After graduating from Chaminade this spring, it looked like pitcher Mike Waller was headed to Elon University in North Carolina on an academic scholarship.

But a few months later, he has signed to continue his baseball career at Furman University.

“It was pretty stressful for a while,” Waller said. “I was filling out forms for Elon. Once I was getting into July, I was kind of started to get set and get ready for Elon. Then, I guess it was after the draft, scholarships opened at some schools and I got a lot of attention out of nowhere. Overall I was pretty happy with it.”

A 6-foot-6, 225-pound right-handed pitcher, picked the Greenville, South Carolina, school over Indiana University and offers from Tennessee-Martin, Rockhurst and others.

“I felt like Furman was the right place for me basically,” he said. “They offered a little bit more scholarship money. It’s a better school. It’s a lot warmer. I wouldn’t have to miss as much school traveling for baseball.”

Waller said one of the coaches for Furman watched him throw one inning for the Manchester Post 208 Legion team earlier this summer. The righthander was clocked at 89-90 miles per hour and the coach was impressed.

The pitcher went 2-2 with a 3.29 earned-run average for Chaminade this spring and had an impressive summer for the Manchester Legion squad. He went 2-0 with a 1.81 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. He also batted .458 with 19 extra-base hits and 38 RBIs.

Waller, who played basketball and baseball for four years and played football for two years at Chaminade, comes from a family of athletes. His father, Donald, played football and baseball at Kansas State. His sister, Erin, was a standout athlete at Incarnate Word and plays volleyball at Stanford.