Dayton Drafted by Florida Marlins

Grant Dayton, son of Janis Tangeman, was drafted last spring by the Florida Marlins following his third season playing at Auburn University, where he was a stand-out pitcher on the Tiger baseball team.

The selection by Florida marked the first time in his career that Dayton was drafted.  He played on the Florida Marlins short season “A” team, the Jamestown Jammers, this past summer and was a relief pitcher; his ERA was 1.21.   Dayton plans to attend the Marlins spring training in Florida, and at that time, the Marlins will decide which of their teams to put him on, depending on his performance during spring training.  For now, Dayton is back at Auburn taking classes and working toward finishing his degree in industrial/systems engineering.  He plans to finish up his schooling at Auburn in the fall of 2011 and graduate in December.

Dayton was red-shirted his first year at Auburn, but was an outstanding starter left-handed pitcher his last 3 years there.  He was the 2010 Second Team All-SEC starting pitcher and finished the 2010 year as Auburn’s leader in wins (eight) and strike outs (69), marking the third straight season that he was the staff strikeout leader. In a team-high 95 innings, Dayton issued just 19 walks and held opponents to a .269 batting average.  He tied for the SEC lead in league wins (seven) and his 3.92 ERA in SEC-only games was 10th in the league.  Dayton concluded his three seasons at Auburn with a 17-11 career record with a 4.66 ERA, striking out 217 in 249 innings.

Dayton started his career at age 4 and has never missed a season playing.  He was the lead starting pitcher at Bob Jones High School and was recruited by Auburn University following his high school graduation in 2006.