Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The three days of the Major League Baseball draft offers a chance for high school and college players to recognize their dreams of becoming professional players.

That was a dream that Nick Gallagher was ready to give up on just three years ago.

Gallagher was prepared to end his baseball career after his senior season at West High before a late push from Rick Heller convinced him to accept a walk-on opportunity at Iowa.

On Wednesday, Gallagher had what once seemed an impossible dream come true when he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians with the 492nd pick in the MLB draft.

“I guess it just shows if you have dreams and aspirations to do something don’t give up on that just because maybe at that time you aren’t the best player on your team,” Gallagher said. “People develop at different stages of their life and I was just really fortunate to have such great people helping me get to where I am today.”

Getting the phone call from the Indians on Wednesday capped an incredible four-year rise for Gallagher who has gone from the fourth starter at West High as a junior to an all-Big Ten pitcher and 16th round draft pick.

“You never know what is going to happen so just keep working hard and hopefully it will all work,” Gallagher said. “That’s kind of my message to people. I’ve been really fortunate and the opportunity I have is really exciting for me and my family.”

Gallagher became the first West High player to be drafted under head coach Charlie Stumpff and to the knowledge of the long-time West High coach the first Trojan ever selected in the MLB draft.

“It’s all on Nick how much better he has got physically, mentally and everything,” Stumpff said. “He just took it to another level and it’s awesome that he got drafted. Nick is blazing a whole new world for us that is really exciting.”

Gallagher went 8-2 with a 3.48 ERA this spring in his first season as Iowa’s Friday night starter.

A 6-foot-3, 205-pound right-hander, Gallagher earned second-team All-Big Ten honors after tossing a team-high 95 2/3 innings as a junior.

Gallagher was 8-3 with a 2.57 ERA in 63 innings as a sophomore.

The 21-year-old Gallagher said he will sign with the Indians and start his professional career.

“It was a pretty surreal feeling to be drafted to such a great organization like the Indians with great development and I am really, really excited to get started,” Gallagher said. “We thought as a family it was a great offer, an offer we can’t pass up and we think that I am ready to get started in professional baseball.”

Gallagher described the draft process as ‘a waiting game’ and was open to returning to Iowa depending on where he was selected.

“It was a win-win situation for me knowing that either I go play professional baseball or I come back to a great school in the University of Iowa and get to play for coach Heller and that coaching staff,” Gallagher said. “It was a win-win for me and I’m just excited to get started.”

Four years to the day before he was selected by the Indians, Gallagher allowed five runs on six hits against Waterloo East as the No. 4 starter in a West High rotation.

That start was part of a junior season at West High in which Gallagher went 5-0 with a 3.47 ERA in 36 1/3 innings.

“The short answer is no,” Stumpff said when asked if he saw Gallagher being drafted during his prep days at West High. “All the way up through his junior year you wouldn’t have saw him playing Division I baseball.”  

As a senior Gallagher helped West High to the Class 4A basketball title in the winter and planned to serve as a student assistant for the mens basketball team at Iowa beginning in the fall.

Then came his first breakthrough season.

Gallagher earned second-team all-state honors as a senior going 9-2 with a 1.44 ERA while helping West High to a 4A runner-up finish.

The strong season caught the attention of Heller who had just completed his first season leading the Hawkeyes.

“His senior year he matured and Rick (Heller) saw something in him and then Nick just took it to another level,” Stumpff said. “It falls under the category of if you work hard and keep doing the right thing and sometimes those dreams are answered somehow.”

Gallagher hit his stride while playing for Heller.

After pitching 20.2 innings mostly in relief as a freshman, Gallagher became one of the most reliable starters in the Big Ten of the past two seasons.

He leaves Iowa with a career 16-5 record and 3.01 ERA in 179 1/3 innings.

Quite a jump for a player that wasn’t a full-time starter until his senior year in high school.

 “That is just a credit to everyone that has helped me develop of the past few years,” Gallagher said. “It’s a great coaching staff at Iowa, my parents my family, my friends everyone has been supportive. I’m really fortunate for everything that people have done for me and I’m just really excited for the opportunity.”