It’s been a great summer for Austin Gallagher.

The reigning Lancaster-Lebanon League All-Star pick and Pennsylvania High School Baseball Coaches Association All-State selection — who helped the Blue Streaks win the league title, the District 3 Quad-A crown and reach the state championship game last spring — had tryouts for three professional teams this summer.

In one unforgettable week in the middle of August, Gallagher, who ripped 10 homers and batted .540 for Township last season, worked out at Jacobs Field for the Cleveland Indians, for the Colorado Rockies at the University of Maryland (Baltimore County), and for the New York Yankees — in Yankee Stadium, where he was just one of four prep infielders to be invited to the tryout.

“I’ve grown up watching Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill and watching the Yankees go to all of those World Series,” Gallagher said Monday afternoon.

“And here I am taking batting practice in Yankee Stadium.”

And how is this for an introduction to Yankee Stadium:

Using a wooden bat for the pro-style tryout, the Manheim Township senior hit a homer on the first pitch he saw in the house that Babe Ruth built.

“It was a blast — just the most exciting feeling ever,” said Gallagher, who wound up hitting four out of the park during the session. “It gave me goose bumps.”

Gallagher also hit a homer in the recruiting department.

Gallagher, whose dad Glenn is the former baseball coach at Franklin & Marshall and Millersville, has accepted a scholarship offer from the University of South Carolina.

He’s set to sign a national letter of intent with the Southeastern Conference power the second week of November.

The scholarship includes tuition, books and fees, but not room and board. Gallagher said just one other player on the team has such a scholarship.

So South Carolina really wanted Gallagher’s services. And why not? He drove in 35 runs, scored 31 runs, had 47 hits, 11 doubles, 88 total bases and had an astronomical 1.011 slugging percentage while playing third base for the Streaks , who went 26-3 last spring.

He also pitched, going 7-0 with a 2.85 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 66a-c innings.

“We visited South Carolina on Labor Day Weekend, and I immediately fell in love with the place,” said Gallagher, who said he’ll likely play third base, first base and the outfield for the Gamecocks.

“It was the right fit for me,” he said.

Gallagher also had scholarship offers from Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Winthrop, Louisiana State, North Carolina State and Clemson — where his dad pitched during his college days.

But here’s the next question:

Will Gallagher even make it to South Carolina?

Next year’s Major League Baseball Amateur Draft is June 7, and his name will be called — it’s just a matter of when.

What will it take for Gallagher to skip college and sign with a pro team?

“It will have to be a life-changing amount of money,” he said. “And I’d like to be able to go and play right away. It has always been my lifelong dream to be a major league baseball player.”

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Education News, Scholarship. Tags: College, Scholarship, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.