Opportunity To Play Baseball At Michigan Excites O'Halloran

Connor O'Halloran LHP / OF / St. Martin, ON / 2020

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario - Growing up in Canada, Connor O’Halloran played hockey like most youngsters do. But it was the sport of baseball he enjoyed even more. After all, the influence of a father who spent time playing professionally can not be overlooked.

“He played a little bit in the majors with the Marlins in the 90s,” O’Halloran said of his father Greg, a 1988 MLB Draft selection of the Toronto Blue Jays. “Me and my brother (Ryan, who batted .329 as a freshman last season at Orange Coast College in California where his dad went to school) loved the game growing up. We’d play wiffleball in our yard every day and my mom (Cheryl) played catch with us.

“Our dad taught us things, not just physically with baseball, but how to go about things that he learned playing in Mexico, Taiwan and with the Marlins (in 1994),” O’Halloran added. “He’s a knowledgeable guy that you’re able to learn more things from than the average guy as far as baseball.”

The information and skills O’Halloran acquired obviously proved to be useful after committing to play baseball at the University of Michigan.

“College baseball is not something I thought deeply about playing until my second year of high school,” the third-rated senior in Canada explained. “When I started going to more tournaments in the states and would hear guys that committed to schools, it got me thinking about it. But I never thought I’d go to a school as big as Michigan.”

Interest from the Big 10 program came a little more than a year ago.

“I started talking with them after the PBR Future Games in August of 2018 when I threw against the PBR Michigan team,” the St. Martin High School 2020 said. “On my way back from that event, Chris Kemlo (PBR Canada Director of Scouting) said to contact them, that they liked you.

“We started talking to each other and I did facetime with (pitching coach) Chris Fetter and (head coach) Erik Bakich. I really liked all they had to say. Quality guys are what they want.”

A visit to the Ann Arbor school was memorable for O’Halloran.