NORTH ATTLEBORO -- She was a girl playing a boys' game.
But Abby Gallagher just knew that she was able to throw the baseball just as hard off the pitching mound, along the infield, or from the outfield as any boy. That she could belt the baseball just as hard as well.
“I started playing T-ball with all the boys and then played Little League baseball, and I was striking out people pitching, and then I kind of switched to softball,” the North Attleboro High senior recalled of her days on the diamond, be it a baseball field or softball field.
And that’s not to forget that she had to prove herself a worthy and able-bodied athlete too just in her own house with two older brothers who just so happened to play baseball at North Attleboro High and in college -- Justin (Wheaton College) and Tim (Westfield State).
Needless to say, those hours of competition in the backyard and driveway, at any sandlot field in town and at North Attleboro High, definitely shaped the scholar-athlete that Gallagher is, her Rocketeer career concluded with commencement.
Heading to Worcester Polytech as a bio-medical engineering major and to also represent the Engineers on the softball field, Gallagher ranks among the top 15 seniors academically in her class, a National Honor Society student who unquestionably has the résumé to be deemed the Rocketers’ female Hockomock League Student-Athlete of the Year -- a two-time All-Hockomock League softball selection.
Gallagher had been a shortstop throughout her youth softball career, but when the opportunity arose to be with the North Attleboro High varsity team as a freshman due to a vacancy in the outfield, she had no qualms about uprooting her spot on the field.
“Meg Barlow was playing shortstop, and he (coach Bill Wallace) threw me in the outfield and said to myself, whatever I can do to get out on the field,” the Big Red rightfielder for the past three seasons recounted of her Rocketeer career.
Last season, as a junior, Gallagher hit at a .381 rate with a .585 on-base percentage (24 hits, 17 walks, 26 runs scored) for the 17-win Rocketeers, who advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Division 1 South Tournament.
“I remember the first game that she came back after having a back injury at the start of the season, and in her first at-bat against Attleboro, she struck out,” Wallace recalled. “You could tell she was annoyed, and in her next at-bat she jacked one over the fence -- the only time she’s hit a home run.”
All told over three seasons with the Big Red, Gallagher and the Rocketeers have won 50 games, venturing to the semifinal round of the Division 1 South Tournament (losing to Silver Lake Regional) during her freshman campaign. Gallagher batted .441 for the 16-win Rocketeers during her 2018 sophomore season.
She is a three-sport standout too, running the 600, 1,000 and as a member of the 4x800 relay team during the winter track team, while being an outside hitter for the Big Red volleyball team.
“Of all the kids that I’ve had, she made the most growth from freshman to sophomore year,” Wallace said. “She came on as freshman and started right away, playing a position (right field) that was unfamiliar to her.
“I needed outfielders, and she hardly strikes out, she has a great eye.
“She’s a serious kid, I saw that in her as a sophomore -- she took on a much bigger leadership role.
“The one thing about Abby is that she has a good knack of leading without stepping on toes; she’s able to lead and retain friendships,” Wallace added. “
Gallagher and her senior classmates have come to terms with having a second semester of academics and athletics, of proms and graduations, all erased by the pandemic.
“I loved the environment of WPI, the community was very welcoming,” Gallagher said of her options to further her academic and athletic interests. “There’s a lot of hands-on, interactive learning, it’s a vigorous bio-med engineering program.” In addition, the 33-win Engineers were the 2019 NEWMAC softball champions.
Gallagher was always one of the smallest kids physically on her teams, but over the past half-dozen years she has grown incrementally each softball season. “I worked hard to get from one level to the next, to stay after practice and that helped.
“And playing against my brothers all the time just increased that, we were competing all the time -- we’d do anything and everything to get it going. It helped toughen me up too, I had to prove myself all the time -- we’d always compare who had the better batting average. I had someone and something to relate to.”
Gallagher has played “club” softball since the age of 10, being involved with the Attleboro-based Hockomock Rox program over the past four years with Mansfield Hornets, Attleboro Bombardiers, Norton Lancers and Dighton-Rehoboth Falcons.
Gallagher and the Rox have toured the stage of summer tournaments throughout New England, upstate New York and the mid-Atlantic states.
Gallagher will have friends at WPI too, as former King Philip Warrior Hailey McCasland is a sophomore utility player in the softball program, and North Attleboro’s Skylar O’Connell, via Mt. St Charles Academy, is a catcher.
Gallagher wound up joining the Big Red volleyball program as a sophomore at the urging of colleagues. And she ran a leg for North’s 4x800 relay team that finished eighth at the MIAA Division 3 Championship Indoor Meet.
“Running track too has helped me because everyone pushes each other," she said.
“I transitioned into becoming an outfielder in softball and I fell in love with it,” Gallagher explained of her defensive contributions,. “Playing club softball too, it was a great experience for me to grow as an athlete. I love running for balls, diving for balls -- a lot of things happen in the outfield. You have a lot of responsibility.”
With North having a fireball of a pitcher in Bella Erti inside the circle, opposing batters are often late in swinging. When they do make contact, the ball generally ends up traveling to the right side of the field.
“I understand that position,” Gallagher said of her role in right field. “You have to keep your eye on the ball. It was difficult to learn at first because balls would tail off, so you would have to gauge where the ball was going to be. And you want to get the ball in quickly.”
And that’s not to forget her ability to get on base and move runners along batting in the No. 2 position of the order, spraying the ball or slapping it where defenders are not stationed -- “Whatever the situation calls for,” she said.
Gallagher distinctly remembers her freshman season, playing Taunton in the second round of the 2017 Division 1 South Tournament. “We were kind of underdogs that year too,” she recalled. “I can slap or hit in the gap, and I remember that game because the centerfielder came way in and I hit the ball by her!”
It's also hard to fathom for Gallagher that her Big Red softball career ended prematurely, that the Big Red never had the opportunity to defend their Davenport Division title in the Hockomock League.
“We expect to win, we try our best to win,” Gallagher said of the Big Red expectations throughout the years. “Winning the state title this year was definitely one of our goals. As a kid, I learned to never take anything for granted. We’d rather be out there playing Bishop Feehan or Attleboro or playing in the tournament.
“Softball has been in my life; it’s helped with my back injuries, that I would do everything and anything that I could to get back out on that field.
“It’s difficult being a student-athlete, but it’s rewarding. To come home from a three-hour practice and be able to handle things that’s taught how to prepare for anything.” Even a pandemic.
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