Cody Asche became the highest drafted Husker since 2008, as he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the fourth round of the 2011 MLB Draft on Tuesday afternoon.

The 151st pick overall, Asche’s selection is the earliest a Nebraska position player has been taken since former third baseman Alex Gordon was picked second overall in 2005.

Asche, a 2011 second-team All-American, is a career .312 hitter with 24 home runs and 135 RBIs in three seasons with the Huskers. He was among the top offensive players in the nation this season, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors after leading the conference in home runs (12), doubles (27), total bases (133), and slugging percentage (.639), while also ranking second in RBIs (56) and 12th in batting average (.327).

Asche put an exclamation point on his year with a 4-for-4 day in the season finale, hitting three doubles to set Nebraska's single-season school record with 27, breaking the previous mark held by Jed Morris (2002) and Mike Duncan (1985). Asche also moved into a seventh-place tie on the all-time NU chart with 46 career doubles. He had a team-high 22 multiple-hit games in 2011, and shared NU's longest hitting streak of the season at 12 games.

A native of O’Fallon, Mo., this is the first time Asche has been selected in the MLB Draft.

2011 Draft Tracker:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2011/draftcaster.jsp