Oliver Dunn Living His Dream in Yankees Organization

Most, if not all, of those young kids who are all over ESPN this time of year playing in the Little League World Series have big league aspirations. Todd Frazier, Michael Conforto, Cody Bellinger and Jonathan Schoop all got their start in the LLWS. Many of the aforementioned young players likely won't make it; the odds of making it to the Major Leagues are slim.
According to a 2017 study performed by SABR's (Society for American Baseball Research) Richard T. Karcher, 66.7 percent of players drafted in the first round and supplemental first rounds of the 1996-2011 MLB Drafts combined made it to The Show. That number steadily decreases with each passing round, eventually plummeting to just 9.9 percent for the collective 12^th-20^th rounds of said Major League Drafts.
To have a certain team in mind, though, and then actually be selected by that organization? It would be a dream come true for any young ballplayer. RiverDogs infielder Oliver Dunn is living out that dream right now, when he was selected in the 11^th round by the New York Yankees earlier this summer in the 2019 MLB Draft.
"It was awesome. It was a lot of fun," Dunn recalled. "I was sitting with my family, and it happened early in the morning. Day three starts early, so it was a good start to the day. The Yankees were the team I was hoping was going to pick me through the process, and they were the team I thought was on me the hardest, and it was a cool moment to see it actually happen and to know I ended up where I wanted to go."
The selection was well deserved, as Dunn spent his three seasons at the University of Utah tearing up the rest of the Pac-12. Prior to becoming an 11^th-round pick, the Salt Lake City native led his team in batting average (.366), OPS (1.017), slugging percentage (.567) and on-base percentage (.450), among other categories as a junior in 2019. He was named to the All-Pac-12 team, as well as the ABCA/Rawlings West All-Region Team.  
Playing professional baseball is a whole different animal, though, something Dunn would soon discover upon joining the Appalachian League's Pulaski Yankees for his first pro assignment.
"I've had to learn how to prepare day-to-day," he said. "In college, you play a maximum of four games in a week, so if you have a tough series or a tough game, or even a good game, you have two or three days off at least to regroup and get back at it. Here, it's every single day, so for me, I've had to learn how to get past days and on to the next ones; that's been the most important part and something I'm still working on."
Getting into that everyday grind and becoming more comfortable as the season rolls on has paid dividends for Dunn, as the infielder is starting to see the more positive results appear in the box scores night after night. Through his first nine games in the Holy City, Dunn hit for just a .111 average (3-for-27) with nine punchouts. Over the course of his next 19 games, that mark shot up to .267 (16-for-60) with 21 total bases, eight RBI and a .384 on-base percentage. Overall, Dunn is pleased with the work he's put in, but he's taking the bad stretches in stride knowing that slumps are an inevitable evil in baseball.
"It's getting there. You have to make some adjustments, and some balls have to fall your way, too," he said. "I've had some unlucky placements at times, but that's baseball, and that's how it goes. You just have to continue learning every day and make the necessary adjustments and just continue to have fun."

Dunn and the RiverDogs are certainly having fun right now, as a recent stretch of 13 wins in 16 games between July 28 and August 14 has propelled the club back into the thick of the South Atlantic League playoff hunt. The club entered play August 16 just three games back of the first-place Asheville Tourists and Augusta GreenJackets, both tied for the top spot in the Southern Division. Charleston hasn't strayed from what kept it in the race during the dying days of the first half, though.
"I think that we're just consistently putting together good at-bats," Dunn said. "I think the most fun part of it has been all the close games we've won. I don't know how many of the 13 wins or whatever have been by two or fewer runs, but we've been seeming to win all of the close games, and get clutch hits at the right time. That's probably been the biggest thing, when the game is on the line we've been producing good at-bats and base hits, whatever it takes to win, and we've been able to string some together."
During the hot streak, the RiverDogs prevailed in 10 of those 13 by two or fewer runs. The team is winning the close games on the strength of outstanding performances on the rubber, most notably by Luis Medina, who was called up to High-A Tampa August 17, and Roansy Contreras, both in the midst of the best stretches of their respective seasons. Charleston has an opportunity to make up some ground, as the club will square off against Asheville four more times on the road before the conclusion of the 2019 regular season, and they have the playoffs in their sights.