ASHEVILLE – UNC Asheville right-handed pitcher Blake Brown signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday. Brown is the first UNC Asheville baseball player to sign a contract with an MLB franchise since Ryan Dull was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in 2012.

“We are very excited and happy for Blake and his family,” said UNC Asheville Head Baseball Coach Scott Friedholm. “He has worked extremely hard over the past few years to put himself in this position. The Phillies are getting an extremely smart and competitive young man.”

In the 2020 season, Brown went 1-0 with a 1.89 ERA in 19 innings pitched for the Bulldogs. Furthermore, Brown struck out a team-high 26 batters in those 19 innings and held opponents to a .141 batting average. Brown was especially stellar in his last two starts of the season against Belmont and Coppin State, where he threw 11.2 scoreless innings with 17 strikeouts.

Brown will aim to become the fourth baseball player from UNC Asheville ever to play in a Major League game joining Ty Wigginton, Ryan Dull, and Kevin Mattison.