Career in the Making: Le Moyne pitcher reflects on the
game before Thursday's MLB draft
Tuesday, June 03, 2008 By Lindsay Kramer Staff writer
Le Moyne college junior pitcher Eric Beaulac packed up his 2006 Nissan Altima and headed home to Troy last week, technically still a Dolphin but with no real expectation of taking the ball for that team again.
"It's a sad feeling," he said. "It's kind of weird. I had a lot
of fun here. It's like my home."
When it comes right down to it, though, a mound is a mound, and Beaulac has always found a certain comfort level there. And he could be just a few days away from getting paid to stand on one.
Beaulac, 21, is expected to be nabbed relatively early in Thursday's Major League Baseball draft. Dolphins coach Steve Owens, judging by the steady flow of scouts that streamed in and out of the team's games this season, said a slot in the first five rounds is realistic.
At 6-foot-5, 195 pounds, the lanky Beaulac looks every inch the part of a Grade A prospect. His hard stuff sizzles up to 94 MPH, and his tabletop-drop slider sends hitters raking through the dirt to find it. He set a school record with 113 strikeouts (in 92 1/3 innings) this season, to go along with a 9-2 record and a 2.83 ERA.
"Time's winding down. I'm getting a little antsy," he said of draft anticipation. "This is every kid's dream, to play professional baseball. It might happen."
But before he left Le Moyne's campus, Beaulac came in high and hard on a range of topics:
Strikeouts are sweet:"When you strike somebody out, you always have a little smile on your face that says, 'I beat you.' It's always exciting. But you always think in your head, 'What could I have done better?' Because maybe he (the hitter) fouled one off hard."
.....for the complete article, log on to www. syracuse.com http://www.syracuse.com/today/index.ssf/2008/06/career_in_the_making.html
