34 SportsUnion | MAY 2019
college
Baseball
“I couldn’t believe it, it’s the greatest blessing I ever had in
my life,” - Kieran Higgins, Coastal Carolina.
By Matt Ondesko Managing Editor
Baseball sure is a funny
sport. One day you are on
top of the mountain, the
hero. The next day you
could be sitting on the
bench in the slump.
The game can also be re-
warding in strange ways.
Former Bishop Timon
High School pitcher Ki-
ernan Higgins knows all
to well the ups and downs
of what baseball has to
offer. A standout on the
mound for the Tigers,
Higgins didn’t have a lot
of college offers.
Maybe it was because he
didn’t really peak, yet. Or,
maybe it was because he
played for a program that
was just starting to get
back to being respectable
in the Monsignor Martin
Athletic Association.
Either way as Higgins’
high school career was
coming to end he was
ready to continue his
baseball career at Niag-
ara County Community
College, a powerhouse
JUCO program. Higgins
knew if he would be able
to succeed at NCCC then
a Division I school would
be calling.
“I figured I would just go
to NCCC, because I gave
my world to coach Cling-
ersmith,” stated Higgins.
“I figured I would just
ride out the JUCO route
and see if I could get a
better DI offer than a lo-
cal school.”
However, Higgins nev-
er set foot on campus
at NCCC. That’s because
during the summer be-
fore his freshman year
you could say Higgins was
Right place,
right time
discovered. Whatever he
did after high school ball,
Higgins earned some
miles per hour on his
fastball.
His outstanding sum-
mer caught the attention
of Coastal Carolina base-
ball coach Gary Giilmore.
Gilmore and the Chanti-
cleers was coming off a
National Championship
a few years early, and he
had heard about Higgins.
Gilmore invited Higgins
down to Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina to throw,
and the rest you can say
is history.
“It was pretty crazy. I
was just playing sum-
mer ball for AAABA. I
was planning on going to
NCCC, and I was throw-
ing at one of the games
when the coach from
Fredonia was there,” ex-
plained Higgins. “He pre-
viously recruited me, and
I wasn’t interested in the
school academically so I
turned them down, and
he talked to me after the
one game that I pitched
and I looked a lot better