SIOUX FALLS, S.D.-- Augustana baseball's Tanner Brown has signed a professional contract with the Great Falls Voyagers of the Pioneer League. He is the fourth senior to play professional baseball following the 2022 season and joins Will Olson with the Voyagers.
 
The Pioneer League is an MLB Partner League while the Voyagers have held affiliations with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox over its 65-plus year history

"Tanner's signing with an Independent team is a little bittersweet to me," Augustana head coach Tim Huber said. It certainly does happen each year to guys with talent and success to not get drafted or signed by a MLB team but as a LHP who has done over his career what Tanner has, this one really surprised me. 
 
"Tanner has been a stud at Augustana, pitched well in a good summer collegiate league and in my opinion, probably has a little more in the tank as he continues to mature. Like so many guys have done, Tanner came to Augustana, worked his tail off and added size and strength to his frame. It was awesome watching him go from an unknown and relatively unrecruited high school kid (throwing 80 mph) to seeing his velocity climb (now consistently throwing around 90) and stuff get significantly better. But to me what took his game to the next level was when he started to realize how good he was and could be a couple years ago. Tanner is a really good pitcher, is going to keep working and keep improving and my hunch is that a MLB team will eventually come calling with an offer, maybe even sooner rather than later." 
 
Brown had a record-setting season in 2022 that saw the lefty earn NSIC All-Conference First-Team honors and he was named the 2022 NSIC Pitcher of the Year. Brown broke the Augustana career strikeout record with his 223rd against Bemidji State on March 26, 2022 and finished his AU career with 301 total strikeouts. 
 
The Sioux Falls, South Dakota, native holds the record for most career pitching wins at Augustana with 25. He concluded the 2022 season with a 9-1 record, striking out 117 hitters and holding an ERA of 2.89.
 
Brown earned NCBWA Division II Second-Team All-America honors, D2CCA Third-Team All-America honors and ABCA/Rawlings Central All-Region First Team honors.
 
He helped the Vikings to an NSIC Championship in 2022 and in all three years that the NCAA held a postseason, he helped Augustana to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Brown is the 29th student-athlete that Tim Huber has coached that have gone on to professional careers.