Skala gets called before big call
Nick Skala was having lunch Wednesday when he started receiving congratulatory text messages.
They were giving the former St. Viator catcher and Concordia University junior some big breaking news. Skala had been selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 37th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
“I was actually probably the last one to know,” Skala said with a laugh.
Also taken in the draft’s third and final day was Hersey senior pitcher Joe Perricone in the 40th round by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Skala was the Northern Athletics Conference position player of the year as he hit .390 with 10 homers and a school-record 63 RBI. Concordia won a school-best 35 games in its first year under Schaumburg graduate Adam Smith.
Skala hit .416 with 5 homers and 38 RBI as a sophomore after spending his freshman year at San Jacinto College, a two-year school in Texas.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” Skala said. “With all of the phone calls coming in I haven’t had time to sit and think about it yet.
Skala said the Orioles were the only team he talked to and they came to see him play two or three times this season. He said he’ll weigh his options before talking to the Orioles again in a few days.
But it’s an option some saw as a possibility back when he was playing at Viator.
“Ever since coach (Mike) Manno told me I had the tools for it,” Skala said.
Perricone started to showcase one of the tools all scouts look for last summer when he started consistently hitting 90 mph on the radar gun.
The right-handed Perricone, who has signed with Division I power Coastal Carolina, regularly pitched before a lot of scouts this spring and went 3-4 with a 3.32 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 46⅓ innings.
“Even though I didn’t have as great of a spring as I wanted to, I still showed flashes of what I could be in the future,” Perricone said. “I’m honored a great organization like the Rays picked me. I’ll work really hard and hopefully I’ll get picked up or I’ll wait three years.”
That’s when Perricone would be draft eligible again if he decides on Coastal Carolina. He said the combination of his mechanics not being that great, despite the work he put in with Hersey coach Bob Huber, and issues with command and attacking hitters led to his spring struggles.
“It happens and that’s why I wasn’t as high a draft pick as I may have wanted to be,” Perricone said. “But I still got drafted and it makes me want to work that much harder.”
Perricone is pitching again this summer for the Downers Grove Longshots and said he threw well Saturday with 7 strikeouts, no walks and 1 hit allowed in 4 innings. The Rays plan to follow his summer progress prior to making any decisions before mid-August when Perricone gets set to start college.
“Who knows, if I show what I did last summer and fall, we’ll see what happens,” Perricone said. “I’m in a great position. Coastal has a strong class coming in and I could establish myself by going to Coastal for three years down the road.”
Third baseman Sam Travis of Providence, which plays Prospect in Friday’s 3 p.m. Class 4A state semifinal, was taken in the 40th round by the Reds. Lakes pitcher Nick Hibbing was taken in the 42nd round by the Pirates.
Also taken in the 42nd round by the Marlins was former Johnsburg left-handed pitcher Jerad Grundy, who went to Miami (Fla.) for a year and spent this year at Heartland Community College.
Glenbrook North pitcher Alex Hermeling was taken in the 43rd round by the Dodgers.