Galland Proving He Belongs on the Cape

Chris Galland made his debut for the BC baseball team as a late-game substitution against Santa Clara in the second game of the 2018 season; his rookie campaign. Galland successfully put down a sacrifice-bunt in his first plate appearance and followed with a single through the left side in the ninth.

Galland, out to prove himself at the college level after a successful high school career at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and a postgraduate year at Cheshire (Conn.) Academy, cracked the Eagles' lineup in the fifth game of the season. He went 2-for-5 with a double, two runs and two RBI in an 11-6 win over Rutgers and held on to the starting left field job for the remainder of the season.

As a freshman, Galland was named All-ACC Third Team, All-New England and a Freshman All-American. He hit .316, scored 36 runs, smacked 10 doubles and owned a .801 OPS. Galland led Boston College with 28 stolen bases to rank second in the ACC and 17^th in the country at the end of the regular season. He set the BC record for stolen bases in a season and was successful on the first 20 attempts of his career.

All this earned Galland a temporary contract with the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League, where he finds himself out to prove his worth on the field and in the lineup once again.

"The goal for me was to stay on the Cape the whole summer," said Galland, who did not learn of his summer placement until late in the Eagles' spring season. "Even though I was a temp player, I didn't want to be here for a week and then gone. I thought that I belonged here from the beginning and I still feel that way. Every day, I'm trying to get better."

Galland was placed with the Harwich Mariners, who are coached by former BC player and assistant coach Steve Englert. Despite being a temp player with no guarantee of a spot on the roster for the entire summer, Englert slated Galland in left field and batting leadoff on opening day.

"The first game of any season, there's a little bit of jitters," recalled Galland. "To see myself in that lineup the first day was exciting. I don't think I had that great of a game, but there was no reason to hit the panic button right away."

In the opener, Galland was 1-for-5 with a single as the Mariners picked up a narrow 3-2 win over Orleans.

Still a regular in the Harwich lineup, Galland continued to contribute on a daily basis as he chipped in with three multi-hit games in the week following opening day. He came through in a big way in another win over the Firebirds with an 11^th-inning, walk-off home run on June 19.

The home run was not only the first of the summer for Galland, but his first since his prep days. Video of the play, which can be found on the @HarwichMariners Twitter account, shows the speedy Galland busting out of the box as though he needed to beat out a groundball to third.

"Throughout the season at BC, I thought I got a couple balls well and thought I was going deep," stated Galland. "So I was like, forget this, I'm running. When you don't have any home runs, you can't pimp it, because you just don't know."

Since his walk-off, Galland has added a four-RBI game to his resume and is now slugging .439. Through 17 games, he is hitting .263 with eight runs and seven RBI.

All 10 teams on the Cape are expected to solidify their rosters within the next week and Galland is generally expected to remain a part of Harwich for the rest of the summer.

The opportunity to prove his talent on one of the best stages in amateur baseball and do it in his home state is something a kid from Eastern Massachusetts has looked forward to for a long time.

"I was really excited," Galland said of when he learned he would be heading to the Cape. "My grandparents have always lived on the Cape and when I was younger we had a house in Mashpee and would go to Cotuit games.

"One thing that's really unique about the Cape is that each field has its own unique atmosphere. Orleans has no stands and it looks like a million fans sitting on the hill in beach chairs. At Harwich, we've got two full stands and the kids running around outside the outfield fence screaming our names is really cool. I can't imagine many summer league are like this."

Also unique is the professional opportunities gained by products of the Cape League. In last month's MLB Draft, 16 players selected in the first round played on the Cape in either 2016 or 2017. Galland suits up for a Harwich squad a year removed from featuring first rounders Jonathan India (4^th), Kyler Murray (9^th) and Jake McCarthy (39^th).

BC has been producing next-level talent at the greatest rate in program history over the last few seasons. Justin Dunn went in the first round in 2016 and Chris Shaw, who is at Triple-A, in 2015. Four more Eagles were drafted this season and a talented and experienced squad, which returns Galland to the top of its lineup is prepared to return to the Heights in the fall and follow its left fielder's lead by proving it belongs with the best of the best in the ACC.

Players Mentioned

Chris Galland

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