02 June 2011

Looks like another Ashland Little League Alum has made his way into the limelight with a stellar pitching year at Oregon State University. Sam Gaviglio is up for voting as a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award - baseball's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. The last four winners of the Golden Spikes Award have been David Price, Buster Posey, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper! It turns out that part of the selection process includes voting online at http://web.goldenspikesaward.com/index.html. So pop over to that link, click on the '2011 Award - Vote' link and give him some help!

Chuck Thacker gave me some recollections about him, and I thought it would be good to just share them with you - so please be kind and forgive any historical inaccuracies:

Sam just turned 21. He played in Ashland Little League from about 1997 through 2002. His mom had all the gear and used to catch for him back in those days. He made his first All Star team as an 11 year old (in those days there was only one All Star team, the one you now call the 11-12 team). He started and went the distance against South Suburban ( a K Falls powerhouse) but lost I think 3-2. It was in that game that I started to see the promise and potential that was there. He always had a very smooth, athletic motion and a very even personality. He went through subsequent leagues until he entered high school. He showed flashes of what was to come, but really blossomed his senior year when he had one of the most dominant years I've ever seen. His pitching was absolutely essential to our winning the state title that year, and his home run and closing inning of the semi final game got us to the finals. In the finals he pitched a complete game victory. That's when all the Oregon schools started to take notice. He accepted a full ride scholarship from Oregon State, and was drafted in the 40th round by Tampa Bay (the same team that drafted Ian Kendall). That year he was a freshman all-american and won at least 10 games, including in the NCAA tournament. This year he was first team Pac 10 and a current candidate for the Golden Spikes Award (baseball's Heisman Trophy). The scouts currently project him to be taken at least in the third round this year, his first year of eligibility since high school.

Sam is a Forestry major in college. He's just a fine young man who when I spoke with him this morning, never even mentioned the award or the fact that it was to be voted on online. I've told the entire baseball community about this and hope we can support him in this.

Finally, Oregon State is hosting the first round of the NCAA tourney this weekend. He is due to start either Friday or Saturday. He was going to let me know which very soon. Several folks have said they may want to go up and see him perform this weekend.

And Sam's brother Gus also went through all the Ashland baseball programs and was an All State pitcher himself the year before Sam graduated.