Isaiah Galason attracting national buzz in senior season with Houston County

If you’ve followed Houston County baseball for the last several years, you likely know Isaiah Galason’s name.

Once a standout sophomore playing second base, last year he exploded onto the scene as a junior with a .471 batting average, .525 OBP, 1.275 OPS to go with 64 hits (six home runs) and 58 RBI.

He was third in the order behind Vick Gann and Kendall Jackson, and he routinely sent the pair racing around the bags.

His play was enough to earn him a wealth of college offers before he committed to Georgia Tech.

This year he’s one of the eldest players on the team, and has moved to shortstop. He also moved up to second in the order in the Bears’ opener against Warner Robins.

“Super focused,” HoCo head coach Matt Hopkins said of the senior. “He’s doing what the guys before him have done…the guys like Drew Burress, Gage Harrelson, Coleman Willis and all these draft prospect guys we’ve had. They invest so much in our younger players and try to get them to come along so that we’ll be better as a team. And I think that’s helping them at the same time.”

“When you start to teach things, I think you understand yourself a little bit better. He’s just worked really hard to get where he is, and I’m very proud of him.”

One of the most physically noticeable changes in Galason is his additional muscle. When he made contact against Warner Robins it was dangerous, and it’s the result of a long offseason of work.

Galason put on 15 pounds of muscle in the last nine months, joking that Creatine helped along with his workouts.

“I worked with Travis Grimes over in Perry. I think he’s honestly the best weight-lifting trainer around here for baseball,” Galason said. “It’s a three days a week type of thing, definitely doesn’t skip a beat. He’s got a lot going on in that gym and it’s the same place guys like Gage Harrelson and Drew [Burress] trained, he gets it done.”

But with his flip to the other side of the middle infield Galason also dedicated a significant portion of his time to defensive work.

“I think my biggest focus has been stepping into shortstop this year,” Galason said. “I put a lot of time in my defensive work, really trying to perfect my arm, the spin of my ball just to get that carry, especially when I’m ranging from side to side. I also wanted to polish up my hitting, staying with my approach so I can have a good year.”

Galason was 2-of-3 for one RBI and three runs in HoCo’s opener against Warner Robins.