Secaucus, N.J. – For the second consecutive day, Lenoir-Rhyne University had a player taken in the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft when the St. Louis Cardinals took Thomas St. Clair with the 724th selection in the 24th round on Wednesday.

Lenoir-Rhyne senior John Curtis (Lenoir, N.C.) was drafted by the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday while St. Clair was the seventh player drafted in program history.

St. Clair, a senior from Winston-Salem, N.C., was named the 2017 South Atlantic Conference Pitcher Of The Year after fashioning a 10-4 record with a 2.28 earned run average and a school record and league-leading 116 strikeouts this spring.

"Thomas (St. Clair) deserves this opportunity," said Lenoir-Rhyne Head Baseball Coach Tom Fleenor.  "He has matured in so many ways in his time here and it showed in the monster year he had (this spring).  He is a true example of what hard work can accomplish."

St. Clair was also a first-team All-Southeast Region honoree and was named pitcher of the week by the conference four times and the region twice and was selected as the NCBWA NCAA Division II National Pitcher Of The Week after a three-hit and school-record 17 strikeout performance against Anderson (Feb. 24), a 9-0 road victory.

St. Clair also threw three complete games this year and his 284 career strikeouts were just three off the Lenoir-Rhyne record.

The list of all-time Bears drafted is as follows:  St. Clair, Curtis, Matthew De La Rosa (Baltimore Orioles) in 2016, Ivan Vieitez (Los Angeles Dodgers) in 2015, Steve Davis and Michael Tidwell (Chicago Cubs) in 1991 and Lenoir-Rhyne Hall-Of-Famer Craig Corbett (Montreal Expos) in 1981.