Syracuse, N.Y. – Washington Nationals right-handed starting pitcher Josiah Gray, who was a member of the Le Moyne College baseball team from 2016-2018, has been named to the National League All-Star Team and will suit up and compete alongside the best players in the world at the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday, July 11 at the Seattle Mariners' T-Mobile Park.

It is the first All-Star selection for Gray, who is 25 years old and made his Major League Baseball debut on July 20, 2021. Gray is the second former Le Moyne player to make an MLB All-Star Team and the first since Tom Browning made the National League Team in 1991 as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.

"I could not be more proud of him," said Le Moyne Head Coach Scott Cassidy '98 on Gray's All-Star selection. "He is so deserving of it. He's putting together a great season and gives his team a chance to win every time he takes the ball. I'm really happy for him."

Gray's baseball journey is an inspirational one. After starring as a two-way player (shortstop and pitcher) at New Rochelle High School, Gray had no scholarship offers late into his high school career before Cassidy, a former big-leaguer himself, saw Gray play in the summer and offered him a spot with the Dolphins.

"I had a buddy on one of my summer baseball teams and his assistant coach was friends with Coach Cassidy and basically referred me to Coach Cassidy, saying 'Hey, I know you guys have some positional needs, this guy plays shortstop and he pitches as well, come check him out. He has no offers, he's from New Rochelle where no one really bats an eye at baseball players.' So, Coach Cassidy came to see me that summer, and he liked what he saw, and he gave me an offer a few weeks later," said Gray about his recruitment to Le Moyne. "I accepted the offer during an unofficial visit and fell in love with the campus and the tradition of baseball, academically it fit with what I wanted to do, and then I went on an official visit a few weeks later, met some of the players and saw myself playing for Le Moyne College as a Dolphin…I just wanted to play college baseball. I knew I had the ability to, it was just a matter of getting the right looks. And there was Le Moyne, that has a storied baseball history, and I was sort of blown away by the support I got from Coach Cassidy and all the assistants up there. That they wanted a guy with no offers, basically no competition and they offered me a scholarship, and I accepted to start my college career."

As a freshman at Le Moyne, Gray received 49 at bats, and made eight appearances out of the bullpen, pitching 8.2 total innings.

"(My time at Le Moyne) prepared me so much," said Gray. "My freshman year, people probably don't know this, but I was a better hitter than I was a pitcher. My freshman year I was going out there on the mound, didn't really have a breaking ball and was kind of just hoping that I could sneak velocity by guys and I was getting hit around the yard. Towards the back half of the year, I started to figure some things out, but overall it just wasn't a great year. I dealt with that adversity that you don't really deal with in high school."

His rookie campaign was the last time Gray would struggle on the mound as a Dolphin.

"That summer (after my freshman year), I went to the Hamptons League, basically as a two-way guy, but ended up just pitching towards the latter half of the summer and I started to blossom. I didn't want to face that adversity anymore. I wanted to go out there and just dominate on the mound. As simple as I can say it, I kind of shifted my mindset to just attacking guys and going out there with my best stuff. I really made it a promising summer and I went back to Le Moyne my sophomore year and sort of flip-flopped. I was a way better pitcher than I was a hitter and then I just kept that mentality to attack guys and go out there with my best stuff and it just propelled me to where I'm at today."

Gray reflected on how the ending to his freshman year motivated him to improve during the summer.

"There are so many vivid moments (at Le Moyne) that I remember to this day. My first year, we were in our play-in playoff game, I'm a freshman on the mound, I'm throwing a meaningful inning, and I give up the game-winning run. I'm heartbroken, it basically ended our year, and one of the assistant coaches, Bob Piraino, he kind of corralled me, and was like, 'Hey, you're going to learn from this, you're going to be a lot better from this,' and that moment sits with me as big as any other moment because he didn't have to do that. I was going off for three months of the summer to go play summer baseball, but that hurt kind of stuck with me, and it helped me want to take my game to the next level. So, the coaching staff [at Le Moyne] was really, really helpful. From Scott Cassidy, to Mike Meola Jr., Matt Marra, Ryan Brockett and Bob Piraino. They were guys that were in my corner whether I was hitting well, whether I was pitching well, or whether I wasn't doing anything well. They stuck with me and they gave me opportunities every day, and for that I'm forever grateful for them."

