The Windy City ThunderBolts’ newest signing is no stranger to the suburban Chicago baseball scene. Michael O’Leary will be joining the ballclub for the ThunderBolts 2010 season. O’Leary is a 23 year old, left-handed pitcher who graduated from Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Illinois.
After earning All-Conference, All-Area, and All-County honors at Carmel High, he pitched two seasons for the College of Lake County Lancers. Once again, O’Leary proved to be successful and picked up All-Conference and All-District awards. In his career at the suburban junior college; he pitched 128.2 innings with an earned run average of 3.93 and struck out 97 batters.
O’Leary’s next stop was Trinity International University located in Deerfield, IL. He pitched one season there before transferring to the University of Northern Iowa. The UNI Panthers are a Division I program in
the Missouri Valley Conference. In his final season as a college athlete, O’Leary appeared in 16 games and had a record of 2 wins and 4 losses. He sported a 5.11 ERA, while accumulating 25 strikeouts.
When O’Leary takes the field for the ThunderBolts in 2010 it will not be his first time as a Frontier League player. He had a brief stint with the Midwest Sliders last season, while only pitching in 2 games. O’Leary has
had many successful seasons in the Chicagoland area and hopefully next year will be no different. As the 2010 season approaches, he will be calling Crestwood home and trying to help the ThunderBolts win a third
Frontier League Championship.