The United Shore Professional Baseball League has been known for producing some great pitching talent over the last six years.
But, Drue Galassi is hoping to break the mold for position players in his second year with the Utica Unicorns in 2022.
After leading the league in RBI and total bases in 2021, the Peoria, Ill. native has much bigger goals for 2022.
“I’m shooting for the Triple Crown this year. I want to lead the league in average, home runs, and RBIs. I want to really staple my name into USPBL history,” Galassi said. “When people talk about the greats of the league, I want to be one of the big names that gets brought up. This league has produced a lot of great players that are now working their way up in the majors and I’m just trying to be the next guy to make it out of here.”
The 24-year-old Galassi had very impressive numbers last year, batting .275 with eight home runs, 27 RBI, five doubles and 22 runs scored.
A former Western Illinois University and Lenoir-Ryne University standout, Galassi came into the USPBL with a new approach at the plate, which proved to pay off for him.
“I really improved on my contact hitting. All throughout college, I was always trying to be that power hitter that was either hitting a home run or striking out,” he said. “Last year, I just switched it around and was just trying to be that hard contact, hard out, guy rather than the home run hitter. After making that change, I was still a home run hitter when I was just focusing on hitting the ball hard.”
Galassi also credited the player-focused aspect of the USPBL for helping him take his game to another level.
“All four teams, we practice together, so it was really cool picking other professional baseball players’ brains and just kind of growing that way,” Galassi said. “Even though we’re on separate teams, we’re all helping each other try to move on to the next level. So, I really liked that aspect of the league and then playing in front of pretty loyal fans, and just really getting that first kind of taste of a pro-ball-experience was really cool.”
Though the league preaches a focus on player development over wins and losses, Galassi was still grateful to be part of the Unicorns in 2021. Utica won its third consecutive USPBL championship, and fourth in six years, last summer.
“Yeah, there definitely were strong emotions to win. Even though the goal of this league is to get moved on to bigger and better things, it was still awesome being surrounded by guys that were still focused on bringing a championship to the Unicorns again,” Galassi said. “That was my first time being a part of a winning team and winning the whole tournament of the league. I know for me personally, I was bought in from Day 1. I was really excited at the idea of getting my first ring and I’m definitely motivated to try and do it again this year.”
Galassi and the Unicorns will get the 2022 USPBL season started this Friday night when they take on the Eastside Diamond Hoppers at 7:05 p.m. from Jimmy John’s Field.
Editor’s note: This is Part 4 in a five-part series of preview articles in advance of opening day on Friday for the USPBL, a four-team independent baseball league using Jimmy John Field in Utica for a home base.
