CHICAGO – Four UIC Flames were chosen during the third day of the 2017 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Wednesday, June 14, joining two others who were picked on Tuesday to set a new program record of six players selected during a single draft.
 
Mickey McDonald was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 18^th round Wednesday, while fellow redshirt junior David Cronin was selected by the Chicago White Sox in round No. 20. The two-time Horizon League Pitcher of the Year Jake Dahlberg was tabbed by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 21^st round before another All-Horizon League First Team selection, Cody Bohanek, was picked by the Houston Astros in the 30^th round.
 
The Flames had multiple players picked in the same year for the second time in three seasons, and the fifth time overall. Prior to this spring, UIC has never seen more than two players picked in a single draft. Not only are six draftees a program record for the Flames, but it is the most from any current Horizon League program in a single year. Wright State held the previous record with five players chosen in the 2016 MLB Draft.

We've got another #UIC Flame picked by a Bay Area ballclub today as the @Athletics select @MickeyMcDonald7. #TOGETHERasONE #HLBase pic.twitter.com/FxZ2DinjDo

— UIC Baseball (@UICBaseball) June 14, 2017

 
McDonald was the first UIC student-athlete selected Wednesday, when the Oakland Athletics chose him in the 18^th round with the 531^st overall pick. The San Mateo, Calif., native was plucked by one of his hometown clubs after being named to the All-Horizon League Second Team in 2017. The redshirt junior started all 56 games in center field, a position he had never played before this year. McDonald batted .260 on the season with 15 extra-base hits and 20 RBI. The speedster also led the club with a career-high 16 stolen bases in 18 attempts.
 
McDonald was at his best during Horizon League play. He batted .324 in 30 conference games with eight doubles, a home run, 12 RBI and 20 runs scored. Twelve of McDonald's 16 stolen bases came against League foes, as well. He was also named to the Horizon League's All-Tournament Team as he helped the Flames win the event for the first time since 2008.
 
Through three seasons at UIC, McDonald is batting .285 in 142 games with 136 starts. He was an All-Horizon League selection at third base in both 2014 and 2015 before missing the duration of the 2016 season with a medical redshirt. He switched positions and posted numbers that were worthy of All-Conference recognition, while helping the Flames match the school record with 39 wins. He is the first player in program history to be selected by the Athletics.
 

The next #UIC player off the board won't go far! This Orland Park product is picked by the @whitesox. #TOGETHERasONE #HLBase pic.twitter.com/NkYlNr365m

— UIC Baseball (@UICBaseball) June 14, 2017

Cronin was the next player to go off the board when the MLB club that resides less than four miles from UIC's campus, the Chicago White Sox, chose him with in the 20^th round with the 597^th pick of the draft. The Orland Park, Ill., native batted .313 in 2017 while starting all 56 games at second base. He led the Flames with 50 runs and 39 walks, while driving in 32 runs and swiping 14 bases. He tied with Bohanek for the Horizon League lead with 182 assists and helped the Flames lead the NCAA in fielding percentage at a clip of .984. Cronin earned All-Horizon League Second Team honors this spring and the infielder was also named the Most Valuable Player of the Horizon League Championship after hitting a pair of game-changing triples during the tournament.
 
In 2016 Cronin earned an ABCA/Rawlings All-Mideast Region Second Team selection after batting .360 and leading the Flames in hits (80), total bases (101) and stolen base (16). His 80 hits rank him tied for seventh on UIC's single-season leaderboard.
 
After a redshirt year in 2014, Cronin has batted .315 over a span of 151 games in three seasons since. Cronin has started 146 times with 21 doubles, four triples, nine home runs and 77 RBI. He is the second player in program history to be selected by the White Sox, joining former teammate Ryan Hinchley (2015).
 

The 2x #HLBase Pitcher of the Year is trading his #UIC red for that of the @Cardinals! Congrats, Jake! #TOGETHERasONE #HLBase pic.twitter.com/DpUbqiqnB1

— UIC Baseball (@UICBaseball) June 14, 2017

Shortly after Cronin was picked, the two-time Horizon League Pitcher of the Year, Dahlberg, was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 21^st round with pick No. 634. The southpaw started 16 games on the bump for UIC as a senior with an ERA of 2.17 and opposing batting average of .165. He also ranks second in the nation in hits allowed per nine innings (5.04) and 11^th in WHIP (0.9). His 10 victories also rank 11^th in the NCAA and make him only the fourth pitcher in UIC history to reach double-digit wins in a single season.
 
Dahlberg, who was named Horizon League Pitcher of the Week three times this spring, dotted his name throughout the program's record book following his three seasons as a Flame. He graduated ranked second in strikeouts (212), third in starts (44), tied for third in wins (24), fifth in innings pitched (283.2), and ninth in career ERA (3.43). He won the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year award in 2015 and 2017, becoming the first player in conference history to win that award multiple times, and only the third player to win a specialty award more than once.
 
The Vancouver, Wash., native pitched in four shutouts as he helped UIC set a program record with 11 total in 2017, a number ranks third in the NCAA this year. Dahlberg also anchored a pitching staff that set the school record with a 2.65 ERA, while allowing only 174 runs. It marks the first time ever that the Flames surrendered fewer than 200 tallies in a single season. In addition to ERA, UIC ranks second in the NCAA in hits allowed per nine innings (7.0) and WHIP (1.11). Oregon State leads the nation in all three categories. Dahlberg is the first player from UIC to be chosen by the Cardinals.

No @HorizonLeague team has ever had SIX players picked in same @MLBDraft. That is until these 2017 #UIC Flames showed up. Congrats, Cody! pic.twitter.com/UTcayVMsBo

— UIC Baseball (@UICBaseball) June 14, 2017

 
Bohanek had a breakout season in 2017 as he posted career highs in hits (63), runs (43), home runs (7), sacrifice flies (6) and RBI (47) this spring. The infielder surpassed his previous career high in home runs by five and RBI by 19. He started all 56 games at shortstop and earned All-Horizon League First Team honors for the first time in his career. Bohanek tied for the team lead with 14 multi-RBI games, driving in three runs on four occasions and 10 runs twice.
 
In addition to earning All-Horizon League honors during the regular season, Bohanek claimed a spot on the All-Tournament team during the 2017 Horizon League Championship. The Oak Lawn, Ill., native batted a team-best .500 (4-for-8) with three RBI, while getting on base at a clip of .636 in three games for UIC. It was the second consecutive year that Bohanek was named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
In four years Bohanek played in 194 games and started all but three of those contests. He batted .287 with 198 hits and 100 RBI. He was hit by a pitch 42 times during his tenure with the Flames, the third-most in program history. Bohanek recorded 684 at-bats, ranking ninth all-time in that category. He is the first UIC student-athlete to go from the Flames to the Astros.
 
During day two of the MLB Draft Connor Ryan was selected in the eighth round by the Cincinnati Reds, while Rob Calabrese was chosen by the San Francisco Giants in the tenth round. Ryan was the highest draft choice from UIC since 2002 when the Detroit Tigers selected Curtis Granderson in the third round with the 80^th pick. Read all about those pick by clicking here.
 
UIC has had at least one player selected in the MLB Draft every year since 2013. Under the tutelage of head coach Mike Dee, a total of 15 student-athletes have heard their names called by Major League Baseball franchises, beginning in 2002 when Granderson was selected in the third round by the Detroit Tigers. McDonald, Cronin, Dahlberg and Bohanek are the 23^rd and 24^th, 25^th, and 26^th MLB draftees, respectively, in UIC history.