SUMRALL – The pipeline from Sumrall to Southern Miss baseball added another member Wednesday morning as Sumrall’s Billy Garrity inked with the Golden Eagles program.
Garrity will join his former high school teammate Logan McGrew when he arrives on campus next year, while Logan Lowery, Conner Baron and Jackson Posey have already paved the way for Sumrall products to stay close to home.
“I talked to Conner Baron a lot before I committed,” Garrity said. “He just told me, ‘Don’t rush anything, make the right decision, talk to your family,’ and stuff like. Out in the (right field) roost I’ve talked to former players and they tell me stuff like ‘you won’t regret it’ and things like that.”
But for Garrity, Wednesday was simply just another step in his recruitment. Now all the senior has to worry about is getting healthy and ready to go for his final season at Sumrall.
“This is just another step along the way,” he said. “This (signing), this baseball season, then I’ll be there. I have to focus on Sumrall baseball before I can focus on Southern. It’s exciting, very exciting to have a bunch of people there to watch (me) and put myself into a program like that.”
During the summer, Garrity felt pain in his hip, which prompted him to get it checked out. As it turned out, he had a torn labrum, which caused him to miss his senior season on the football team. It was an injury he didn’t feel last spring, but pain developed while playing summer ball.
Essentially, the cushion that helped his hip socket function properly was torn, so it caused a painful pinch.
If everything goes according to plan, he shouldn’t miss any playing time this spring, but Garrity was primed for a good year as the Bobcats’ quarterback. He took over the position as a junior, and he was ready to up his game for his final season.
“Just thinking about how many times we’d throw the ball a game, how many yards we would have had and how many points we’d put up,” Garrity said with a smile when asked about missing his senior football season. “I missed playing, I missed being out there, but what if I would have played? Just how many yards we could have had.”
He finished physical therapy last week and now he’s working with a strength and conditioning coach for the next couple of months leading up to the baseball season.
On the baseball diamond, Garrity has been a fixture for the Bobcats since his freshman season. In his career, he’s played 96 games, has a .315 batting average, 15 home runs and 87 RBI. He hit .377 as a sophomore and hit seven homers, then followed that up with a .341 season and eight long balls as a junior.
Sumrall coach Larry Knight knew Garrity would make an impact for his team before he was a teenager, too.
“My wife taught him in first grade, and I remember when he was 9, 10 years old coming to our baseball camps,” Knight said. “When you see kids like that, who have not only been in your program a long time, but you’ve been able to see them grow up, we’re very happy for him.
“He’s one of those who has come along and got opportunities at a young age.”
Garrity’s left-handed bat should fit nicely into Southern Miss’ batting lineup. He can play a lot of positions on the field, too, but he sees himself playing either first base or in the outfield when he arrives on campus.
Lately, Southern Miss has been known to have quite a few left-handed bats in the lineup. Just last season, the Golden Eagles quite frequently used at least six or seven left-handed or switch hitters in the batting order.
“Honestly, (I’ll play) anywhere to hit,” Garrity said. “That’s why I’m going, so that’s what I want to do.”
