By Gene Schallenberg
Sports
HUNTSVILLE —
Maybe, just maybe, on the mound closing games is where Dallas Gallant needs to be if he’s going to make a name for himself.
For the second summer in a row, the Sam Houston State pitcher has performed marvelously when he finishes games for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, a member of the distinguished Cape Cod Baseball League.
“It’s been exciting. I’ve had a great time so far,” Gallant said during a phone interview Thursday. “I’m playing good baseball and we’ve got a pretty good baseball team.”
Coming off last summer’s performance where the right-hander was utilized mostly as a middle reliever and allowed just six earned runs in 27 2/3 innings, picking up two saves and earning a 2-1 record, head coach Chad Gassman was eager to have Gallant back on his team.
After initially rejoining the Harbor Hawks on an interim basis, Gallant quickly showed he was in Hyannis to stay after getting off to a hot start. Quickly, Gallant was offered a contract that kept him in New England through the summer.
“Getting to play in this league is not something you plan on, let alone two years in a row. I think I’ve just been really dialed in and wanting to make the most of my opportunity here,” Gallant said.
Gassman decided to make Gallant his closer and that decision has certainly paid dividends.
In Gallant’s eight appearances this summer, he has a 2-0 record with a league-leading six saves and a 1.42 earned run average over 12 1/3 innings of work.
“I enjoy closing,” said Gallant, who was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 23rd round with the 705th overall pick on June 8. “You get to pitch more than once a week.
“When you close, it feels like you’re doing more to help the team. Instead of throwing 120 pitches every four days, you’re going out there to throw for just a couple of innings, maybe three or four times a week and trying to finish what somebody else started.
“I think I’m better suited as a closer, but anything I can do to help the team, I’m willing to do.”
Gallant, who turned down the Twins’ initial offer, hopes that he can continue to pitch at a high level throughout the rest of the Cape Cod season, impressing MInnesota’s scouts and in turn, be rewarded with a better offer.
“The Twins’ first offer, I didn’t feel it was right,” Gallant said. “Hopefully I can keep doing what I’m doing because (Minnesota) wants me as a relief pitcher and then see if the Twins have another offer for me.
“If it’s not what we’re looking for, then I’ll return to Sam. I want to make the best long-term decision because I only get to do this once. We’re just waiting to see what happens until then. So right now, all I can do is go out there and have fun.”
Gallant breezed through his first six Cape Cod appearances, giving up only four hits and no runs. It wasn’t until July 4 against Yarmouth-Dennis, which boasts the second-best record in the league, that hitters were able to get to Gallant.
Trailing Hyannis 6-5 entering the bottom of the ninth, the Y-D Red Sox scored the tying run with two outs. The Harbor Hawks responded with two runs in the top of the 10th. After a Red Sox home run put them within a run, Gallant, with runners on first and second, struck out the University of Florida’s Ben McMahan and got Boston College’s Matt Hamlet to ground out to end the game and earn his second win of the season.
“I felt really bad that I had that blown save,” Gallant said, “mostly because that was somebody else’s win that I let slip by. Fortunately, I was able to hold it together enough for us to win the game.”
Gallant didn’t let his first blown save get to him. In his next appearance, he came in with a 6-4 lead and pitched a nearly perfect ninth inning for save No. 6 against Falmouth at Martha’s Vineyard.
“I’ve been real fortunate to succeed up here,” Gallant said. “I just try to pitch pretty aggressively. If you can go ahead and put hitters in an 0-2 hole, the pressure’s all of the sudden on the batter. You make the hitters adjust to you instead of you adjusting to them.”
With a little more than two weeks left until the Cape Cod All-Star Game, Gallant, who pitched an inning in last year’s game at Fenway Park, could pitch himself into another All-Star selection and return to Boston on July 28 if he continues to pitch well.
“That would be unbelievable if that happened again,” Gallant said. “I don’t go out there striving to make the All-Star team. I just want to go out and help our team keep winning.
“There are a ton of good pitchers in this league. If it does happen, then that’ll be good. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.”
Following Thursday’s victory over Falmouth, Hyannis has improved to 10-12 on the season and climbed to second place in the Western Division. The Harbor Hawks trail the Bourne Braves by two games. The top four teams in each division advance to the playoffs.
Last year, Hyannis finished fifth, missing out on the playoffs with a 16-26-1 mark.
“That talent’s just as good as it was last year,” Gallant said. “We’re just winning a lot of one-run games. We’re getting tying and go-ahead runs in. Doing that and winning those close games are real big, especially in this league.”
