On February 4, Austin Pizer signed his National Letter of Intent to Wilson College, to join their baseball program. Pizer has been playing baseball for a very long time, starting as young as two or three years old. During his pre-college career he played on both travel and high school baseball teams.
“My parents exposed me to all kinds of sports when I was younger … but baseball was the one I found the most challenging; so that’s [the] one I got drawn to,” Pizer said.
His coach at LHS, as well as a coach on a rival travel team, Bryan Oliver, are both amazed at Pizer’s talent.
“I’ve had the honor of coaching [and coaching] against Austin through the years. He traveled baseball, and he drove me crazy because he’s competitively driven,” Coach Oliver said in his speech for Pizer on Signing Day.
While deciding where his future would start, Pizer said Wilson College reached out to him through the Twitter account that he posts his baseball information on with an offer for him to attend.
“I toured it, and I really liked it; so that’s kind of how I made my decision,” Pizer said.
On Signing Day, Pizer officially confirmed that he will be attending Wilson College as a member of the class of 2030, where they have a Division III baseball program. After school, he has two options of what he wants to pursue.
“Hopefully [I will be] playing major league baseball. But, if that doesn’t work out, … probably take over my dad’s [plumbing company],” Pizer said.
Pizer has done a lot throughout his 14 to 15 years of playing baseball, but his favorite period of time is one that he loves both for the nostalgia it brings him and the memories that come with.
“There was this baseball camp that I used to go to called 5-Tool every year, … I was okay but then I hit a point where I got much better … I was playing amazing during that camp, and that was a lot of fun.” Pizer says.
His mother, Juanita Pizer, has many favorite memories from watching him play, but one that she mentioned was from his eighth or ninth grade year when his skills really shine through.
“He’s had a number of exciting games, … but there was one game they were in extra innings,” Pizer’s Mother said, “and he hit a triple and slid into third base, and it was just– he was excited.”
Pizer’s Mother is amazed by her son’s skill, and even more proud at how well he is able to maintain that skill while keeping his academics in mind at the same time. Pizer himself also did not think it was very difficult to maintain that balance, saying that it was simple to keep up with work during school hours so there was more time to focus on his sport outside of school.
“He’s pretty good at doing that himself … he takes pride in his schoolwork, so I didn’t have to do a whole lot in that realm; it was whatever he needed.” Pizer’s Mother said.
Pizer was a highly skilled player and athlete at Linganore, and there are many people who want to end up doing something similar to him in the future, to these people he offers some advice.
“Just stick with it, I mean it’s a really hard thing.” Pizer said, “If you really want it, then you got to work for it.”
Oliver and the LHS baseball community are very grateful for the time that they got to spend with Pizer, and are very excited to see what he does next with this new opportunity.
“[I] appreciate everything you guys have done, congratulations,” Coach Oliver said.
