PEMBROKE – Redshirt junior Trent Harris will forego his final season of eligibility to pursue his professional dreams as the Raleigh native inked a free agent contract with Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants on Friday.
 
Harris is the third UNCP student-athlete in as many years to sign a contract with a MLB club, and will join MLB draftees River Ryan (2017-21) and Darren Bowen (2020-22) in the minor league system. Ryan is currently active in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system, while Bowen is active in the Seattle Mariners farm system.
 
A weekend starter through the first half of the 2023 campaign, Harris moved into a key bullpen role in mid-March and responded by registering a 2.83 ERA and a pair of saves in 12 relief appearances and 28-2/3 innings from the hill. The Raleigh native sported a 7-3 record overall, as well as a 3.32 ERA, and logged 69 strikeouts in 62-1/3 innings of work. When not seeing action from the mound, Harris pulled double duty as the starting third baseman for the Black & Gold and tallied a .305 batting average with 30 RBI and 25 runs scored.