(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Another McHenry County baseball player lived out a childhood dream Monday evening: Right-Handed pitcher Quinn Priester made his first major league start for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they host the Cleveland Guardians.
Priester pitched into the sixth inning, registering two strikeouts. He did not allow a hit until the fourth, but ultimately suffered the loss, giving up seven runs. The Pirates fell 11-0.
Priester, a 2019 graduate from Cary-Grove High School, won a state title with the football team and earned Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball before the Pirates took him 18th overall in the 2019 draft. Since then, he's climbed the ladder, impressed the organization and was recently called up from the minor leagues.
“He was hands-down the best athlete we had in the building, but you would never know it,” said Cary-Grove’s head baseball coach Ryan Passaglia. “He’s got this positive aura about him, but it’s never a cockiness.”
As talented as Priester was on the field, Passaglia — who also coached him on the football team — told WBBM that he was even more impressed by the person Priester was off the field and at school.
“He’d be the kind of kid in high school, you’d walk up to him and talk to him, and the first thing he would do is ask you about yourself; how you were doing,” he said. “You just don’t get that from high school kids. He’s kind of a unicorn, and just a kid that we are so tremendously proud of in the Cary-Grove community.”
With his start on Monday, Priester became McHenry County’s second baseball player to make his MLB debut this season. McHenry West High School graduate Bobby Miller made his debut for the Dodgers in May.
The news that Priester would be starting on Monday night reached those in the community on Saturday. Cary-Grove Athletic Director Ryan Ludwig, who was unable to make the trip, told WBBM that Priester is an “outstanding” man and role model for the school’s athletic program.
“It’s enormous,” Ludwig said. “At our school, a way we’ve had a lot of our success is [with] multi-sport athletes. Him being the model for that … this guy was a first-round draft pick and still stayed committed to playing two sports. It’s unbelievable.”
Despite only having a couple of days to plan the trip, Passaglia said he was among several others from the Cary-Grove community who were able to get to Pittsburgh’s PNC Park in support of Priester.
The high school coach said Monday was a “super special day” and added that many in the northwest suburban community are pulling for Priester.
“I’m just super excited for him,” he said. “This is a culmination of the dreams that [Priester] has had since he was a little kid.”
Before getting into the stadium, Passaglia shared one more story about Priester during his high school days:
“We were playing McHenry … and after leaving the locker room after the game, there was a bunch of tape scraps and mud all over the locker room. Everybody was gone, and he was in there cleaning everything up and throwing it out. The reason we know that is because the athletic director from McHenry sent out a tweet afterward commending Quinn for that act.”
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