Hello! My name is Gabby Baylog
Hello! My name is Gabby Baylog, and I am from Waxhaw, North Carolina. I am a rising fourth-year softball player at the University of Virginia, and my days on the diamond started from a very young age. The WCWAA recreational fields were a frequent destination in my childhood, pictured below is my properly tucked in jersey and well-fitting pants. From t-ball to the memories throughout travel ball to living my dream of playing college softball, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to represent such a great University and community.
UVA has given me everything I could have imagined in a college experience; however, my recruitment process didn’t look like most. I started my college career at Coastal Carolina University after verbally committing at the ripe age of 14. After the fall of my sophomore year, a pandemic, and a shoulder surgery, I decided to enter the transfer portal in search of a better fit for me. Interestingly enough, my surgery was on March 10th of 2020, a couple of days before the country shut down for the pandemic. This was a very strange opportunity to not miss any of the games in that spring season. However, having been less than a year out of a labrum repair surgery and still deep in rehab, it was a scary decision to transfer at a time with limited playing capabilities. Thankfully, I ended up at a place with one of the best athletic trainers in the game- shoutout Kelly Martin. With her help, I am back pain-free and pretty much at 100% strength.
As for my decision, after a stressful couple of weeks of phone calls and a second go-around of college tours, UVA was home for me. It was a school that was never really on my radar during my recruitment in high school, but with a different coaching staff and essentially a rebuilt program, it was now everything I was looking for. I was welcomed with open arms and jumped right into the spring season of 2021. This was also the first full spring season played at the newly built Palmer Park, and there are not many facilities like ours.
On the academic side of things, UVA provides an education that is both rigorous and challenging, something that was very important in my search for a new home. I knew that I would leave with a degree that prepared me for the rest of my life, a true ‘40-year decision’. I am majoring in Economics in the College of Arts and Science. In addition to that, COVID so kindly brought about an extra year of eligibility for student-athletes whose seasons were affected, so I also plan to study in the M.S. in Commerce Program and play my fifth year of softball.
These were just a few of the reasons that landed me here at the University of Virginia, and it has been an incredible decision. Eager for more time to settle into Charlottesville, I was fortunate enough to stay in town last summer and worked as an intern with the Charlottesville Tom Sox Organization. It was awesome to see the community support for the local team, and I was surrounded by and met some great people.
The life lessons that you learn as a student-athlete at the University of Virginia are innumerable, and I have been surrounded by the best teammates, coaches, professors, family, and friends to guide me through them all. Cannot forget to mention the lifelong friends I have made here as well; I will leave this University with so much more than a degree. I took a leap of faith moving to a completely new state in the middle of the year, and how lucky am I to have found everything I could have asked for and more in Charlottesville, Virginia?
Wahoowa!
Gabby