It didn’t take long for former WSU first baseman Taylor Ard to find his way back to an MLB-affiliated team.

The Arizona Diamondbacks purchased Ard’s contract and assigned him to the Hillsboro Hops, which is a short-season Single A affiliate of the Diamondbacks. Prior to being picked up by the team, Ard played in the Frontier League for the River City Rascals. He qualified for the All-Star Game with a .338 batting average, 33 RBIs and a .544 slugging percentage through 50 games.

A day after that game he joined the Diamondbacks.

Ard’s first crack at professional baseball came with the Seattle Mariners, when they selected him in the seventh round of the 2012 MLB First Year Player Draft. He spent two years in the Mariners’ system before the team released him this spring. During those two years, Ard compiled more than 700 at-bats and batted .262. Twenty of his 68 extra-base hits were home runs.

When Ard was a Cougar, he earned All-Pac-12 and All-West Region honors twice. He finished in the top 10 in the Pac-12 in home runs, RBIs, total bases and slugging percentage during his last season at WSU.