Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Ty Corey posted colossal numbers at the plate for Phoenix High School (New York) as a junior. However, Corey was at a clear disadvantage. Whenever he hit a ball into the gap, Chuck Chawgo, his head coach, only allowed him to advance to second base if he could get there walking.

Corey was born with Hemophilia A, a condition found in 12 out of 100,000 males that results in excessive bleeding, both internally or externally as a result of trauma. As a two-way player, Corey’s chronic condition affects his ankles, which hinders him significantly more in the batter’s box than on the mound because of the need to run.

“He’s never let it define him,” Beth Munger, Corey’s mother, said. “It was always just a secondary thing.”

As a junior, Corey had a .554/.786/1.411 slash line while posting a 1.40 ERA and striking out 112 batters across 58.0 innings pitched. Corey’s dominance on the mound earned him Onondaga High School National Division II Pitcher of the Year honors. After graduating in 2025, the 6-foot-2 left-hander will continue his baseball career at St. Bonaventure, an incredibly rare accomplishment especially considering his medical condition.

A challenge that would have caused most to shy away from athletics instead turned to motivation for Corey. His parents agreed to put him in sports as a kid to keep him active and out of trouble. From there, those around him realized he developed a relentless motor. He wanted to focus on baseball.

“He’s the kid that you look out the window, and he’s throwing balls at the shed trying to hit the tape strike zone like it’s Game 7 of the World Series,” Brandon Munger, Corey’s father, said. “We never had to make him do anything.”

Once Corey got to high school, he received limited playing time on Phoenix’s team. His fastball sat in the mid-60 miles-per-hour range, and he had a .212 batting average. It drove him to work even harder.

In the ensuing offseasons, Chawgo said Corey helped reshape the Firebirds’ culture. In the past, Chawgo noted only around five or six players would show up for offseason workouts. But led by Corey, the head coach says all of the school’s varsity and junior varsity players now show up. Additionally, Corey began pushing his teammates to start lifting weights outside of practice.

“He changed the level of the norm,” Chawgo said.

As Corey matured, he began to blossom on the diamond. Two years later, his fastball topped out at 86 MPH — a nearly 20-MPH increase from when he was a freshman.

Sophia Burke | Design Editor

Additionally, the pitch now has a strong-arm side run, giving it blistering movement. Opponents totaled just a .147 batting average facing the left-hander in 2024.

When he doesn’t pitch, Corey plays first base and is a force in Phoenix’s lineup. After notching a .212 batting average as a freshman, he more than doubled it as a junior.

“When he came in, he had a swing where, without the weight room, he was never going to hit it far,” Chawgo said.

However, once Corey gets on base, he avoids running because of his condition. So, Phoenix was honored with the right to pinch run for Corey after it petitioned the state of New York to have an automatic courtesy runner. Syracuse Sports Zone, Corey’s summer club team, also was allowed a courtesy runner.

Despite his condition, Corey had always worked toward playing D-I baseball. St. Bonaventure caught Corey’s attention after he pitched at the university during a showcase. Once recruiting opened, he was quickly in contact with head coach Jason Rathbun and soon after, he verbally committed to the Bonnies.

“It’s easy to forget to be a kid when you work as hard as Ty does,” Munger said. “He’s always looking for the next thing, he’s always setting goals and trying to get a little better and sometimes we want him to just take it all in and enjoy every single moment of his senior year even without baseball.”

Corey’s obstacles to getting where he is have been unique. Still, it’s something that’s never held him back. Before he takes the next step in his baseball career, Corey has one year remaining at Phoenix, where he wants to leave a mark on the program forever.
“Win sectionals,” Corey said of his goals for his senior year.

Published on September 19, 2024 at 12:27 am