Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh's Collina joins McBride in Indians' chain
6/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
 |
by Mandy Housenick
of The Morning Call
Lehigh catcher Matt McBride and pitcher Kyle Collina had it all planned out.
''After we were done with regionals, we were hanging out in our hotel saying how cool it would be if we ended up with same team,'' Collina said.
''But the chances of that happening, well, with 30 teams, are not so high,'' McBride said.
The odds, though, worked in their favor.
Three days after the Indians drafted McBride, a Liberty High graduate, in the third round, they signed Collina, a Notre Dame-Green Pond alumnus.
''I was just so excited when I heard,'' McBride said.
Collina, 22, did not get taken in one of the 50 rounds in the amateur baseball draft. But just minutes after its conclusion, Collina got a call from Brent Urcheck, the Indians' scout for this area.
Collina, though, wasn't near his cell phone and didn't get the message right away. So Urcheck called McBride to see if there was another way to get in touch with Collina.
''He said, 'I can't get a hold of him. Has he been talking to other teams because we want to sign him?' McBride said. ''I didn't want to be the one to tell [Collina]. I wanted the scout to tell him. So I text messaged him and told him to call me back.''
But before he could, Urcheck finally reached Collina and the two came to an agreement. Only a few moments passed before Collina made another phone call.
''I just called [McBride] right away,'' Collina said. ''We were both too excited to even make sense when we were talking to each other. It was one of those awkward conversations where you are trying to speak.''
Collina finished the season with a 6-6 record and a 4.52 ERA. In 852/3 innings, he allowed 88 hits and 36 walks and struck out 87. The highlight of his senior season was when he threw eight innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine and retiring the last 18 batters he faced when the Mountain Hawks trounced Bucknell 14-2 in the Patriot League playoffs.
Collina was told by ''a lot of area people who are involved in pro baseball'' that he would be a high draft pick last year. But the two-day event came and went and no one chose him. And even in the few days following the draft, no one offered him a free-agent deal.
''People were throwing out numbers and obviously you get your hopes up,'' he said. ''And when it doesn't happen, it's very hard to handle. I was just crushed.''
Because summer leagues thought Collina was a definite to get drafted last year, they didn't opt to include him on their rosters. But when he didn't get drafted, he needed a place to play for the summer. However, it was too late to be added to one of the country's premier summer leagues.
''I had always wanted to play in the Cape Cod League,'' he said. ''It was one of my dreams.''
Collina settled on playing for the Quakertown Blazers of the ACBL again, and once his final collegiate season started, he promised himself he wasn't going to think much about playing professionally.
''I approached it with the attitude of, as long as I get the opportunity, I'd be happy,'' he said.
Collina is headed to play for the Burlington (N.C.) Indians of the Appalachian League on Tuesday. Their season begins on June 21 and continues through the end of August.
McBride and his parents are flying to
On Tuesday, McBride's parents will fly back home, but he will head to the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, a Class A short-season team in the New York-Penn League.
This story originally appeared in the Saturday, June 10, 2006 edition of The Morning Call. Used with permission.
Photo (c) 2006, Rodger M. Wood Photography. Used with permission.
