New talent

By Gus Bode

Tyler Bullock’s new home isn’t too far around the block.

The SIU baseball team will welcome the Austin Peay State University transfer catcher this spring and hope the southern Illinois boy can provide a reliable backup behind the plate.

The 6-foot-4-inch, 265-pound catcher had a .243 batting average with 4 home runs and 16 RBI’s during his first season for the Governors.

Advertisement

Bullock played baseball, basketball and football during his four years at Du Quoin.

He said he wasn’t an exceptional basketball player but could have gone to college to play either football or baseball.

Bullock said he liked baseball much more than football because it is more of a mental game than a physical game.

“It seemed more fun for me to play baseball,” Bullock said. “Baseball is more of an all-around sport.”

Head coach Dan Callahan said Bullock was someone the team had interest in when they saw him in high school. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough money to sign more than one catcher to the team, Callahan said.

Callahan said at the time the team didn’t have the resources available for three catchers on the team.

Now, the money situation has changed and the team needs are also different, so the addition of Bullock is more applicable, Callahan said.

Advertisement*

“I’m excited about him being in the program,” Callahan said. “The more and more I saw him the summer after his senior year, the more I thought that maybe we should have made a push for him.” Callahan said.

Another interesting aspect of baseball and one of the reasons why Bullock likes it so much stems from the amount of time he has devoted to the sport.

“I have been playing baseball since I can remember,” he said.

Bullock said when he was young, he and his friends used to play baseball in the empty fields around Du Quoin because there “was nothing else to do in the summer.”

At that time, Bullock realized his talent for both hitting and throwing, and his interest in the game and ability to play at the college level just took him forth from there, Bullock said.

Bullock said he is looking forward to the change from the Ohio Valley to the Missouri Valley.

“It’s a better conference and maybe I can get better experience as a hitter in a better conference,” Bullock said.

Daily Egyptian writer Eugene Clark can be reached at 536-3311 ext.269 or [email protected]

Advertisement