Drury: a Texas-Sized Catcher

Scott Drury, on a recruiting trip to Texas Tech over the weekend, found things there much to his liking.

Drury, a power-hitting catcher and first baseman for College of the Canyons, was impressed with Texas Tech’s new indoor baseball facilities. He liked the coaches and met a lot of the Red Raiders.

Drury won’t get another trip to Texas Tech unless he decides to sign a letter of intent--which, he says, isn’t too far off--so he carefully scrutinized all aspects of that Southwest Conference program.

His conclusion: “The bat girls are awesome. One of them picked me up at the airport.”

Texas Tech believes that Drury is just as impressive. He is batting .416 with nine home runs and 30 runs batted in.

He has four doubles, two triples and arms the size of some men’s legs. Drury, a sophomore, is 6-5, 210.

He splits time between catcher and first because Canyons Coach Mike Gillespie wants to keep Drury and Pete Kuld (.370) in the starting lineup.

Drury, 20, is fielding other offers, most notably from Houston and Southern Illinois, but the best so far has been from Texas Tech.

Which brings up the question of why Drury, who attended Montclair Prep and Reseda high schools, is choosing from out-of-state schools in the first place.

“The California schools have missed the boat on Drury,” Gillespie said. “A lot of those schools do their recruiting in the fall. He played with an injured elbow in the fall and those people didn’t get to see him catch. He really didn’t swing the bat for them either.”

He is, however, swinging the bat well for Canyons, which has a 1 1/2-game lead over Valley. The teams play today at 2 p.m.

“The out-of-state schools are certainly doing a great job of sweeping through California and getting some of our best players,” Gillespie said.

Although Drury’s talent has been showcased locally, major California universities with prominent baseball programs have hardly crawled over each other to get to him.

“It doesn’t bother me that much,” he said. “The thing is, when you stay in California--and I will have played three years in high school and two years of JC ball here--that you get seen by the same pro scouts. You can have a good year here and then go to one of those schools and fall flat on your face.”

In the Longhorn State, your face hurts no less if you fall on it. But if Texas is the only state offering, sometimes you have to take it.

Said Drury: “I like what I’m doing right now. I like where I’m going. I just hope I don’t fall off the deep end into a slump.”

Unless, perhaps, there’s a bat girl to pick him up.