GALION, Ohio — Mayor Tom O’Leary raked crushed red brick on the newly-cut warning track while manager Ray Neill rolled the outfield grass with a John Deere garden tractor.
It’s all hands on deck as the Galion Graders prepare for Saturday’s Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League home opener.
“We’ve still got some work to do,” Neill said as a handful of players wheeled the new portable batting cage into place, “both on the field and off.”
The Graders open the season Thursday at three-time defending GLSCL champ Licking County. The two-game series concludes Friday before Galion hosts the Southern Ohio Copperheads at 6:05 p.m. Saturday. There will be a fireworks display after the game.
“We’re excited to get started,” said Neill, the Sandusky Perkins High School coach who managed the Sandusky Bay Stars of the GLSCL from 1990 to 1994 and served as the franchise’s general manager from 1995 to 2000. “We’ve got a great group of guys and I’m just happy to be here.”
Galion’s 30-man roster includes players from Division I Penn State, Bowling Green, Ohio University, Akron, Toledo and North Dakota State. Lexington’s Brody Basilone (Sinclair Community College), Shelby’s Justin Lewis (Otterbein), Ontario’s Mitch McCristall (Mount Union) and Galion’s Austin Prosser (Bluffton) all will suit up for the first-year franchise.
“Getting to play with all these D1 players is awesome, especially coming from a junior college,” said Basilone, who batted .367 with 37 runs batted in and was 3-0 with a 3.11 earned run average for Sinclair (50-11). “I’m watching these kids on TV and now I’m playing with them.”
Another significant adjustment for Basilone and Galion’s other first-year players is the transition to wood bats. The GLSCL is a wood bat league sanctioned and supported by Major League Baseball.
“It’s a big adjustment. It’s a difference maker,” Neill said. “There’s some outstanding college hitters who, for whatever the reason, have never been able to master the wood bat. You’ve got to square it up.”
The opportunity to play close to home was too good to pass up for Shelby’s Lewis.
“You don’t have to drive as far,” said Lewis, who worked 14.1 innings for Otterbein last season. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The community has welcomed its new team with open arms. Host families are housing the non-local players during the two-month season.
“The town has embraced a team that hasn’t played a game yet,” Neill said. “That goes both ways. Our kids are happy to be in Galion.”
“The town has embraced a team that hasn’t played a game yet,” Manager Ray Neill said. “That goes both ways. Our kids are happy to be in Galion.”
