By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
At the conclusion of the 2019 baseball season, Fighting Illini pitcher Garrett Acton finds himself in rarefied air. He was the District Player of the Year, the Illinois and Big Ten record-holder for saves in a season, and perhaps the only eligible member of the 18-man Perfect Game/Rawlings First Team All-America squad to voluntarily choose to return to school instead of sign with an MLB team.
Wait a minute … that last part … he did what?
"Teams weren't looking at me at a spot where I could give up the value of a degree," Acton explained. "Ultimately, it came down to jumping into pro ball feet first now or going back to school and getting my degree. To me, you go into professional baseball because you love it; it's not about the money. I needed a really good opportunity to give up attending and playing at a place that I absolutely love. I'm really happy that I get to go back and be able to start the journey again with a new group of guys next year."
Now, if you're thinking that the junior right-hander may not be that good of a big league prospect, scouts from the Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals would all disagree with you. Each club contacted Acton on day three of last week's MLB Draft to gauge his interest.
Illini pitching coach Drew Dickinson agrees with those teams' assessments; Acton has a pro arm. He's just a uniquely special individual who's not afraid to take a different route.
"Garrett is very mature and he knows the path of his life in what he's trying to do," Dickinson said. "He's a 3.98 student in our business school and you know how important a business degree is here at Illinois. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Garrett coming back for another year of school and finishing his degree. I played eight years of professional ball myself and I had to go back to get my degree. I know first-hand how hard that was to do."
Acton is on schedule to graduate from Illinois with a bachelor's degree in finance in the spring of 2020.
"The Gies College of Business is unbelievable," Acton said. "A big testament to that are our professors and the kind of student body that we can bring in. We're up there with the world's best in what we do, so there are a lot of expectations that come with that. The students hold each other to a high standard and our professors hold us to that same level. To say that you are a graduate of the Gies College of Business means that you're part of a very exclusive group. When you've completed this degree, you're expected to have a special level of knowledge in the professional world."
Acton, who compiled a 2.18 ERA in 2019, allowed opponent hitters a paltry .127 average, and struck out 34 batters in 33 innings of action, balanced the pros and cons before making up his mind what to do.
"This was a decision with real implications on my future and career," he said. "For a lot of college athletes, the plan is set. We go to school for four years, we play, we compete, we hopefully come out of it with a degree, and then we go off into our working careers or get a professional opportunity. For me, that opportunity to get drafted was right there in front of my face. But at the end of the day, I take so much pride in being a student-athlete at Illinois that it was a relatively easy decision to make. This was all about timing."
Acton took a roundabout journey before landing at the University of Illinois. Following an all-star career with a state championship team at Lemont High School, Acton spent one season at St. Louis University (2017) and one more at Parkland College (2018). It was at Parkland where Dickinson discovered Acton.
"When I recruited him, I thought his stuff played up well in a one-inning role, facing three-to-five hitters," Dickinson said. "Did I think that Joey Gerber's replacement would break the Big Ten saves record and lead the country in saves? I don't think anyone could have seen that. As a college coach, to have someone as consistent as Garrett is a big time factor for your club."
Acton says the most important lesson he learned this past season was how to compete when things were going wrong.
"At the college level, you're not going to play a team that doesn't belong on the field," he said. "Every player in the Big Ten is bigger and faster and stronger than those I played in high school. When things are going wrong, it's really easy to fold and collapse. It's easy to get down on yourself and say 'maybe today's not my day.' In my role as a closer, I can't do that. As soon as you have that mindset, you're going to lose. You can't compete like that. Being able to push everything else aside, being able to separate what's going wrong in a game from the next pitch or the next hitter is really the key to success for any pitcher. If you walk a guy, you have to move past that and go attack the next hitter. You have to be focused on the present, flip that switch, erase what just happened, and be able to move forward."
Acton had to endure major tragedy at age 17 when his father, Jim, passed away from a heart attack in October of 2015.
"I was really, really close to my dad," he said. "He was a college athlete himself and was the driving force behind my athletic career. He really ingrained this motivation, this understanding of what it takes to succeed and to do the little things right. He instilled the work ethic in me that's largely responsible for my success as an athlete. Without that base, I can't say for sure that I'd be where I am now. He played a large role in molding me into the athlete that I've become."
On the flip side, Acton says, it was his mother, Janette, who was persistent in keeping him focused in the classroom.
"Both of them in tandem are the reason that I've developed into the person that I am," he said. "After my dad passed, Mom really worked her tail off to provide me with every opportunity she could."
Considering the way 2019 ended for the Illini baseball team, Acton is anxious to begin his final year at the University of Illinois.
"To see our season end that way was very frustrating," he said. "We all expected a little bit more out of ourselves. We're losing a lot of talented guys, but we've got a lot of great pieces coming back and recruits that the coaching staff holds in really high regard. Next year, as an upperclassman, I'll do my best to bring them up to speed regarding the differences they're going to have to adjust to."
Dickinson says he and head coach Dan Hartleb are blessed to have a senior like Garrett Acton returning to their roster.
"Garrett is a consummate teammate and is very caring of his teammates," said Dickinson. "He'd do anything for any one of those guys. That's a personality trait of someone who is genuine. His teammates love that about him and, in reward, he gets the same back from his teammates."
