LEE UNIVERSITY junior pitcher Kris Hall was taken in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft by the Oakland A’s Tuesday.
From the Cleveland, Ohio area, Hall just completed his second season at Lee and helped lead the Flames to a 56-11-1 season that included an SSAC Tournament title and a fourth-place finish in the NAIA World Series.
Hall posted a 12-0 record and commanded a 1.71 ERA in 100 innings of work. He fanned 122 hitters and walked only 48 while holding opponents to a .191 batting average.
“We are really excited for Kris,” said Lee head coach Mark Brew. “He becomes the second-highest drafted Flame (Lance Zwadzki was a fourth-round pick in 2007). I think Kris’ best days are ahead of him. He doesn’t even turn 21 until later this week.
“The amount of use on his arm over the years is minimum, which excites the scouts,” Brew pointed out. “He has a great chance to have an outstanding career with a quality organization and we wish him the best.”
In other draft action on Tuesday, a Lee recruit for 2013 was drafted in the 15th round by Tampa Bay. Brew admitted it would be difficult to bring Willie Gabay (Herkimer Community College, New York) to the Lee campus this fall.
Zwadzki big hit with Gwinnett Braves
Former Lee baseball standout Lance Zwadzki (2007) did not take long to generate plenty of excitement with the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves. Zwadzki signed his first professional contract with the San Diego Padres organization and was later traded to the Kansas City Royals.
After being released by the Royals, Zwadzki was signed by the Atlanta Braves and immediately assigned to the G-Braves. The Gwinnett Braves’ official blog, The G-Blog, details how the former Flame got off to a great start in his new home:
“Sixteen hours after one of the most improbable comebacks in Gwinnett Braves history, shock and disbelief is still surrounding Coolray Field. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs were up 8-0 at one point in the game on Memorial Day and led the G-Braves 8-3 heading to the bottom of the ninth inning. There is no way a Ryne Sandberg led ’Pigs team would ever blow a five-run lead with just three outs remaining, right? Well, Lance Zawadzki emphatically disagreed with that question, as he blasted a two-out, three-run walk-off home run for the G-Braves 31st victory of the season.
Ernesto Mejia doubled in Christian Marrero for the first run of the ninth inning, and Joey Terdoslavich added an RBI single scoring Stefan Gartrell. Then Jose Yepez singled through the left side of the diamond to score Mejia, cutting the deficit to two. With Gwinnett trailing 8-6 and down to their last out, the table was set for Zawadzki. The second baseman belted a 0-1 pitch from IronPigs’ reliever Michael Schwimer onto the right-field berm for his first home run of the season, capping the six-run comeback and giving the G-Braves their fifth walk-off win of the season.
Zawadzki finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs on the night, the most by a G-Brave in a single game this season. His home run, along with a two-run single in the sixth, helped Gwinnett match their largest come-from-behind victory of the season. The club also rallied from an eight-run deficit to beat Norfolk, 14-12 in 11 innings, on April 11 in Norfolk, Va. Marrero also belted a pinch-hit solo home run off Lehigh Valley starter Dave Bush to help the G-Braves get rolling in the sixth.
The six-run scoring barrage wasn’t even the biggest comeback of the season for the G-Braves in their final at-bat. Just days into the 2012 season, Gwinnett found themselves down seven runs entering the ninth inning on April 11, in Norfolk. Somehow, the visiting G-Braves scored seven runs as Jose Constanza delivered the game-tying hit in the ninth alongside the game-winning hit in the 12th inning.”