Gray's work ethic paid massive dividends during his sophomore season on the Heights. While becoming an important part of the Dolphins' lineup as a hitter, taking 159 at-bats in 44 starts at shortstop, Gray was dominant on the mound, tallying 10 saves in 13 relief appearances with a 0.63 earned run average. Gray allowed just seven hits, two walks and one run with 22 strikeouts in 14.1 innings pitched as the team's closer during his second collegiate campaign.

After impressing scouts with his 90+ mile per hour fastball and great command, Gray received the opportunity to compete for the Chatham Anglers in the Cape Cod Baseball League, the top summer collegiate baseball league in the country, prior to his junior season at Le Moyne.

"(Competing in the Cape Cod League) helped me so much. Just going out there and being able to play against guys that were in the College World Series, that were at these top Division I programs. I hit a little bit of a bump early, like I talked about in my freshman year. I hit that bump at the Cape and leaned on my teammates, leaned on my coaching staff out there to just get better as a pitcher, because while I was starting to throw harder and get some swing and misses, there still was a lot to learn and grasp with becoming a better pitcher. While I had that velocity, I knew that coming back to Le Moyne for my junior year I would be a starting pitcher. So, how to set up my routine, those sort of things (I developed in the Cape Cod League). And then when I got back to campus, I had a good conversation with Coach Cassidy, and kind of evaluated what was probably the right path for the team and for myself, and he said 'Hey, we're just gonna have you pitch,' so I kinda leaned on him as well, to just learn from him and learn from his big league experience, and work on breaking balls, work on getting out of tough situations, how to set the team up to win, those sort of things, and he helped me more than probably any other coach I had because he did it at the highest level, and here he was at Le Moyne College, a Division II school, teaching a young kid that had draft and big league aspirations. So, he was really integral to who I am today."

Gray's junior campaign on the Heights was one for the history books. He became a starter for the 'Phins and was one of the best pitchers in all of college baseball. In 13 games started, he compiled an 11-0 record with a 1.25 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP in 93.1 innings pitched. He accumulated 105 strikeouts with just 20 walks and 13 earned runs allowed and limited opposing hitters to a .192 batting average.

In the First Round of the 2018 NE10 Championship against Pace, Gray's first postseason appearance since the loss to Pace in his rookie campaign, he went seven innings and recorded 13 strikeouts with just one walk as the Dolphins claimed a 7-3 win. After the nationally ranked 'Phins earned a spot in the NCAA Championship, Gray got the ball for game one and tossed a complete game with nine strikeouts to lead the Dolphins to a 3-2 victory.

Following the season, Gray received numerous accolades including NE10 Pitcher of the Year, NE10 All-Conference First Team, East Region Pitcher of the Year according to the ABCA, D2CCA and NCBWA, National Pitcher of the Year according to the D2CCA and NCBWA, and a First-Team All-America honoree by the D2CCA, the NCBWA and the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings. He was also named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team.

Gray then became the second-highest drafted player in Le Moyne baseball history after the Cincinnati Reds selected him with the 72nd overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft (Jon Ratliff was chosen 24th overall by the Chicago Cubs in 1993).

As a top prospect, Gray was traded twice in high-profile transactions. In December 2018, Gray was one of three players traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deal that brought back former MLB All-Stars Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Alex Wood to the Reds.

Gray rose fast within the Dodgers organization and was named the Dodgers' Minor League Pitcher of the year in 2019. After making his MLB debut with Los Angeles in July of 2021, the Dodgers traded Gray along with three other players to the Washington Nationals in exchange for Max Scherzer, an eight-time MLB All-Star and a three-time Cy Young Award Winner, and Trea Turner, who has since signed a contract worth $300 million.

Gray started 28 games on the mound for the Nats during the 2022 campaign and midway through the season in 2023 he holds a 3.41 ERA and six victories in 18 starts. Gray has proven to be a foundational piece within the Nationals organization and his consistency on the mound this season has earned him a spot on the National League All-Star Team as the lone Nationals representative.

