Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Photo by: Kaitlyn Hungerford/MT Athletic Communications
“Late Bloomer” Galloway has become a staple in the MT lineup
5/20/2022 11:30:00 AM | Baseball
The sophomore outfielder leads the team in batting average this season
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Jackson Galloway doesn't like to take a lot of pitches.
"Hit the ball early in the count, and good things happen," Galloway said. Good things have happened a lot for the sophomore outfielder from Kansas City, Mo. this season, to tune of a .359/.402/.601 slash line with seven home runs and 32 RBIs during his first campaign with Middle Tennessee. One where Galloway, a junior college transfer in his fourth year of college baseball, has emerged as the heart of a dangerous Blue Raider lineup.
"To have somebody in the middle of the lineup that puts the ball in play a lot and is consistently going to hit the ball hard is huge," assistant coach Jordan Getzelman said. "He leads the team in RBIs for a reason. You need that guy in the middle of the lineup to have good run production. Just having him in there and becoming a staple has been a big deal for the team."
That Galloway can hit like he has this season is no surprise to Getzelman, who highlights Galloway's bat-to-ball skill and great swing decisions when raving about the outfielder's skillset. The production at the junior college level for Johnson County Community College, a perennial power in Jayhawk Conference baseball, where Galloway hit .415 across his two seasons, a top 15 career mark in JCCC history, also pointed to his early potential.
A remarkable climb for a player that only started one year, at designated hitter, for Lee's Summit West High School.
"I was a late bloomer," Galloway said, highlighting a knee injury from football that kept him off the field his sophomore season of high school ball. His work ethic kept him developing, however, ultimately earning him First Team All-District and Second Team All-State honors his senior season. That production, plus a desire to keep playing at a higher level, led him at first to Cowley Community College.
After a semester, however, Galloway felt that Cowley just wasn't the right fit, so he went to JCCC in the spring, a school much closer to home, which also allowed him to help out around the house and save on costs as he adjusted to collegiate baseball. The late transfer meant, however, that the coaching staff at JCCC felt it would likely be best for Galloway to redshirt, and not burn a year of his eligibility getting up to speed.
Galloway agreed and watched from the sidelines in 2019. Ironically, like so many athletes across the country, he would get another redshirt year in 2020, when his freshman season was cut short after appearing in just 20 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only giving Galloway more time to work on his craft off the field, hitting in his old high school batting cage with his brother.
"You have to have kind of a blue collar attitude about you, your work ethic has to match that blue collar style," Getzelman, a former JuCo World Series participant as a player, said of successful junior college players. "The guys that usually come from there have earned a lot of reps and have learned to prepare themselves that will get them ready for this level of skill. It is a jump, but more than anything, it takes guys that are willing to work hard and willing to put in the work when the facilities or the area might not be great."
The results were good that 2020 season, where Galloway batted .403 with 19 runs and 17 RBIs. But while Galloway likes to be aggressive in the box, choosing where he'd play after Johnson County was an exercise in patience. He had interest from schools to move up for the spring of 2021, but told coaches that he wanted to get a full season of college ball under his belt before moving on from JCCC.
That wait proved fortuitous, when former MT assistant Kyle Bunn reached out after an email blast from David Canary, one of JCCC's assistants. Galloway, who said he didn't mind playing somewhere far from home at the level after Johnson County, said Bunn made an immediate impression on him.
"A lot of schools, if they're going to throw you an offer, they're going to give you a couple of chances where you have a deadline on the offer," Galloway said. "But (Bunn) was really cool with me, because I told him I was still waiting on a couple of schools, and he said 'Take your time.' That was one thing that really stuck with me."
It helped that David Canary was the son of former UT Martin Softball coach Donley Canary, who sold Galloway and his family that MT Baseball was a program that was a good fit for him, even a nine-hour drive away.
The fall season, however, proved to be an adjustment for Galloway, with his timing in flux most of the offseason as he adjusted to facing Division I pitching. Galloway said that while most JuCo pitchers had maybe two pitches they could throw for strikes consistently, pitchers at this level usually have at least three, if not four pitches they're confident in.
That realization led to a change in approach that has paid big dividends this season for the right-handed bat.
"In the fall, I was a little picky," Galloway said. "Trying to sit on one pitch. But at the end of the day, if they're going to give it to you at the Division I level, usually you get maybe 1-2 pitches every AB that you can do something with. That was a big thing for me, learning that you had to jump on those pitches early."
Of the seven home runs Galloway has hit this season, four of them have come within the first three pitches of an at bat, including two on the first pitch of an AB. None of those home runs were bigger than the go-ahead grand slam on March 20 vs. Old Dominion, when Galloway took an 0-1 fastball opposite field over the right field wall.
It was MT's first grand slam since 2019, and put the Blue Raiders up for good to steal a game and avoid a sweep against a team that is still near the top of the conference standings weeks later.
Galloway has a lot of great memories from his first year as a Blue Raider, the dominance of his teammates down in Houston, specifically how much fun he has playing behind Peyton Wigginton when he's cruising on the mound, is the first memory he mentions when you ask. But it's clear that grand slam still stands out two months later for one special reason.
