Everything is bigger in Texas – even baseball.

Last week, Wallkill baseball senior pitcher Kyle DeGroat announced that he was changing his commitment from Stony Brook University to the University of Texas, a soon-to-be member of the SEC.

“It pretty much happened out of nowhere,” DeGroat said. “Decommitting had never really crossed my mind.”

The hard-throwing right-hander recently attended the Metro Scout Day in New York City, where he caught the attention of the Texas coaches.

“It was a big event and a lot of scouts were there, both MLB and college,” DeGroat explained. “I ended up throwing really well. I worked mostly 90-91 and topped at 93. All my spin rates were up, and then Texas came through and talked to me and my coach.”

After a trip to visit the Longhorns campus, DeGroat made his decision to commit to Texas on October 1.

“It was everything, from the coaches and players, with how welcoming they were,” DeGroat said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s far away from home, but it felt like a second home from the moment I stepped foot on campus.”

“Their baseball facilities were unreal, unlike anything I’d ever seen before,” he added. “You could just tell, southern baseball is different down there.”

This past season, the Longhorns posted a 44-22 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional round before being eliminated by Stanford. Texas was one win away from advancing to the College Baseball World Series.

The Longhorns’ head coach is David Pierce, and notably, Troy Tulowitzki is the program’s Director of Player Development. Tulowitzki, a five-time all-star, played 13 seasons of Major League Baseball between the Colorado Rockies, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees.

Texas is currently in the process of switching conferences from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference.

“It became so real over the past two years,” DeGroat said of his opportunity to play baseball at the next level. “Even playing at Stony Brook would be such a high accomplishment. College baseball is a different level to begin with, then there’s the different divisions and different conferences.”

“When you put Texas up there, which is the Big 12 right now, but moving to the SEC; that’s the best conference for baseball,” he added. “It just feels like I’ve put in the work and everything’s falling into place.”

When he’s not visiting schools, participating in showcases or playing in travel tournaments, DeGroat can most likely be found at Gold’s Gym in Newburgh, where he occasionally gets to pick the brains of other local ballplayers James Karinchak and Caden and Casey Dana.

“Both Dana brothers and Karinchak, they go to Gold’s Gym in Newburgh, where I go,” DeGroat said. “I was talking to them for 20-30 minutes the other day.”

“I really like to see the different processes they’ve gone through. Everyone has a different journey. Karinchak is at the highest level, and the Danas are working their way up. So hearing their different stories and things they’ve learned is great and hearing their feedback is the biggest thing for me.”
Both Dana brothers were drafted last year by the Los Angeles Angels organization, while Karinchak spent most of the 2023 season between the Cleveland Guardians major league club and its triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers.

DeGroat knows that if the draft should become an option for him, he’s got to keep working.

“That’s really just going to come down to how I perform this upcoming school year, my senior year,” he said of the draft. “That’s going to be big, and just getting myself out there.”

“I’m just trying to get my name out there as much as possible, between showcases and things like that. I’ve just got to keep working, because really what it comes down to is what I do on the field.”