The 2015 First-Year Player Major League Baseball Draft is drawing closer, and the draft is setting up to be an exciting time as the dreams of many high school and college baseball players become a reality.

At Franklinton, centerfielder Josh Magee, who graduated from FHS last week, put a solid season together offensively and defensively and is garnering national attention.

Magee is ranked in Baseball America’s Top 200 Draft Prospects list at No. 153. The rankings feature high school and college players from across the country

“It’s a big thing,” Magee said. “I was kind of surprised because I didn’t think many people knew about me, but I guess with the season I had, they found out.”

Offensively, Magee was the Demons’ leadoff hitter. He was patient at the plate and was solid hitting the ball all season.

“I was a lot more patient this year. Going into ballgames, I just wanted to watch a couple of pitches just to feel the pitcher out and let my teammates see what he had, too. I like to make the pitcher work,” Magee said.

Defensively, Magee displayed the ability to get good jumps, showed good speed and a lot of range in the outfield on a game-by-game basis.

“I take pride in my defense,” Magee said. “I think my jumps help, but my speed is also a big thing. I always working on getting good jumps in batting practice.”

Franklinton coach Jeff Tageant, who guided the Demons to a 22-6 record and the quarterfinal round of the Class 4A state tournament, said Magee is a special player and works very hard.

“He loves the game,” Tageant said. “He doesn’t get caught up in the emotion in the game. He hit .529 this year, which is the best batting average by a player (Ricky Newman, .511 held the previous record) has had since I’ve been here (1989).”

Magee was solid all season. He posted a .529 batting average with one homer, 29 runs batted in and 42 runs scored over the club’s 28 games. Magee was successful on the base path, stealing 29 bases in 32 attempts (90.6 percentage).

Magee put up some solid season totals, including his batting average, that rank him at or near the top of the list since Tageant took the reigns of the Demons’ baseball program.

His 45 hits in a season are the most by a Demons’ baseball player since Tageant took over. The previous record was by teammate Morgan Angelo, who had 43 last season.

His runs scored are tied for the most since Tageant took over.

Magee exceeded his own goals for this year.

“Going into the season, I wanted to hit .430, but I exceeded my expectations. I wanted to hit better than I did last year (about .415),” Magee said.

Louisiana is well represented in the rankings. The rest of the players from the state are LSU shortstop Alex Bregman (No. 4), Oak Forest Academy first baseman Kolton Kendrick (62), University of Louisiana at Lafayette shortstop Blake Trahan (65), LSU outfielder Andrew Stevenson (165), LSU catcher Kade Scivicque (166) and South Beauregard pitcher Nick Lee (177).

The draft takes place June 8-10.