Drafted right out of high school, junior baseball star Pat Light’s dream of playing professionally is becoming a reality once again, being named to Baseball America’s Early 2010 Top College Prospects, and selected at number 25 on the top-100 chart.
Following in his fathers’ footsteps, Light started his baseball career while in kindergarten. “I wanted to be like my Dad,” stated Light. “We’ve always done a lot together.” After trying out soccer and basketball, he realized that baseball was his true calling. When Light first started playing, he started out in the infield. However, as the six foot six athlete began getting taller he went in as a pitcher.
Light attended Christian Brothers Academy, where he collected a 20-0 career record with 1.52 ERA. That record is still the best career record in Shore Conference History. Light was also a two-time 1st team All-Shore selection and 3rd team all state. He was selected 28th in the 2009 MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins coming out of high school. However, he realized that aside from not being completely ready to play professional baseball, Light did not think that it was the best opportunity for him.
Freshman year, Light realized he needed to step his game up if wanted to continue playing baseball at this level. Coming off of what he referred to as his “worst season yet,” Light realized the work that he needed to put into his baseball career. As a sophomore, Light started 13 out of the 14 games he played in racking up 61 strikeouts for the season. Then, this summer Light was offered a prestigious opportunity to play in the Cape Cod summer league. After having much success there, Light is feeling good about his own personal game this year and hoping for a victorious season.
Now that Light is once again being looked at by the MLB, he is realizing that his college days may be ending sooner than he expected. Playing on the Universities team, he described making friends that he will miss not seeing nearly as much as he does now. “I’ll miss my friends a lot,” explained Light. “That’s why I’m trying to make the most out of this year with all of them, just in case this is my last semester here.”
Some may wonder where Light’s inspiration comes from; but this pitcher looks up to none other than Roy Halladay. The Phillies pitcher, now hall-of-famer, has overcome obstacles in his life that he did not let affect his love for the game.
With so much success usually comes a strong sense of arrogance. However, this is not the case with Pat Light. After all of his accomplishments to date, Light maintains a humble and modest attitude towards all of the successes he has achieved. Another quality about Light is his ability to be appreciative for any luck or good fortune that has come his way. But aside from that, he was able to realize that after having one bad season, he needed to pick himself up and work hard to follow his dreams. “I can be a lazy kid,” joked Light. “But I worked very hard the past two years; I had to make up for freshman year.”
The best advice that Light ever received was from his father this past year, reminding his son to play the game he has so much passion for. “Relax and play baseball. Don’t worry about anything else,” recited Light. As for his own advice, he warns anyone starting off to “just play. Don’t over think anything too much, that’s where you get yourself in trouble.”
This being such an exciting time for Light, it must be extremely hard to even imagine yourself truly fulfilling your dreams. “You always hope for it,” explained Light. “But you can’t really ever imagine it happening to you.”
PHOTO COURTESY of MU Photography
