Jaron Lyons
Ashton Perritt
Alex Close
Liberty University’s baseball team had three players selected in the June 9-10 Major League Baseball Draft: Jared Lyons (Oakland Athletics, ninth round, 278th overall), Ashton Perritt (Texas Rangers, 24th round, 708th overall), and Alex Close (Kansas City Royals, 26th round, 789th overall).
Liberty has had 23 players selected in the MLB Draft since 2011, raising the program’s total to 61 in its 42-year history.
Lyons, the Big South Conference Pitcher of the Year and first Flames pitcher named to the postseason NCAA Division I All-America team, was Liberty’s highest draftee since 2012. He was assigned to the Vermont Lake Monsters and played in the New York-Penn League Class A Short Season.
Close, a first baseman and pitcher, spent the summer in the Arizona Rookie League. This past spring, he earned first-team recognition on the Big South All-Conference Team for the second year in a row. He completed his collegiate career ranked third all-time in hits (258), fourth in home runs (33), and tied for fourth in RBI (166).
Perritt, a pitcher and an outfielder, became the fourth Liberty player signed by the Rangers in the past four years, following Ryan Cordell (2013), Adam Parks (2014), and Trey Lambert, who signed in February after playing last year in the Frontier League. Perritt was sent to the Spokane (Wash.) Indians to compete in their Class A Short Season in the Northwest League.
