West Virginia pipeline produces another player for Cardinals – before Owen Henne even made it to the school’s campus

By Rob Rains

The pipeline from West Virginia to the Cardinals was flowing again on Sunday – and this time it sent along a player who hadn’t even made it to the school’s campus yet.

The Cardinals used their pick in the sixth round on the second day of the MLB Draft to select shortstop Owen Henne, who played the last three years at Division II Seton Hill (Pa.), a school of 2,200 students, but who was going to transfer to West Virginia for his senior season next year.

Those plans changed with a phone call – and Henne could not have been happier.

“I got a text from my agent this morning and he said ‘Rockies, Twins, Cardinals and it will probably start heating up about the seventh or eighth round,’” Henne said. “He called me during the first pick of the sixth and said, ‘Tthe Cardinals are going to lock you up in the sixth.’

“I blacked out. It was really cool … It’s still like a surreal moment but when I first heard it my body just went numb.”

Henne did make it to Morgantown for the first part of this summer, playing in the MLB Draft League.

His coach at Seton Hill, Marc Marizzaldi, believes Henne’s performance in his short stay in that league helped convince the Cardinals to draft him when they did.

In 16 games for the West Virginia Black Bears, the 21-year-old Henne hit .302 with seven of his 16 hits going for extra bases.

“I think that basically solidified everyone’s assumptions,” Marizzaldi said. “Playing Division II people are like, ‘I don’t know if this kid can hit at a high level.’ He certainly has. He’s got every quality of a professional player. He was a great leader for our team.

“He’s a great player but also such an awesome person too. I’m hoping the Cardinals value the fact that they got a complete person.”

The West Virginia pipeline began with the Cardinals’ selection of Victor Scott II in 2022, continued with the pick of JJ Wetherholt in the first round in 2024 and on Saturday, it sent right-handed pitcher Dawson Montesa to the Cardinals as the 72^nd overall pick in this year’s draft.

Henne grew up about 10 minutes from Wetherholt’s hometown of Mars., Pa., and played against him in high school when he was a sophomore and Wetherholt was a senior.

“He ended up here at Seton Hill as maybe one of only two scholarship offers that he got out of high school,” Marizzaldi said. “He hadn’t grown into his body yet in high school. He was a big, tall kid who was still a little bit uncoordinated. He came pretty highly recommended by some people that we knew and trusted.

“He’s a fantastic student and kid from a great family. He was just like a late bloomer. In just three years to see how much he’s grown both physically and maturity baseball-wise, it’s been really, really cool.

“I told the Cardinals’ scout, ‘You got the steal of the draft.’ I think this kid’s best days are ahead of him. You look at him and he just oozes athleticism. It’s exciting.”

It was after his sophomore year at Seton Hill that Henne began to think his childhood dreams of playing professional baseball could come true.

“A big thing for me has always been defense,” he said. “I was a really late bloomer so whenever I grew up playing baseball I had to play great defense to get on the field because I wasn’t much of a threat offensively.

“Then as I started to grow and started to learn my body a little bit better the offense became more of a strength for me. I’ve always had really good contact, bat to ball and plate discipline and started to add some power over the last couple of years. There’s definitely still some room for growth there.”

As a junior this season, Henne posted a .401 average for the Griffins with 39 RBIs, 10 doubles and five homers. He struck out only 16 times in 142 at-bats. He also missed several games after pulling his hamstring in the first game of the season, an injury that his coach believes kept Henne from being 100 percent the rest of the season.

“He made plays so many times during the season that we were like, ‘Oh my God how did he make that play?’” Marizzaldi said. “When you watch him play it looks like he’s moving in slow motion sometimes. He ends up covering so much ground and turning hits into outs. He does it so smoothly. It’s a unique quality that he has.

“I think he’s just scratching the surface of how good he can be … He’s a fun player to watch.”

Henne already has another connection to the Cardinals as well. He spent the last two summers playing in Cape Girardeau, Mo., for the Cape Catfish in the Prospect League and he made a trip to St. Louis last year to attend a game and met manager Oli Marmol.

“The owner of the Catfish is a good friend of his and he took a couple of us to a game,” Henne said. “We were on the field for BP and talked to Oli for a little bit. So this is really a full-circle moment – kind of crazy.”

Here is the list of the Cardinals’ picks on day two of the draft on Sunday:

5^th round – Cal Randall, RHP, UCLA

6^th round – Owen Henne, SS, Seton Hill (Pa.)

7^th round – Derek Schaefer, RHP, Arizona State

8^th round – Luke Harrison, LHP, Texas

9^th round – Jayden Lobliner, C, U. of San Diego

10^th round – Nick Bonn, RHP, Cal-Poly

11^th round – Jacob Haley, RHP, South Alabama

12^th round – Drew Horn, RHP, Middle Tennessee

13^th round – Matthew Thomas, OF, Cal-Northridge

14^th round – Jade Alba, RHP, Arizona State

15^th round – Brian Garmon II, RHP, South Alabama