GROVE CITY — The New York Yankees selected 2025 Grove City College graduate David Leslie in the ninth round of the 2026 Major League Baseball Draft, which was held recently in Philadelphia. The Yankees took Leslie, a right-handed pitcher, with the Draft’s 278th overall pick.
Leslie went 17-5 with a 2.68 earned run average while pitching for the Wolverines in 2023, 2024 and 2025. As a senior in 2025, Leslie earned American Baseball Coaches Association and D3baseball.com Division III All-America distinction after concluding the season with a 9-2 record and a 2.05 ERA.
Leslie struck out 84 men in 74 2/3 innings as a senior. He helped lead the Wolverines to a program-record 31 wins, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title and a berth in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament in 2025.
Overall, he fanned 201 batters in 178 career innings at the College.
Leslie graduated from the College in May 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. He earned Dean’s List and Presidents’ Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll recognition during his four years at Grove City.
Injury sidelined Leslie as a freshman in 2022 at Grove City. He used his final year of eligibility in 2026 as a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh.
Leslie went 4-5 with one save in 18 total appearances as both a starting and relief pitcher this spring for Pitt. He earned wins out of the bullpen at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament against Louisville and Florida State in mid-May. Leslie struck out 15 men in 9 1/3 innings during the tournament, earning All-Tournament Team placement.
Leslie is the first Grove City graduate to be selected in the MLB Draft since 2006, when the Washington Nationals selected right-handed pitcher Erik Arnesen in the 17th round.
NABC AWARD
The GCC men’s basketball program earned the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award for the 2025-26 academic year while seven members of the squad earned placement on the NABC Honors Court for their individual academic achievements last year.
The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize programs that completed the 2025-26 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher.
The NABC Honors Court, includes junior, senior and graduate student men’s basketball players who finished the 2025-26 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.
Four recent graduates earned Honors Court recognition: guard Mike Christenson, forward David Olinger, guard Kyle Randle, and center Christian Suceveanu.
Christenson graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry while Olinger graduated with a degree in computer science. Randle graduated with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science while Suceveanu completed his bachelor’s degree in marketing.
Three rising seniors also earned Honors Court distinction: forward Caleb Haller, center Austin Johncour and center Owen Wolf. Haller is majoring in exercise science, Johncour majors in marketing and Wolf is a mechanical engineering major.
Grove City has earned the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award in each of the last five seasons.