Defeat - Not an Option for Laurens HS Starting Left-Fielder, Mitchell Carrigan

April 23, 2015

Dan Cevette
Director, New York

Justin Stancevic
New York Staff

Two days into the Mingo Bay Classic (South Carolina) marks Laurens Central High School’s junior and starting left-fielder Mitchell Carrigan’s first recorded hit of the 2015 baseball season. It was followed shortly thereafter by a triple and scored run on a passed ball. Not impressed? Well, Carrigan is back on the diamond in full swing less than five-months after undergoing extensive brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

In mid October, 2014 Carrigan woke up in the hands of medical staff following a two-run episode of seizures at a friend’s house. CT-scans revealed a mass-on-the-brain, and the doctor’s recommended surgery, presenting the best and worst case scenarios to the Carrigan family. Carrigan’s only question, “Can I play baseball in the spring?”

A family, a team of doctors and medical staff, the entire community, a coach, and his baseball team and a baseball inscribed “Don’t look back something might be gaining on you” - below dated 3.2.15 were all part of Carrigan’s journey to recovery- reminders that when people work together, pulling lifes-rope in the same direction, anything is possible. For Carrigan the game of baseball would serve as his motivation.

Carrigan is definitely not a young man to let obstacles get him down. Even as a youngster he pushed himself and others to give it their all - to be the best that one can be, no matter what is thrown their way. Carrigan says, “It’s about striving to do better, learning and growing, setting goals and meeting and exceeding those goals”

On the field, “Carrigan is extremely coachable and takes constructive criticism very well and although as a freshman he struggled at the plate at the varsity level, his fielding was consistent and within time his swing has become much more mechanically sound”, says Josh Nelligan, Varsity baseball coach at Laurens Central High School.

Carrigan is the kind of young man and athlete every coach wants on their team. He is not just triumphing over adversity and living with courage and determination when a lot of people are waiting to start living - he is a team-player, well-liked by the young and the old, a hard-worker on and off the field. He's a young man with the spirit that gravitates others to want to achieve more. Baseball has a funny way of making an impact on players. Sometimes it's not about the numbers - the measurable stats - the tools. No, baseball is the teacher of many great life-lessons - some that have nothing to do with the game at all. For Carrigan, his second chance at life is not about him, or how great of a player he is - it is about inspiring others - that's a tool us "scouts" rarely see.