Lee University had a banner year in baseball, reaching its fourth straight NAIA final four, and to top it off the Flames had a school-record four players taken in the major league draft that concluded late Wednesday afternoon.
Senior pitchers Shay Crawford and Maxx Catapano joined two Tuesday picks from the Cleveland school, outfielders Chris Grayson and Jonathan Clark. Crawford, a first-team All-American, was selected by Tampa Bay and Catapano by Seattle. Grayson was selected by Texas and Clark by the New York Mets.
"We thought we might get three, but the fourth was a surprise simply because there were more teams looking at the other guys," Flames coach Mark Brew said.
Also chosen Wednesday - by Baltimore - was Chattanooga State pitcher Pat Merkling. The left-hander went 11-1 record with a 2.00 ERA while striking out 103 in 85 innings. He was the TCCAA pitcher of the year.
Catapano pitched behind Crawford, and Brew indicated that a lot of the scouts would visit to watch Crawford and then take off.
"I think he has good enough stuff to pitch at the next level, but I didn't know how much attention he would get," Brew said of Catapano. "I do know that the Mariners scout really liked him.
"Maxx came to us from the University of Connecticut, where he had signed as a touted prospect coming out of high school. It's really nice to see things work out for him."
Crawford is another special story for Brew, who said the left-handed transfer from UAB had decided to give up baseball without using his final season of eligibility, a fifth year because of a freshman redshirt.
"Schools move on," Brew said, "but in the middle of the summer Shay got the bug to pitch again and wound up coming to us."
Crawford pitched 103 innings and finished with an 11-2 record and 138 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .157 batting average. Catapano started 14 games and struck out 79 in 82 2/3 innings.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.