FORT MYERS, Fla. — Its been just about a month since FSW pitcher Tyler Kennedy’s dreams came true when he was selected in this year’s MLB draft. Now it’s all coming full circle as he came back to Fort Myers for his professional debut.
“When I came here to JUCO I made it my home,” said Kennedy. “I wanted to be comfortable here and so it feels awesome to kind of be back in Fort Myers playing again.”
“He shot me a text last night and let me know he was going to be in Fort Myers today so that’s really cool to see one of our kids that was just down the road, a couple minutes to our campus a few months ago and now he’s here playing professional baseball,” said FSW head coach Zac Cole.
Actually, make that a few full circles for the righty who has quite a unique journey getting to the pros.
“I just think the whole situation is funny going from Pitt freshman year and getting drafted by Pittsburgh,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy pitched for the University of Pittsburgh for some season before transferring to Florida Southwestern, where he led the Buccaneers in strikeouts, logging 59. Just about a year later, The Steel City reeled him back.
“It’s still unfathomable,” said Kennedy. “I call my mom everyday and I’m like it hasn’t really even hit me yet. I wake up and going to practice and I see ‘Pittsburgh Pirates’ everywhere I’m like, I just can’t believe it’s real.”
Someone might as well pinch him to let him know it’s not just a dream, it’s reality. Besides, the box scores don’t lie!
“Excited to see him come out with a bang and strike a couple of guys out,” said Cole. “But I also know he faced a couple of their top prospects, so it’s good for him, he got a nice debut.”
Kennedy added two strikeouts to his stay like as the FCL Pirates took on the FCL Twins. The bandaid has now been ripped off, so he can officially bet back to working his way up the Pirates organization.
“All that hard work and all that time at FSW and everything that’s gone into this moment, it becomes real at that point” said Cole.
“It just feels really good to get out there and kind of get started with my career,” said Kennedy.