SCHOOLCRAFT, MI – These days, Blake Bales has a well-defined role on the University of Virginia baseball team: come out of the bullpen, throw and inning or two of relief and hand the ball back to head coach Brian O’Connor.
But before his college baseball days, the 6-foot-5 right-handed pitcher made a name for himself as a jack-of-all trades at Schoolcraft High School.
A former 5-sport star with the Eagles, Bales has parlayed his high school experiences on football field, basketball court, bowling alley, golf course and baseball diamond into a successful run at Virginia, where he will be a part of his first College World Series, when the Cavaliers take the field against Tennessee 2 p.m. Sunday in a game that will be aired on ESPN2.
Through 25 pitching appearances this season, Bales boasts a 3-0 record and 0.71 earned-run average with 54 strikeouts against 15 walks in 38 innings for the 35-25 Cavaliers. In three seasons with Virginia, Bales is 7-0 in 42 relief appearances and one start.
A 2017 Schoolcraft graduate, Bales played wide receiver for the Eagles’ football team in the fall, was a three-time state-qualifying bowler and district champion forward on the basketball team in the winter, and was a three-time golf state qualifier, in addition to leading Schoolcraft’s baseball team to a pair of regional titles in the spring.
Schoolcraft's Blake Bales bowls in the 2017 Division 4 singles regional finals on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Pinz in Kalamazoo.Patrick Nothaft | MLive.com
Schoolcraft's Blake Bales reacts to making a putt on hole No. 16 during the first day of the 2015 MHSAA Division 3 boys golf finals at Forest Akers West Golf Course in East Lansing Friday, June 5, 2015.
Bales began his college baseball journey at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, where he was the Michigan Community College Athletic Association’s Wester Conference Freshman of the Year, after going 5-2 with a 2.87 earned-run average and 93 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings.
He joined Virginia the following season and made 11 relief appearances and one start, finishing with a 1-0 record and a 4.32 earned-run average with 15 strikeouts against 13 walks in 16 2/3 innings.
As a junior in 2020, Bales made six appearances out of the bullpen, going 3-0 with a 2.08 earned-run average and nine strikeouts against three walks in 8 2/3 innings before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short. He three wins during the abbreviated campaign were tied for the team lead.
Virginia would benefit greatly if Bales can continue his winning ways out of the bullpen, as the Cavaliers and North Carolina State are the only two unseeded squads that have advanced to the eight-team College World Series, which will be played at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
Joining No. 3 seed Tennessee (50-16) on Virginia’s side of the double-elimination bracket are No. 2 Texas (47-15) and No. 7 Mississippi State (45-16).
Joining NC State (35-18) on the other side of the bracket are No. 4 Vanderbilt (45-15), No. 5 Arizona (45-16) and No. 9 Stanford (38-15).
The best-of-three championship series is set to begin Monday, June 28.
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