CityView Magazine

40 October 2021 "at was for all of y'all,'' he said. "ank you so much.'' e official roster of the Los Angeles Angels lists Austin at 6 feet tall and weighing 170 pounds. But to the people who've known him since he was playing baseball at Honeycutt Recreation Center, running all the way from the third base line to chase a ball hit down the line to first, they'll always remember him as a pint-sized youngster. "He just didn't pass the look test,'' said Sam Guy, Austin's high school baseball coach at Terry Sanford. "at's a big deal for college coaches. ey'd look at his size, and he wasn't a big kid.'' But there were more important things the scouts couldn't see, like Austin's heart and drive to succeed. Also invisible was the incredible network of support Austin has always had from his family and friends. ey've supported him all the way from those days in rec league ball to his first time on the mound for the Angels in July. And now the Austin Warren fan club, which spans the distance from the East Coast to the West, is growing bigger all the time. Leading the way is Alana Hix, who received a phone call she'll never forget in the wee hours of the morning of July 27. It was Austin, who said, "Hey mom. I got the call. I'm going to L.A." Warren had been the 181st pick of the Angels in the 2018 Major League Baseball dra, taken in the sixth round. He was assigned to the Orem Owlz in Class A and gradually rose through the minor league system from Orem, to Burlington, Inland Empire, Mobile Bay and finally the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees. And now he's in the big leagues, a development that has prompted a whirl of phone calls, text messages, booked flights and a flurry of social media posts for all the folks back home. Seeing her son make it to the major leagues was always a dream for Alana. Aer all, she had seen him with a bat or ball in his hand from the time he was a toddler. "You want it, absolutely,'' she said. "Can you fathom it? Not really.'' Austin spent most of his baseball career as a middle infielder, and at shortstop and second base, where he gained a reputation as a player who could make the routine plays and was dependable at the plate. "If I could have gotten a college coach to watch him four days in a row, aer the fourth game, they would have absolutely wanted him,'' Guy said. But for Austin, the challenge was getting someone to even attend a single game. When Wake Tech finally invited him for a visit, it only took one trip to convince Austin that was where his baseball future would begin. While there, Alana earned a reputation as the unofficial team mom. Wake Tech played its home games at a park near Holly Springs that lacked a concession stand. During one doubleheader, Austin asked his mother for something to eat between games. When she returned with his food and saw several other team members with nothing to eat, she came up with a remedy. "By the next game I was bringing hot dogs for everybody,'' she said. She'd prepare a few dozen hot dogs on her George Foreman Grill at the crack of dawn, put them in buns and store them in a cooler, then line them up on the dashboard of her car to warm in the sun. She also brought orange slices and bananas to serve between games. It was during a summer playing American Legion baseball in Hope Mills that Austin got his first chance as a pitcher. Legion coach Mark Kahlenberg found himself short of pitchers because of a rash of injuries. Austin, who had pitched all of one inning in high school, told Kahlenberg he'd give it a try. Aer a successful summer with the Legion team, he convinced the coaching staff at Wake Tech to try him on the mound. Guy said Austin was throwing the ball at 88 miles per hour and had a curveball he described as "filthy." In baseball talk, that Austin gradually rose through the minor league system from Orem, to Burlington, Inland Empire, Mobile Bay and finally the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees. And now he's in the big leagues, a development that has prompted a whirl of phone calls, text messages, booked flights and a flurry of social media posts for all the folks back home. PHOTO COURTESY ANGELS BASEBALL

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