"My dad was actually here, and he doesn't get to come to very many games because we live so far away," Galloway said. "I'll just never forget touching home plate and looking up there, and he was up there hi-fiving people. I was kind of embarrassed, like 'what are you doing?' But it definitely felt good to be able to do that in front of him."
"Hit the ball early in the count, and good things happen," Galloway said. Good things have happened a lot for the sophomore outfielder from Kansas City, Mo. this season, to tune of a .359/.402/.601 slash line with seven home runs and 32 RBIs during his first campaign with Middle Tennessee. One where Galloway, a junior college transfer in his fourth year of college baseball, has emerged as the heart of a dangerous Blue Raider lineup.
"To have somebody in the middle of the lineup that puts the ball in play a lot and is consistently going to hit the ball hard is huge," assistant coach Jordan Getzelman said. "He leads the team in RBIs for a reason. You need that guy in the middle of the lineup to have good run production. Just having him in there and becoming a staple has been a big deal for the team."
That Galloway can hit like he has this season is no surprise to Getzelman, who highlights Galloway's bat-to-ball skill and great swing decisions when raving about the outfielder's skillset. The production at the junior college level for Johnson County Community College, a perennial power in Jayhawk Conference baseball, where Galloway hit .415 across his two seasons, a top 15 career mark in JCCC history, also pointed to his early potential.
A remarkable climb for a player that only started one year, at designated hitter, for Lee's Summit West High School.
"I was a late bloomer," Galloway said, highlighting a knee injury from football that kept him off the field his sophomore season of high school ball. His work ethic kept him developing, however, ultimately earning him First Team All-District and Second Team All-State honors his senior season. That production, plus a desire to keep playing at a higher level, led him at first to Cowley Community College.
After a semester, however, Galloway felt that Cowley just wasn't the right fit, so he went to JCCC in the spring, a school much closer to home, which also allowed him to help out around the house and save on costs as he adjusted to collegiate baseball. The late transfer meant, however, that the coaching staff at JCCC felt it would likely be best for Galloway to redshirt, and not burn a year of his eligibility getting up to speed.
Galloway agreed and watched from the sidelines in 2019. Ironically, like so many athletes across the country, he would get another redshirt year in 2020, when his freshman season was cut short after appearing in just 20 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only giving Galloway more time to work on his craft off the field, hitting in his old high school batting cage with his brother.
"You have to have kind of a blue collar attitude about you, your work ethic has to match that blue collar style," Getzelman, a former JuCo World Series participant as a player, said of successful junior college players. "The guys that usually come from there have earned a lot of reps and have learned to prepare themselves that will get them ready for this level of skill. It is a jump, but more than anything, it takes guys that are willing to work hard and willing to put in the work when the facilities or the area might not be great."
The results were good that 2020 season, where Galloway batted .403 with 19 runs and 17 RBIs. But while Galloway likes to be aggressive in the box, choosing where he'd play after Johnson County was an exercise in patience. He had interest from schools to move up for the spring of 2021, but told coaches that he wanted to get a full season of college ball under his belt before moving on from JCCC.
That wait proved fortuitous, when former MT assistant Kyle Bunn reached out after an email blast from David Canary, one of JCCC's assistants. Galloway, who said he didn't mind playing somewhere far from home at the level after Johnson County, said Bunn made an immediate impression on him.
"A lot of schools, if they're going to throw you an offer, they're going to give you a couple of chances where you have a deadline on the offer," Galloway said. "But (Bunn) was really cool with me, because I told him I was still waiting on a couple of schools, and he said 'Take your time.' That was one thing that really stuck with me."
It helped that David Canary was the son of former UT Martin Softball coach Donley Canary, who sold Galloway and his family that MT Baseball was a program that was a good fit for him, even a nine-hour drive away.
The fall season, however, proved to be an adjustment for Galloway, with his timing in flux most of the offseason as he adjusted to facing Division I pitching. Galloway said that while most JuCo pitchers had maybe two pitches they could throw for strikes consistently, pitchers at this level usually have at least three, if not four pitches they're confident in.
That realization led to a change in approach that has paid big dividends this season for the right-handed bat.
"In the fall, I was a little picky," Galloway said. "Trying to sit on one pitch. But at the end of the day, if they're going to give it to you at the Division I level, usually you get maybe 1-2 pitches every AB that you can do something with. That was a big thing for me, learning that you had to jump on those pitches early."
Of the seven home runs Galloway has hit this season, four of them have come within the first three pitches of an at bat, including two on the first pitch of an AB. None of those home runs were bigger than the go-ahead grand slam on March 20 vs. Old Dominion, when Galloway took an 0-1 fastball opposite field over the right field wall.
It was MT's first grand slam since 2019, and put the Blue Raiders up for good to steal a game and avoid a sweep against a team that is still near the top of the conference standings weeks later.
Galloway has a lot of great memories from his first year as a Blue Raider, the dominance of his teammates down in Houston, specifically how much fun he has playing behind Peyton Wigginton when he's cruising on the mound, is the first memory he mentions when you ask. But it's clear that grand slam still stands out two months later for one special reason.
"My dad was actually here, and he doesn't get to come to very many games because we live so far away," Galloway said. "I'll just never forget touching home plate and looking up there, and he was up there hi-fiving people. I was kind of embarrassed, like 'what are you doing?' But it definitely felt good to be able to do that in front of him."
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