The University of Akron Athletics
Liersemann Selected By Florida Marlins In MLB Player Draft
June 07 | Baseball
Senior pitcher Ross Liersemann (Mansfield, Ohio/Lexington) was selected by the Florida Marlins in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball Player Draft on Tuesday afternoon.
Liersemann became the sixth player taken in the MLB draft from The University of Akron. He is the third-straight pitching prospect taken in the draft, joining Mark Malaska (8th round in 2000) and Aaron Gangi (14th round in 2003), both of whom went to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Liersemann, who was named MAC Pitcher of the Week three times this season and six times in his career, led the Zips pitching staff with a 3.78 earned run average, six wins, seven complete games and held opponents to a .246 batting average. He was listed on the College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll twice and was also on the watch list for the 2006 Roger Clemens Award.
The senior right hander not only led the team in innings pitched, but established two new records in 2006. His 112 innings pitched top the previous single-season record of 95 1/3 innings that Liersemann shared with Tim Dobos. Also, he completed his career at Akron throwing in 334 innings, which surpassed the previous career record of 279 2/3 innings.
Liersemann led the team with a career-high 95 strike outs on the season, which ranks as the third-best total in a single season. In 2005, he struck out 81 batters, which currently ranks in a tie for seventh. His career total of 256 strikeouts ranks third all-time, just two behind Tim Dobos for second.
Liersemann was the 545th overall pick in what was the final
round of day one. Five other Mid-American Conference players were
taken on the first day of the draft, including Emmanuel Burris
(Kent State), Matt Long (Miami), Keith Weiser (Miami), Brad Snyder
(Ball State) and Brad Miller (Ball State).
