Shortstop Lance Zawadzki has become the first former Lee University baseball player to reach the major leagues.
Zawadzki, who helped lead Lee to the NAIA World Series with a school-record .461 batting average in 2007, after three years at NCAA Division I member San Diego State, was brought up from the San Diego Padres’ Class AAA team in Portland, Ore., in time for Friday’s home game against Milwaukee.
He took the active roster spot of the Padres’ top shortstop, Everth Cabrera, who went on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring. To get Zawadzki on the 40-man major league roster that still includes Cabrera, the team moved infielder Matt Antonelli to the 60-day DL. Antonelli had surgery Thursday to repair a broken hamate bone in his left hand.
Ironically, Zawadzki had the first hit in the Padres’ stadium, PETCO Park, as an SDSU player early in the 2004 college season. He batted .308 in spring training this year.
“We are extremely proud of Lance,” Lee coach Mark Brew said. “It is every player’s boyhood dream to play in the major leagues, and Lance has worked very hard to gain this opportunity.