Strickland Overcomes Obstacles En Route To Kentucky

Austin Strickland RHP / OF / Moeller, OH / 2020

First Strickland was cut from the Moeller team as a freshman.

“I always wanted to be a baseball player, even at the age of two or three,” said the senior at Moeller. “But when I first got into high school I was cut from the freshman team. That was eye opening. It wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be.

“But through hard work it obviously became a reality,” continued Strickland, who recently committed to play baseball at the University of Kentucky. “But there were times I had doubts about if playing high-level college baseball was going to be done.”

The doubts soon vanished.

“That was one of the hardest things that I ever had to deal with,” Strickland said about being cut. “I was always super confident, maybe over confident. When I walked into the room and told I was cut, that was a real slap in the face to my personal work ethic. So I went online and looked up youth training facilities. I talked to them and said if you tell me to run through a brick wall I will.”

Improvement followed, helped out by Connor Graham.

“He worked with me on strength, agility, speed and was my pitching coach,” Strickland said of Graham, a Toledo St. John’s graduate who went on to pitch for Miami Ohio and later in the minors. “Without him, I would not be where I am.”

Strickland also gave credit to Moeller junior varsity head coach Mike Cameron.