God is a Gael
The journey of Gaels baseball player Gabe Giosso
For some, towards the end of high school, it might be difficult to find the right division 1 program to be a member of.
Gabe Giosso, a sophomore at Saint Mary’s College of California (SMC), was not originally planning to attend SMC as he was ready to graduate high school. From the University of Portland, to the University of San Francisco (USF), and Saint Mary’s, Giosso has gone through a few schools to get where he is at now.
Giosso received his first offer from the University of Portland the summer after his junior year of high school.
“I was really excited,” Giosso said. “I felt my hard work finally paid off and I was ready to go play the sport I love at the next level.”
Soon after his commitment to Portland the program wanted to take his scholarship money and split it amongst other recruits who they wanted in their school.
“At that point the price of the school was not worth it for me to go out there and play,” Giosso said.
So what does that mean? Giosso reopened his recruiting and kept looking. Giosso was a two-year varsity starter at De La Salle High School in Concord, California. His junior year Giosso batted .366, with 26 RBIs, five doubles, a triple and a home run. His senior year he batted .307, had 23 RBIs, five doubles and a home run.
His senior year Giosso was presented with the East Bay Athletic League (EBAL) Second Team designated hitter (DH) award, where he had a .300 batting average in the DH spot.
Halfway through his senior year he would end up being recruited by the University of San Francisco.
After committing to play at the University of San Francisco, Giosso would later find out that they would end up getting a new head of admissions that kept him from being accepted into USF.
“On the outside it did not look like it hurt him that much even though it was his second school,” said Milton Vrionis, Giosso’s high school teammate. “He kept his head up and he started to have more intent in his day to day baseball routine, I was proud of him.”
Giosso was now halfway through his senior year and did not have a school to play at.
“I was super upset and disappointed when I found this out,” Giosso said. “I already had a school fall through once and going through the same situation again was tough to deal with.”
A few days later Giosso received a call from Saint Mary’s informing him that he was taken off the waitlist. Soon after, he informed his high school coach who had connections to their baseball program.
The next day the SMC coaching staff came to recruit Giosso at his local high school game. Two days after USF fell through, Saint Mary’s offered him a spot on the team.
“I was really relieved I found another school so fast,” Giosso said. “I was worried because most schools were done recruiting for the 2017 class and it took a weight of my shoulders but I was a little skeptical that it might end up the same as the other schools, but fortunately it all worked out.”
Giosso is now in year two of being a Gael. He is hitting .276 in his sophomore campaign and just hit his first collegiate home run against the University of San Francisco, one of the original schools he was supposed to attend.
