Former Bear Gage Harrelson receives Freshman All-American Honors

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Houston County Bears baseball program has turned young men into disciplined players, champions and even professional athletes.

As recent as 2017 they’ve produced two athletes who’ve gone on to play at the professional level: Dual sport star Jake Fromm and Orioles pitcher DL Hall.

Though many of the players after them are still only pro hopefuls, one former Bear is off to a good start at Texas Tech.

The now Red Raider Gage Harrelson was an honorable mention pick in the Big-12 and was awarded a Freshman All-American selection for outfield.

Batting second in the order for most of the season, Harrelson posted a .322 average to go along with 16 doubles, five triples and 45 RBI.

“I’m just really blessed,” Harrelson said. “I owe it all to my Lord and savior and I owe it all to my parents who have guided me here, let me travel and do all the things that led me to Texas Tech. All credit to my coaches and all my teammates to lead me to that position.”

For many athletes it can be hard to put their individual success below the team. They’re only human, right?

Harrelson has learned how to make personal sacrifices for the team, though that doesn’t mean he never thought about winning an award.

“Yes and no. You always want to play for the team. You never really want to play for individual awards, it always kind of backfires,” Harrelson said on whether or not an award was on his mind during the season. “I wanted to play for the team and I wanted to go win something big. It just kind of ended up happening for me.”

The Red Raiders almost did something big, though they fell short towards the end of the season.

They finished 41-23 with a mean home record of 30-7.

Throughout the season they won a series against opponents like #12 Oklahoma State, though it would come back to bite them as they got knocked out of the Big 12 championship tournament by the Bullets.

They beat the #10 UConn Huskies to open the NCAA Regionals before running into the #2 Florida Gators who ended their season.

Though it’s certainly a disappointing for both the players and the fans, it’s part of the game according to Harrelson.

“Failure is going to happen. It’s just how you get back from it. If you fail, if you can get back up and start succeeding again and keep succeeding, that’s the name of the game. Consistency. Find that consistency in yourself.”

You don’t get to the NCAA without getting back up and finding that consistency. According to Harrelson, the Houston County program played a big role in helping him find that.

“Discipline. Houston County has been a really disciplined program. Over the years we’ve become really competitive and kind of a little dynasty,” Harrelson said. “I’ve definitely picked up on some stuff there. They really helped me develop for college because we were playing the best baseball you could in high school. We were constantly in the best tournaments and doing what’s best for each player.”

As important as it is for high school programs to prepare athletes for the next level, they aren’t going to fully prepare anyone for the college level. That’s why it’s so important for college programs to embrace incoming freshman and show them the ropes — just like Texas Tech did for Harrelson.

It helped that there was another freshman there to go through the journey with him, not to mention that another freshman, Kevin Bazzell, was also selected to the freshman All-American team.

“Kevin was a lot of help to me,” Harrelson said. “He was a pretty good mentor to me. We hit together all the time. That guy is a great player. But our whole team was surrounding me as family. Everybody was looking out for each other. You never really felt out of place.”

An environment like that is necessary for athletes to succeed at any level, and it looks like it’s helped Harrleson find his place among the NCAA.

Though he’s traded in his black and silver for red, he’ll always remember to bear down.

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