PHILADELPHIA — Senior catcher Jayden Lobliner was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth round of the 2026 MLB Draft (264th overall pick) on Sunday, marking the 37th consecutive year in which at least one Torero was drafted by a big league club.

A native of St. Charles, Illinois, Lobliner earned WCC Defensive Player of the Year and All-WCC Second Team honors in back-to-back seasons (2025, 2026) and was named to the 2026 Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award Midseason Watch List across a two-year Torero career that saw him establish himself as the premier defensive catcher in the West Coast Conference.

Lobliner hit .291 (116-for-398) across 103 games in a San Diego uniform, scoring 70 runs alongside 28 doubles, three triples, 16 home runs, and 69 RBIs while throwing out 28 would-be base stealers behind the plate. After transferring to USD from Kansas State ahead of the 2025 season, he helped lead the Toreros to the 2025 WCC Regular-Season Championship and the 2025 WCC Tournament Championship Final in his first year on campus.

His finest season came as a senior this spring (2026), when he hit .296 (61-for-206) with 16 doubles, two triples, 10 home runs, 38 runs scored, 39 RBIs, 17 walks, and six hit by pitches for a .365 on-base percentage and a .539 slugging percentage. His 16 doubles were a co-team high and tied for the 10th-best mark in the WCC, while he also ranked tied for seventh in the conference with 10 home runs and tied for 12th in RBIs. Lobliner caught fire early in the year, hitting .447 (21-for-47) during an 11-game stretch from February 14 to March 7 to raise his batting average to .407, and finished third on the team with 18 multi-hit games, including a team-best two four-hit performances. He also tied a single-game program record with three doubles against Santa Clara (April 4).

Behind the plate, Lobliner was one of just two Toreros to play and start in all 51 games in 2026, serving as San Diego's primary catcher. He ranked second in the WCC by gunning down 12 would-be base stealers, including catching a season-high two runners trying to steal against both Oregon State (March 15) and Saint Mary's (April 26).

The senior saved his most memorable moments for his final weekend in a Torero uniform. Lobliner became just the second player in program history to hit for the cycle — and the first since Kevin Reese on February 6, 2000 — as part of a 17-8 series-opening win over Loyola Marymount (May 14), making him the only Torero to hit for the cycle at Fowler Park since the venue opened in 2013. Two days later, he capped the series with a walk-off single in his final at-bat as a Torero, lifting San Diego to a 9-8 victory in its 2026 season finale (May 16).

Lobliner is the 140th Torero to be drafted by an MLB team and the seventh USD player to be selected by St. Louis all-time, joining Jack Gurevitch (2025, pick No. 89), Brycen Mautz (2022, pick No. 59), Jesse Jenner (2015, pick No. 221), Victor Sanchez (2010, pick No. 799), Mike McCoy (2002, pick No. 1,032), and 2012 USD Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Herde (1993, pick No. 1,068). His selection marks the second consecutive year in which the Cardinals have drafted a Torero after St. Louis took Gurevitch in the third round of the 2025 draft.

He is the 157th player in USD history to either have his name called in the MLB Draft or sign with a Major League team, a span that dates back to 1964.