Among the veteran pitchers that Gray credits with having a positive impact on him and his baseball career are David Price, Anibal Sanchez and Pat Corbin. Corbin, a Syracuse native, played high school baseball with current Le Moyne assistant coach Mike Meola Jr. at Cicero-North Syracuse High School and has since made two MLB All-Star Teams in 2013 and 2018. Corbin also won a World Series with the Nats in 2019. Gray confirmed that he and Corbin have traded notes on favorite restaurants in the Syracuse area.

Along with his on-field exploits, Dolphin supporters can also be proud of how Gray conducts himself off the field. In 2022, Gray was named the Player Ambassador to the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy, operating as a direct link between the major league club and the youth academy and serving as a resource to the school-aged children who participate in the program.

Prior to leaving for Seattle, Gray met with and signed autographs for many young kids at the Youth Academy.

The MLB All Star Game will be played on July 11. First pitch is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.

Click Here for MLB All-Star rosters

Other quotes from Gray:

On baseball journey from New Rochelle to Le Moyne to becoming an MLB All-Star: "It's crazy. I always talked about wanting to play baseball at the next level and being an All-Star never really dawned on me. I just wanted to play professional baseball, whether it was get drafted or make it to the big leagues, and then just have a good big league career. And here I am a few years later, being able to say I'm an all-star, so it's super surreal and I don't take it lightly, because I worked every day to become a productive big leaguer, and here I am now. It's super cool and I'm really grateful for the Nats and everyone to put me in this opportunity."

On gaining more velocity during his career: "For me it was mechanical stuff, mechanical adjustments for sure, but it was also growing into my body. When I went to college, I was probably 165-170 pounds, and didn't really have the mass to throw hard. I always had a quick arm, people would say, and then once I got to Le Moyne, I had an unlimited dining hall pass. So, I was eating probably 5-6 times a day while working out, while practicing with the baseball team and just naturally started to gain two pounds here, four pounds there, and I look up at the beginning of my sophomore year and I'm 190 pounds, I weigh a lot more and I'm able to work with new mechanics and start to produce better force with the baseball and better velocity. So, it was pretty much just eating more, working out better and then the work with Coach Cassidy mechanically, and it all kind of culminated into better velocity and me being a better pitcher."

Did you ever imagine you'd be where you are today? And what message would you give to younger players that aspire to achieve a big-league career? "I always dreamed about being a big leaguer and doing this. But, the reality, it doesn't really set in until you're up here. So, I'm grateful to be where I'm at, and I always worked to be here, and always wanted to be a great baseball player. It's what I love to do, it's my hobby, it's my main passion. To other kids wanting to come from let's say Westchester (County) or a small school, it was a little bit of luck as well. I didn't get here without having a coach that was friends with Coach Cassidy, or a friend that referred me to a coach. I know I worked my butt off and I still do to this day, and all the opportunities I've been given have been awesome. So I think for any kid out there, seek out all the opportunities, make sure you check every box in what you're doing to prepare yourself for the game, and just become a better player everyday however you can, however you see fit, and I think that's the route that really helped me is just, I was relentless, and I still am relentless to just get better every day."

Does it still feel surreal to you to be pitching at the Major League level? "I still get those butterflies. There are definitely certain moments, like getting out of a tough jam, or preparing for a big start, whether it's a division rival or whatever it may be, but those butterflies are still very much there. But I feel like I've learned to control them a little bit better. As I've made X amount of starts here in the big leagues, those butterflies are able to be managed a little bit better, but they are still very present."

On finding love for baseball: "Me and my brothers, we would always go in the back yard, and my dad would have a tee, and we'd hit off the tee. Whether it's tee ball or earlier, I just remember always wanting to go into the backyard and play baseball, hit the ball with the bat. I started playing from tee ball up, so pretty much played organized baseball all throughout my childhood. My dad introduced the game to me, we were big Yankees fans growing up, so one of my favorite memories is Aaron Boone hitting the home run off Tim Wakefield [in game 7 of the 2003 ALCS] and I remember going crazy as a little kid. My love for the game really never died as I grew up, it was all I wanted to do once I joined a travel ball organization, and we were playing every season of the year. That was where the love started, and how the love was cemented throughout my whole childhood."