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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Walla Commits to OSU

By Will Webber
Journal Staff Writer
       With inquiries starting to pour in from some of the country's top college baseball programs, Max Walla decided to go with his gut instinct and pick the school that appealed to him early in the process.
    On Friday, the incoming Albuquerque Academy senior offered a verbal commitment to play ball at Oklahoma State University. He cannot sign an official letter of intent until November.
    OSU was one of several schools — UNM, Arizona, Texas Tech, Stanford and Baylor, to name a few — who had shown interest. He took unofficial visits to Tucson and Waco, Texas, earlier this summer and spent a few days on OSU's campus in June.
    "To be honest, I fell in love with the town and the coaches when I was out there for their regional," Walla said.
    He added that his desire to try something new led him away from his hometown team.
    "The hardest decision I made was saying no to UNM," he said. "It's a great place and the coaches are great but, really, I just wanted to get out of New Mexico."
    Walla led the Chargers to the Class 4A state finals in May. He hit .500 with 56 runs batted in and belted a school-record 16 home runs. He played several positions, including pitcher. He led the staff in wins and struck out 80 batters in just 59⅔ innings.
    "They recruited me to play the outfield and to hit, but if they want me to pitch I'll do that, too," Walla said.
    The Cowboys climbed as high as fifth in the national polls last season, finishing second in the Big 12 before losing to Wichita State in the Stillwater Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
    Walla is the first Academy player in at least a decade to land a Division I scholarship directly out of school. Chargers assistant coach Chris Alexander and head coach Josue Ayala both walked on at UNM in 1999, as did Sean Murray three years later.
    "When you're attracting the kind of schools Max was attracting in the last couple weeks, you know you've got something special going," said Ayala. "He's one of those players who comes along once every 10 years."