Liberty Flames pitcher Mikey Tepper was selected during the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft this afternoon.

With the first pick of the 15^th round (the 435^th pick), the Washington Nationals selected the right-hander from Fort Mill, S.C.

With the selection of the Tepper in this year’s draft,Liberty has now had 75 players taken in the MLB Draft during the 50-year history of its program. The Flames have had at least one player chosen in each draft since 2000, except for the 2020 draft which was limited to five rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tepper, a junior this past spring, posted a 4-3 record with a 5.23 ERA in 16 games, 15 of which were starts. A transfer from Mississippi State, the right-hander struck out 78 and walked 46 over 65 1/3 innings in his only season in a Liberty uniform.

Tepper finished the 2023 season fourth in the ASUN in strikeouts per nine innings (10.74). In addition, he held opponents to a .217 batting average.

The right-hander earned ASUN Pitcher of the Week honors for the week of May 15 after holding Eastern Kentucky to one run on three hits over six innings in Liberty’s 6-1 win at Earle Combs Stadium, helping Liberty to take the three-game series, two games to one. He stuck out a team-high 13 to tie a season-high for the right-hander. Previously he had struck out 13 in a 9-4 win at Lipscomb on March 31. He also worked around six walks versus the Colonels and retired eight in a row from the middle of the second through the first out of the fifth inning.

During his time at Mississippi State, Tepper appeared in 28 games, posting a 3-2 record over 36 2/3 innings over two seasons.