Tom Walraven '18 Inks Professional Deal with Gary SouthShore Railcats

GARY SOUTHSHORE RAILCATS WEBSITE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL WEBSITE

GARY, Ind. – Former University of New Haven baseball standout Tom Walraven (Pine Bush, N.Y./Pine Bush) '18 became the second Charger in the same week to sign a professional contract, as the shortstop signed to the Gary SouthShore Railcats of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

Walraven started in all but one of the games he appeared in throughout his career for the Chargers, making 162 starts in his four seasons wearing the Blue and Gold. During his senior season, Walraven started and played in all 51 games at shortstop, tallying career-highs in nearly every offensive category. He batted a team-high .355 and led the Chargers in hits (66), doubles (18), and runs scored (45). He knocked in a total of 28 runs, and slammed four home runs which was tied for the second-most on the team. Finally, Walraven collected his 200^th career hit in the NCAA Division II East Region Championship against Southern New Hampshire, before finishing out the season with 205 hits which is currently seventh in the New Haven record books.

On the field, Walraven sported a .974 fielding percentage, only making six defensive miscues in 232 chances with several highlight-reel plays on the year. He also broke the New Haven single season assist mark with 155. Walraven played a key role in New Haven's .973 fielding percentage, a clip that ranked 10^th in all of NCAA Division II, and was involved in 20 double plays this season.

For his efforts, Walraven earned the prestigious ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award in mid-June becoming the first national Gold Glove recipient in program history from New Haven since the award's conception in 2007. In addition to his Gold Glove award, Walraven was named to the NE10 All-Conference Team for the third time in four years and was selected as a National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) All-Region honorable mention shortstop.

In addition to appearing in the record books for hits, Walraven leads all Chargers throughout program history in walks, tallying 93 free bases during his career. He is the program-leader in assists with 490, and also broke the single-season assist record in 2018 with 155. In addition, Walraven stands 10^th in program history in doubles (38), fifth in at-bats (634), and eighth in games played (163).

The former Business Management student was also a standout in the classroom, as he was named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District® team and Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference team during his senior year.

This past season, the Gary SouthShore Railcats finished with a 59-41 overall record and claimed their first regular season Division title as memebrs of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. Gary also qualified for the playoffs for the second-straight season for the first time since 2011. The team set a franchise-record for most wins in a season with 59. The Railcats have not yet released their 2019 schedule.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#2 Tom Walraven: INF; 5' 9"; Graduate Student; R/R

Players Mentioned

#2 Tom Walraven
: 5' 9"; Graduate Student; R/R
: INF

Players Mentioned

#2 Tom Walraven

Players Mentioned

#2 Tom Walraven