Drew Cavanaugh came to Eastern Florida State College with a dream of playing professional baseball.
Former EFSC Student-Athlete Makes Debut in Major League Baseball
Drew Cavanaugh came to Eastern Florida State College with a dream of playing professional baseball.
ABOVE Cavanaugh, catcher with San Francisco Giants
On Friday, June 26, that dream was realized as Cavanaugh was the starting catcher for the San Francisco Giants. The Rochester Hills, Michigan native has been with the Giants ever since, hitting. 262 in his first 19 games.
“ Being at Eastern Florida State College was a huge part, playing in that conference. It is very good competition and so being exposed to that right out of high school was amazing,” Cavanaugh said before a recent game.“ Having coach( Jason) Arnold and coach( Steven) Brown, they are two fantastic coaches that helped me prepare for the next level. They were a huge part of that. The environment was just awesome; it was a great place to be able to put the work in. Being in the beautiful city of Melbourne and having some fun was awesome.”
Cavanaugh played 23 games as a freshman at EFSC in 2021, struggling at the plate. But that made him work harder in the offseason and came back even stronger in his sophomore season.
“ My freshman season did not end the way that I wanted it to,” Cavanaugh said.“ So, I took that into my offseason work with a goal to be the best player I could be and not force anything.”
That work paid off as he was one of the leaders on the 2022 team, hitting. 314 in 37 games with eight home runs. His defense was even better as he finished with 257 putouts for a 1.000 fielding percentage and threw out 22 runners, winning the NJCAA Division I Baseball ABCA / Rawlings Gold Glove. He was also named the NJCAA Division I co-Defensive Player of the Year.
That season propelled him to a scholarship with Florida Southern University in Lakeland, where he excelled with a. 316 batting average and hit a team-high 12 home runs in his lone season.
Ultimately, Cavanaugh would be drafted in the 17th round by the San Francisco Giants and went right to work once again.
Then while in Triple-A he was getting ready for a game when the manager, Dave Brundage, came up to him and said those magical words.
“ I was scheduled to catch that night and Brundage came over and said,‘ Drew, you are going to the big leagues and looks like you are going to catch,’” Cavanaugh said.“ There
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