That a University of Connecticut player garnered a spot in the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star game this summer comes as no surprise. But the odds Gabe Van Emon would be that Husky dominating college baseball’s most prestigious summer league back when he graduated from Lexington High School in 2019 were low.
From little-used Division III reliever to Division I starting pitcher, Van Emon climbed the college baseball ladder, recently climaxing with a 1⅔ innings appearance sans an earned run in the 2024 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game on July 27 at Falmouth’s Guv Fuller Field. A member of the Chatham Anglers, Van Emon picked up a hold in the East’s 9-8 win.
“I definitely belong here and making an all-star team validates that, but the D3 kid in me who never thought I’d make it this far is kind of like a kid in a candy shop,” Van Emon said. “Honestly, the past year of my life has been crazy. I’m now around a caliber of baseball players and coaches… even talking to you isn’t something that would’ve happened before.”
The 23-year-old joined the Anglers in early July. Allowing just two earned runs across 9⅓ innings with 12 strikeouts earned the 6-foot-2, 211-pound lefty all-star status.
Eric Beattie, Chatham’s interim manager and pitching coach, appreciates Van Emon’s confidence on the mound. Van Emon’s fastball command helps him generate swing-and-miss, coupled with a changeup and slider.
“What sets him apart more than anything is his makeup,” Beattie said. “He can come into a really bad situation for the team and controls his heart rate really well and never tries to do too much. He stays within who he is and executes his pitches.”
Humble beginnings preceded Van Emon pitching for one of the region’s, and nation’s, top college baseball teams during the spring. He didn’t make the varsity baseball team until his senior year. He played football at Lexington, too, including a stint at wide receiver catching balls from current Milwaukee Brewers outfielder and then-LHS quarterback Sal Frelick. Van Emon committed to Division III Endicott College before throwing a varsity inning.
“Coming out of high school the decision was either to play college at Endicott because that was pretty much the only offer I was considering or just go to school to go school,” Van Emon said. “Obviously I chose baseball, which turned out to work pretty well.”
The COVID-19 pandemic ended Endicott’s 2020 season after just nine games, none of which the then-freshman appeared in. He didn’t use a year of eligibility.
Van Emon pitched in limited action as a sophomore, the year all NCAA athletes received an extra year of eligibility due to another pandemic-shortened season. He blossomed as a junior, joining the regular rotations and earning All Commonwealth Coast Conference Second Team and all-regional third team honors before a solid summer with the Nashua Silver Knights of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, a lower level of summer college baseball. Dedicated to a strength and conditioning program from the Texas Baseball Ranch, Van Emon increased the velocity on his fastball from the low to high 80s.
Spring 2023 belonged to Van Emon, who posted a 10-2 record and 1.88 ERA, striking out 108 batters over 86 1⁄3 innings, en route to picking up a bevy of accolades: ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division III National Pitcher of the Year, Commonwealth Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year, CSC Academic All-America Second Team and a handful of regional honors. Van Emon played a major role in the Gulls qualifying for their first-ever NCAA Division III College World Series appearance and program record 45 wins. He also got his first taste of the Cape Cod Baseball League, making a single appearance for the Harwich Mariners.
Tossing his name in the transfer portal resulted in a quick connection, and commitment, to UConn.
“Playing at Endicott was awesome and I loved it, but I knew after that year I could probably pitch Division I and take on that challenge,” Van Emon said. “It was cool to have an opportunity to play at UConn, which is such a great program.”
The numbers for Van Emon’s first year at UConn don’t do his overall performance justice. Though Van Emon posted a 5.88 ERA across 17 appearances (10 starts), he struck out more than a batter per inning and performed his best on the biggest stage. UConn made the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team and won the NCAA Norman Regional, twice beating host University of Oklahoma. Van Emon spun 7⅓ scoreless innings in the regional-clinching victory, his final collegiate appearance of the season.
Endicott coach Bryan Haley respected Van Emon’s dedication to Endicott for four years and encouraged his decision to transfer to UConn. Haley and Endicott watched Van Emon’s performance against Oklahoma on a plane back from their run to the Division III World Series.
“It was surreal, in a way, to watch him do what he did,” Bryan Haley, Van Emon’s coach at Endicott said. “The kid is one of the brightest young men I’ve worked with and also one of the hardest working.”
He joined Chatham a few weeks later, immediately finding success in a league that’s produced countless MLB standouts and saw 179 alumni selected in this year’s MLB Draft. Van Emon has one more year to play at UConn, hoping to parlay this strong summer to a successful spring and eventual professional opportunity.
“I’m coming back to UConn mainly to win games and help the team go as far as we can go, but getting looks would be a cool side effect of accomplishing that task,” Van Emon said.
With an undergraduate degree in business management from Endicott and on his way to an MBA from UConn, Van Emon hopes to someday start his own business. Internships in commercial real estate, at the YMCA and with a recruiting and staffing agency for a drug development company showed him what life after baseball might look like.