CHICAGO -- The 2017 season was an historic one on the diamond for the UIC Flames. The team won 39 games, set multiple program records, and earned the fifth NCAA Championship bid under the direction of head coach Mike Dee.

Even after the final out was recorded in the Hattiesburg Regional, the Flames continued to achieve success. Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft was conducted June 12-14 and a program-record six Flames heard their names called over the three days. Six draftees is not only the most in program history, but it is the most in one season for any Horizon League team.

Before several of the drafted UIC standouts scattered around the country to begin the next phase of their baseball journeys, UICFlames.com caught up with them to reflect on their time in Chicago. The third of those discussions, with Mickey McDonald, is embedded below. McDonald was the third member of the Flames to be selected, and the first on day three, going in the 18^th round to the Oakland Athletics. After earning All-Horizon League honors as a third baseman in 2014 and 2015, McDonald missed the entire 2016 season after developing a blood clot. He returned to action and molded himself into an All-Conference center fielder in 2017.

Here is McDonald's full UIC Baseball Exit Interview:

The Exit Interview series will also feature interviews with Rob Calabrese (Monday [click to view]), Cody Bohanek (Tuesday), and Jake Dahlberg (Thursday). Two other players - Connor Ryan and David Cronin - were chosen in last week's draft, however their respective clubs, the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox, required them to report just 24 hours after being picked. Another standout, Ricardo Ramirez, recently signed with the Traverse City Beach Bums of the Frontier League. UICFlames.com was unable to sit down with those players at this time.