the 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft Monday afternoon.
Norby, the 17th selection under head coach Cliff Godwin, is the 10th Pirate to be picked by the Orioles following Mike Wright (2011/3rd round), Devin Harris (2008/8th round), Shane Matthews (2007/8th round), Reid Love (2015/10th round), Steve Godin (1990/17th round), Steve Salargo (1999/20th round), John Rawls (1965/22nd round), James Snyder (1967/45th round) and Wayne Britton (1965/56th round).
At 5-11, 190 Norby batted .415 this past season with a .484 on base percentage and 102 hits in 246 at-bats, 15 home runs and 33 walks with 15 doubles, 51 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. He batted at a .403 clip in 2020 with four home runs.
The second player at ECU to be named AAC Player-of-the-Year, Norby ranks among the single-season leaders (top 10) in hits (third/102), batting average (fourth/.415 which led the AAC), total bases (seventh/162) and runs (t9th/64) all time for the Pirates.
One of four players in school history to earn inclusion on six All-America teams. First-Team selection by America Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), Baseball America and D1Baseball while garnering second-team honors from Collegiate Baseball, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and Perfect Game.
He was named the 2021 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award winner and was one of two Pirates to be named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes Award in the same season (other: Gavin Williams in 2021).
An ABCA First-Team All-East Region selection and Greenville All-Regional Team selection, Norby became the second player at ECU to be named the NCBWA District IV Player-of-the-Year (other: Ryan Jones 2004). Fourth player in ECU program history with 100 or more hits in a season and led the nation with 102 hits. Norby is the only player in AAC history with 100 hits in a season.
In his two-plus years at East Carolina, Norby helped the Pirates to 104 wins and a pair of AAC Regular season titles in 2019 and 2021.
The 5-10, 190 pound right-hander out of East Forsyth in Kernersville, N.C. started in 80 of his 104 games at second base.
Norby logged ten game winning RBI’s and had 42 multi-hit and 15 multi-RBI contests with a .596 slugging percentage.
One of three Pirates to be named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award along with Corey Kemp in 2008 and Gavin Williams 2021 and one of two to be named semifinalist for Dick Howser Award.
Part of an ECU ballclub that won an American Athletic Conferece best 20 league games in 2019 and 2021, the Pirates hosted back-to-back NCAA Regionals in Greenville earning national seeds (No. 10/2019, No. 13/2021) including two Regional Championship clubs in 2019 and 2021.
Norby fielded at a .971 clip with 143 putouts, 190 assists, while committing only 10 errors.
A four-year letter winner under coach Drew Dull, Norby was part of an East Forsyth team that went 87-26 with three appearances in state playoffs, including a West Regional runner-up finish in 2018. Member of three conference regular season in 2015, 16 and 2018) with three conference tournament titles in 2016 thru 2018.
Norby is a three-time ECU Director of Athletics Honor Roll and a two-time American Athletic Conference All-Academic selection.
