He measures over six feet, but when he’s on the mound, Patrick Egan is a giant.
Quinnipiac baseball fans have had reason to smile this year whenever the sophomore right-hander strolls to the mound. Egan, a back to back NEC Pitcher of the Week, has been nothing short of dominant this season.
Walk across the Larson Bridge on a day where Head Coach Dan Gooley hands Egan the ball. You’ll hear the incessant pounding of the catcher’s glove and see the look of disappointment as the visitors walk slowly back to the bench, having a few points knocked off their batting average in the process. What you will see is one of the best pitching performances to climb the mound for Quinnipiac in recent history, but there is more to Egan than a blazing fastball and devastating off-speed pitches.
Egan was born Oct. 25, 1984, to Trish and Peter Egan of Rocky Hill, CT. He attended Rocky Hill High School where he played soccer for three seasons and baseball and basketball for four. Egan earned All-State honors for baseball and basketball his junior and senior years. On the hardwood, Egan broke his school’s scoring record (finished with 1,742 career points) rebounds (921) and blocks (241).
Egan decided to attend Quinnipiac University because “first academics and then athletics. I was looking at schools that were going to let me play both basketball and baseball while I was in school, and Quinnipiac was one of the few schools that let me do that. I liked the basketball program and liked the look of the baseball program of the future so I decided that this would be the best place for me, and it wasn’t to far from home.”
Egan did play basketball his freshman year at Quinnipiac, but as the spring season was winding down, Egan decided he had a choice to make. “I said to myself that playing four years of both basketball and baseball was possible, it wasn’t going to be likely if I wanted to pursue one of them after college,” Egan said. “I chose baseball because I saw myself with a better future and more of a chance to play professionally.”
Dreams of playing pro baseball may become a reality for Egan. He can consistently throw in the high eighties to low nineties, but has been clocked at 93-94 mph in a game. Egan said, “I do have aspirations of playing professional baseball and as long as I keep working hard and keep improving every year I feel that I have a good shot.” He hopes to be throwing in the mid-nineties by the end of the summer.
As for playing over the summer, Egan has hooked up with the Manchester Silkworms, a team that plays in the New England College Baseball League.
Egan, a Public Relations major and Marketing minor, says that he has seen a major difference between college and high school, both athletically and academically.
In high school, Egan was able to stick with his best pitch, his fastball, to blow away hitters. Since he has pitched on the college level, Egan realized that trying to blow away hitters was not the best way to get people out. “You learn quickly in college that if you think you are going to throw an 83 mph fastball by nine college hitters, you’re going to get smacked around,” Egan said. “College is a completely different level because every hitter in the lineup is good where as in high school you would see one maybe, two guys on a team like that.”
Egan also noticed that the work load in college is a bit different than that of his high school days.
“Its tough to balance school and a Division I sport, but I think that having such a busy baseball schedule makes me study more” Egan said. “Sometimes when you have a lot of work and tests it becomes a little much, but if you balance your time right, it all works out.”
Things seem to be working out for Egan, who has five wins on the season.
He sports an earned run average of two runs per game and has only given up 31 hits in 40 innings pitched.
Egan has struck out 29 of the 143 batters he has faced this spring, and attributes his success mainly to his teammates.
“Without the defense and offense I have supporting me on the mound I wouldn’t be sitting here 5-1,” Egan said. “As long as our offense stays hot and our defense stays solid we should make a run at the NEC title.”
