Marshall University Athletics
Former Herd Star Ballou a `Hit' at Power Park
4/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 30, 2014
By MARK MARTIN
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Green-White spring game weekend was filled with plenty of past Marshall sports stars returning to the Huntington campus.
It all started last Friday when Dan D'Antoni, a basketball great in the late '60s, was introduced as the new head coach for the Thundering Herd program following a decorated high school coaching career and a nine-year stint as an assistant in the NBA.
Later that evening, Chad Pennington, one of Marshall's great quarterbacks, presented his former NFL coach (of the New York Jets) Herm Edwards as the keynote speaker for the Big Green Foundation Scholarship Dinner.
The following day, Pennington and another stellar Herd signal caller from back in the day - Byron Leftwich - coached the two teams for Doc Holliday's fifth Green-White scrimmage, which ended spring drills. Also on hand were the likes of ex-Herd football standouts Randy Moss, Doug Chapman, Vinny Curry, Chris Crocker and Chris Massey, just to name a few.
While all of that was going in Huntington, less than hour east away in Charleston, another Marshall one-time sports standout was quietly going about his business on the baseball diamond.
Isaac Ballou, who enjoyed a superb four-year stint in the Herd baseball program, was playing left field for the Hagerstown Suns in a four-game Class A South Atlantic League series against the capital city-based West Virginia Power.
Ballou had his own celebration Saturday night. He homered in an 8-2 victory for the Suns, who are off to a 17-5 Northern Division-leading start. The leftfielder hits leadoff, and is batting .292 with 2 homers, 5 doubles, 3 triples, 12 RBI, 17 runs and 4 stolen bases. He hit a grand slam back on Opening Day.
He went 6-for-18 with the homer, two doubles, two RBI and four runs scored in the four-game set. The weekend series was indeed a homecoming of sorts for Ballou, who played a boatload of Conference USA games for the Herd at Appalachian Power Park.
"There are a lot of memories here," said the personable Ballou, while smiling.
Ballou flashes his pearly whites a lot these days. After all, he's living out a dream.
"It's a blessing," he said of playing pro baseball. "It's an honor to be able to play. I have a lot of friends who didn't get the opportunity. I'm trying to make it the best I can and run with it."
Running -- a la speed -- is one of the strengths Ballou brings to the table.
This is his first full season of professional baseball. Last year, after being the Washington Nationals' 15th-round pick in the MLB Draft, he played in the short-season New York-Penn League for the Auburn (N.Y.) Doubledays.
"Everything is going well," Ballou said. "I'm hitting the ball pretty well. I'm playing good defense and helping my team win."
Ballou said it was neat returning to the venue where he played league home games during his college career.
"I played here (Power Park) for four years for Marshall University. We had a lot of good games here; a lot of battles were fought."
He chose Marshall over some bigger Division I baseball programs.
"Coach (Jeff) Waggoner, Coach (Tim) Donnelly and even (former assistant coach Tim) Adkins did a great job of recruiting me. The opportunity to play every single day as a freshman was huge for me," Ballou said.
When asked about some moments to stand out from those Herd playing days, that big Ballou smile emerged once more.
"My freshman year my first hit was a home run, as a matter of fact, against Samford. I set the record for walks my junior year. I had a walk-off (homer) against Tulane my senior year and another versus UCF my senior year."
He was well aware as to the big weekend that was unfolding down the road at his alma mater from the naming of D'Antoni as the men's basketball coach, to the Herd/NFL alumni visitors to the Green-White game.
"My girlfriend (Samantha Spurlock) works for the Big Green, so she gives me updates on how things have been going," Ballou said. "I'm very proud of what Marshall has been able to accomplish so far and I think athletics are on the rise."
Ballou grew up in Germantown, Md., until he was a freshman in high school. His family then moved to the Virginia Beach area (Smithfield) and he played high school football, basketball and baseball at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.
A wide receiver in high school, he toyed with the idea of playing some football as well for Marshall before giving up the notion and going strictly with baseball. That decision seems to have worked out well for Ballou as a member of the Nationals' organization.
"The Nationals have a different mindset," Ballou said. "They are about being very aggressive and are not so much caught up in your stats."
With Ballou in Hagerstown, the nation's capital is just a short jaunt down the road. Ballou got a little taste of what it could be like to one day be with the Nationals while in spring training.
"I had the opportunity to play in seven big league games," he said.
Ballou spent a lot of time talking to Bryce Harper and Denard Span who play for the Nationals.
While at Marshall, Ballou majored in business management with a minor in marketing. He's very intelligent and an eloquent speaker. He tries to use more than just his physical gifts to keep climbing the baseball ladder.
"I'm a big thinker," he said. "I'm not playing around in the dugout. I'm studying the pitchers and trying to figure out what he wants to do. I try to help my team."
As a member of the Suns, plenty of family has gotten to see him play when the club is at home. Germantown is only 40 minutes from Hagerstown and Virginia Beach is around three hours away.
The Nationals drafted him following his senior year at Marshall. It wasn't, though, the first time a MLB franchise sought his talent. In fact, right after his sophomore season the Pittsburgh Pirates came calling.
Yes, Ballou might possibly have donned the black and gold of the Power had he come out of MU early.
"I could have been playing right here," he said laughing.
In Isaac Ballou's case, he feels blessed to be playing ââ'¬Â¦ regardless of the location.
Mark Martin, the longtime sports director at WCHS Television and the football game analyst on the Thundering Herd/IMG Sports Network, is also a Herd Insider columnist. This story also appears in this week's edition.
