Wayne Astrauskas began his baseball career at Kaskaskia College
as a catcher in the spring of 2000 and caught almost every inning
during his two year career at Kaskaskia College. Wayne
had impressive career stats including a batting average of .385,
twenty-five doubles, four triples and twelve home
runs. Eleven of those homeruns were in his sophomore
season. Wayne also had eighty runs batted in and an on
base average of .507 and was named to the Great Rivers Athletic
Conference Team in 2001.
After graduating from Kaskaskia College, Wayne continued his
education on an athletic scholarship at Quincy University and was
named to the Great Lakes Athletic All-Conference team in 2003 and
the All-Region Second team in 2003. Using only wooden
bats in conference play, Wayne’s batting average was .321 for
his junior year and .314 in his senior year. Wayne was
also named Second Team All-Region in his sophomore
year.
In the summers, Wayne played for the Bluff City Bombers, a
wooden bat collegiate league and was a League All Star in 2001 and
2002. He was also named Co-Most Valuable Player in the
league in 2002. Wayne played four seasons of
professional baseball in independent baseball
leagues. The highlight of his professional career came
when he caught for the 2003 Frontier League Champion, Gateway
Grizzlies.
