Miami Dade College baseball team has two players committed to Power Five schools
This was unlike anything Adrian Morales had ever seen.
It was December of 2019, and Morales – who is Miami Dade College’s baseball coach – was giving a tryout to Wooyeoul Shin, a 6-0, 220-pound outfielder/infielder from South Korea who came recommended but spoke no English at the time.
As Morales watched, Shin silently stretched for a full 40 minutes. He then ran a couple of laps. Next, he ran a 60-yard dash.
“I said, ‘What is this guy doing?’” Morales recalled. “’We play baseball – not track and field.’ I wanted to go home.”
Morales stuck around – and it’s a good thing.
Shin ended up making the team, and, this year, he is having a monster season, batting .390 with a team-high 14 homers, which also ranks seventh in the state and tied for 24th nationally.
According to Morales, Shin last week committed to the University of Miami for the 2024 season. In addition, according to an MLB scout who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Shin could get drafted this year, although, with only 20 rounds, that is not a sure thing.
“Excluding the Miami Hurricanes players, (Shin) is the best prospect among Dade and Broward colleges,” the scout said. “He can really hit. He doesn’t have a (set) defensive position, but I believe he will get drafted.”
Shin said he wants, at some point, to own a baseball team, which seems like a lofty goal depending on what club he is thinking of purchasing.
Then again, don’t put it past him. Shin now speaks fluent English, a skill he picked up in just over a year.
“It wasn’t hard,” Shin insists.
Shin is one of two current players on MDC’s roster who have already committed to Power-Five conference universities. The other is Max Levi Galvin, a lefty-swinging center fielder who has signed with Oklahoma State.
Morales said he has at least seven other players who could sign with Division I schools this year; second baseman Joseph Zamora; shortstop Alex Ulloa; third baseman Jose Hernandez; left fielder Richard Benitez; left-hander Herick Hernandez; right-hander Carlos Nolasco; and right-hander Julian Hernandez.
Galvin, who bats leadoff for the Sharks, is hitting .400, and he is a quality person, too, according to his coach.
“Max was raised well by his parents,” Morales said. “Everything is ‘yes sir, no sir.’ He does everything right, on and off the field.
“The only issue with him is that every night – especially in the fall of his freshman year -- I had to stay late to throw to him in the batting cages. He wanted to get better, and if there is a way we can help players at MDC, we love doing that.”
All that hard work has paid off for Galvin, a 6-2, 205-pounder. The Dallas native is also an excellent student who graduated from MDC in April with a degree in Business Finance.
Soon he will be off to OSU, which is ironic because he grew up a fan of the Cowboys’ hated rival, the Oklahoma Sooners.
In fact, his father, David, played baseball at Oklahoma, which is where he met his wife (Max’s mother), Ashley, who played soccer for the Sooners.
Those good genes for athletics paid off last year as Galvin made second-team All-Southern Conference. He was also on the conference’s All-Academic team.
Beyond that, he’s a renaissance man. He hunts and fishes. He snowboards and surfs, and he’s learning to play guitar.
“I was a good snowboarder,” Galvin said, “but I got ‘banned’ because my dad caught me doing a back flip and didn’t want me getting injured.”
After baseball, Galvin aims to become a Navy SEAL.
“I want to live a purpose-driven life,” Galvin said. “I have an internal calling to serve my country.”