READING, Pa. (June 11, 2022) – Former Oklahoma Christian baseball standout Hunter Markwardt, in his third season in the Philadelphia Phillies' minor-league system, has expanded the Eagles' roster of high-rising professional players in 2022.

Markwardt, who starred for the Eagles in 2018 and 2019, this season has become only the second OC baseball alum to reach the Double-A and Triple-A professional levels as he seeks to regain momentum from a promising first pro season.

A 13th-round draft choice out of OC by the Phillies in 2019, Markwardt started strong in rookie-league ball that year, hitting .306 with the Williamsport Crosscutters before breaking his nose while running into an outfield wall in an attempt to make a defensive play in late July. That ended his season prematurely and the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out affiliated minor-league baseball in 2020.

He started the 2021 season with the Phillies' low Class A affiliate, the Clearwater Threshers, but played only five games with them, hitting .313, before being called up the high Class A affiliate, the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, in May. He hit .236 with three homers and 19 RBIs in 55 games with Jersey Shore.

This season, he appeared in a spring-training game with the Phillies on March 27 – recording a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning of a win over the Toronto Blue Jays – before being assigned to Double-A Reading. In 26 games with the Fightin Phils, Markwardt is hitting .155 with three RBIs. He spent from May 22 until June 4 on the injured list. As a pinch-runner, he scored the winning run in the ninth inning of a 1-0 win over the Altoona Curve on Thursday before being doused during a postgame interview.

In May, he was called up for two days to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate – just one step from the major leagues. He made one appearance and scored a run as a ninth-inning pinch-runner in a 4-3 loss to the Buffalo Bisons on May 11. Markwardt thus joined pitcher Cale Coshow as the only former OC players ever to appear in a Triple-A game. Coshow also is the only other ex-Eagle to play at the Double-A level.

During his two seasons at OC, Markwardt, from Argyle, Texas, starred in the leadoff spot and in center field. In 2018, Markwardt made the Heartland Conference's second-team honor list – the only OC player to make the All-Heartland squads.

He ranked fifth in the Heartland in hitting with a .351 average and was eighth in runs scored (37), fourth in stolen bases (15) and third in sacrifice bunts (seven) despite missing 12 games due to injury. He had a .440 slugging percentage and a .412 on-base percentage and added 11 RBIs and one home run. He committed only two errors and had a .974 fielding percentage.

In 2019, he started all 48 games for the Eagles and earned All-Heartland first-team recognition and second-team All-South Central Region honors from both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the American Baseball Coaches Association.

He hit .372 with three home runs and 23 RBIs for the Eagles, adding 18 doubles and four triples for a .551 slugging percentage. He led the Heartland in stolen bases with 21 (in 24 attempts) and set what is believed to be a school and conference record with a 28-game hitting streak. His 73 hits that season rank tied for fifth on OC's single-season record list in that statistical category.