A Tillsonburg baseball player is heading south after a season full of hardware and heavy hitting. Connor Gaitens, a 21-year-old catcher from the Oxford County town, has committed to play at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida after a standout year with the Kankakee Community College Cavaliers in Illinois.
Gaitens is coming off a 2025-26 season where he earned the Region 4 Catcher Gold Glove Award and Second Team All-Region Designated Hitter honours. In 55 games, he hit .339 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI, helping power the Cavaliers through their schedule. Those numbers caught the attention of the Southeastern University Fire, a program that has won NAIA national championships in 2018 and 2022.
His path to Florida started early. At 14, Gaitens left home to join the Great Lake Canadians, an elite travel team based in Southwestern Ontario. The program is part of the Canadian Premier Baseball League and has become a key stepping stone for local players looking for U.S. opportunities. After graduating from Glendale High School in Tillsonburg in 2024, he spent two seasons at Kankakee Community College, which competes in NJCAA Region 4 against junior colleges from Illinois and Wisconsin.
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound right-handed hitter also showed his tools at a Kankakee Scout Day, recording a peak exit velocity of 102.1 mph and a pop time between 2.03 and 2.13 seconds behind the plate. At Southeastern, he will join two other Canadians on the roster, continuing a pipeline that connects small Ontario communities to the American college game.
When he is back in Tillsonburg, Gaitens stays connected to the local baseball scene by offering catching, pitching, and hitting lessons to community members. His commitment marks another step for a region where minor baseball registration surpassed 440 players in 2026, showing the growing depth of local talent reaching beyond the community.
