Cawhorn Takes Big Step Toward Fulfilling His Dream : Baseball: Standout at Golden West and San Jose State is drafted by Indians.

Gerad Cawhorn has a closet full of awards to prove he has special talent as a baseball player.

Included are the most valuable player awards he won on the community college and Division I levels.

Cawhorn also has been an all-star in the Cape Cod League, regarded as the finest summer proving ground for college players.

Cawhorn, a third baseman, also has been an all-State selection at Golden West and an all-American pick at San Jose State this spring.

But not until last week did he achieve the one thing he has wanted most: To be taken in the professional draft.

Scouts had told Cawhorn that, because he was a senior and had no real bargaining position, he wouldn’t go very high in the draft.

But after not being chosen during the first two days of the draft, Cawhorn said he was getting a little nervous.

The tension broke at 12:50 p.m. June 5, when the phone finally rang.

The caller had the news Cawhorn had been waiting for since he was old enough to understand how professional baseball worked.

He had been drafted. The Cleveland Indians selected him in the 33rd round.

Cawhorn took a little more than 24 hours to strike a deal and was was on a plane headed for Florida at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

After saying goodby to his parents and girlfriend, Cawhorn started down the jetway.

“As I was walking toward the plane,” he said in a phone interview, “I just told myself that I’m running down a dream . . . I’m happy. This is what I always wanted.”

He is spending the next few days at Cleveland’s mini-camp in Winter Haven, Fla., and is expected to be assigned to Watertown of the Class-A New York-Penn League.

“I can’t wait to get started,” Cawhorn said. “I have so much more to learn. You can never stop learning the game. I figure I pretty much have to now learn the professional way to play ball.”

Cawhorn is coming off the best season of his life at San Jose State, where he hit .405 (81 for 200). He is the first player in 32 seasons to hit better than .400 for the Spartan program.

He also had 10 home runs and drove in 57 runs. He also led the team in being hit by a pitch with 16, and scored 54 runs. He never went more than two games without a hit and had hitting streaks of eight and 14 games.

“He had a very rewarding season,” San Jose State Coach Sam Piraro said. “I first saw him in the fall of ’91 and he looked like he had the type of swing that would stay out of a slump . . . It’s Gerad who deserves the credit. He spent all the extra times it takes to have the kind of season he did. He has no fear at the plate and wasn’t intimidated no matter who was pitching.”

Cawhorn, 21, was the most valuable player of the Big West Conference and was third-team all-American for Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America.

He also showed great improvement in his play at third base, where he made only two errors in the final 40 games.

Cawhorn’s season was especially rewarding because of his frustrating junior year.

He was off to a strong start, but missed about a month in the middle of the season after being hit in the mouth by a fungo bat that broke during practice.

He lost a tooth and had to have his jaw wired. He lost about 15 pounds and was weak when he returned to the lineup. He ended up hitting .311, with four home runs and 37 runs batted in, but was just getting back into shape as the season ended.

“I had to battle back after the injury,” Cawhorn said. “It just made me realize that my senior year I had to prove that I could play Division I baseball.”

Cawhorn spent the summer in New England playing for the Harwich Mariners in the Cape Cod League. Cawhorn found the league rewarding for several reasons, besides hitting .271 with four home runs and 26 RBIs and making the league all-star team.

It also allowed him to compete against many of the top players in the nation. Because only wooden bats are allowed, he thinks it better prepared him for the adjustment from aluminum bats to wood he must make to play professionally.

But he also enjoyed mornings, which were spent working at baseball camps for youngsters. Cawhorn got the chance to teach the intricacies of the game that has become his profession.

“The families of the kids come to the games,” Cawhorn said. “So you have to play hard, the way the game is supposed to be played.”

Cawhorn was recruited by the Harwich club after having two standout seasons at Golden West. He had struggled during his senior season at Huntington Beach High School.

He hit .375 with a home run and 37 RBIs as a freshman, earning MVP honors in the Orange Empire Conference, for Golden West.

As a sophomore, he played third and shortstop and his average fell to .314. But he had six home runs and 27 RBIs.

“It’s not really a surprise to see how well he’s done,” Golden West Coach Burt Villarreal said. “He has such good work habits. It’s fun to see him finally get the respect he deserves.”