Texas' Garret Guillemette emerges as fan favorite as he falls in love with baseball again
Garret Guillemette is just as animated in the confines of his apartment as he is catching at Texas.
Because the baseball team spends much of its days together at games and practices or playing impassioned games of Mafia on the bus, Guillemette, starting pitcher Charlie Hurley and third baseman Tanner Carlson try to give each other space when spending time at their shared apartment by hanging out and studying in their respective bedrooms.
That being said, Hurley always knows when Guillemette is unwinding with NBA 2K or MLB The Show.
“I'll know he's on the sticks when I hear a scream from the other room,” Hurley laughed.
On the field, Guillemette has become known to fans as an energetic catcher who bat-flips for the camera, enthusiastically hypes up his pitchers (particularly Hurley and Lucas Gordon, who also hail from Southern California) and, of course, crushes baseballs. This season, he has emerged as one of Texas’ most consistent hitters, racking up 10 home runs, including a walk-off bomb against Texas Tech to secure the series sweep and a grand slam against Incarnate Word.
“Defensively, he's exactly what you need in a catcher,” Hurley said. “He's going to work for you to get pitches with his frame job. He's going to throw guys out. He's a beast at blocking. Offensively, he's swinging the best bat I've ever seen him swing the last three years. It's a lot of fun to watch.”
Guillemette started 92 games for USC in his first two seasons, earning PAC-12 all-conference honors as a freshman when he hit .299 with three home runs and 10 doubles, and then as a sophomore hit .286 with five homers and 10 doubles again. At Texas, he replaced former All-Big 12 catcher Silas Ardoin, who's now in the Baltimore Orioles' minor-league system.
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The Longhorns (35-18, 12-9 Big 12) host West Virginia (39-13, 15-6) in their final series of the regular season this week at UFCU-Disch Falk Field. Texas trails the conference-leading Mountaineers by three games. Second-place Oklahoma State (35-15, 13-8) closes its regular season with three games at Oklahoma.
Finding a natural landing spot at Texas
Guillemette made his way from USC, just 30 minutes away from his high school, to Texas along with Hurley, his former Trojans teammate, while playing in the Cape Cod League. He was already considering leaving when a few of his coaches assured him that he deserved to be on a dominant baseball team.
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When he put his name in the portal and Texas assistant coach Phillip Miller called him, Guillemette couldn’t refuse the chance to play for the Longhorns. Texas head coach David Pierce called Guillemette’s mom, Melissa, to eliminate any fears about sending her son across the country, and soon enough, Hurley was securing them housing and Guillemette was in Austin hitting batting practice with former UT hitting coach Troy Tulowitzki.
“When I hit the transfer portal, I had a couple schools in mind and Texas was the top of the list,” Guillemette said. “I was waiting for that phone call. (I) wanted to come and play (with) some crazy fans and play some good baseball and top competition.”
Discovering a new position: catcher
Since coming to Texas, Guillemette has not only had to adjust to the average of 6,500 fans who trek over to Disch-Falk for games or flashing a “Hook ❜Em” to left field whenever he goes yard, but he's also adjusted to changing his swing and his catching style. At the beginning of the fall, Pierce and former Longhorns catcher Cameron Rupp changed up Guillemette's entire philosophy behind the plate.
“I never had a catching coach, (but) I come here and I feel the most competent I've ever felt behind the plate,” Guillemette said.
While Melissa Guillemette says her son has always loved baseball — he would sleep cuddling up with a baseball bat, and had no interest in playing with trucks or Legos, she said — he wasn’t groomed to be a catcher but rather a bulldog. Despite heading into high school as a third baseman, Sunday closer and occasional catcher, his coaches believed he had the athleticism and aptitude to be a full-time catcher.
While Guillemette could be the ideal MLB catcher’s mold, standing at 6-foot-1, his mother said her son is a natural-born leader with an intimate knowledge of the game. Pierce said Guillemette brings a contagious energy to the clubhouse every time he steps up to bat. He fights for every pitch and loves being seen by everyone on the field and in the stands.
“He loves being in the ballpark and I think he loves being in Texas,” Pierce said.
While his family looks at him like he has three heads whenever he uses “y’all” in every other sentence when he visits home, and his mother claims that he likes sticking to himself rather than partying downtown, Texas has grown on Guillemette, as has baseball.
“I think it's really made me fall in love with the game of baseball again,” he said. “The crop of guys are a bunch of hard workers and it’s contagious. I just want to be around here all the time and I'm just finding a lot of joy playing the game again.”
Texas vs. West Virginia
6:30 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, UFCU Disch-Falk Field, LHN, 104.9
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Garret Guillemette kindles energy for Texas baseball
