College World Series duo up for HCats
Pair fresh off winning NCAA College World Series title with Oregon State Beavers
Joe Casey and Ryan Ober admit it will seem a little strange being in the visitors’ dugout and clubhouse this weekend at Goss Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon, when the Victoria HarbourCats play the host Knights in West Coast League baseball action.
Last weekend, they were given a hero’s welcome and being driven onto the Goss Stadium diamond in limos as a capacity crowd welcomed the 2018 NCAA College World Series champion Oregon State Beavers back home to Corvallis. That was after a parade through the town as supporters lined the streets.
“It was like a dream. We’re still feeling on top of the world,” said Ober, an infielder. “It’s been crazy … a real whirlwind.”
Outfielder Casey won the College World Series with his dad Pat Casey, a legendary Oregon State University head coach, at the helm.
“That will be a memory I will carry with me my whole life,” Joe Casey said.
It adds to family lore. Joe’s older brother Brett, a basketball and baseball player for the Beavers in the Pac-12, played for their dad on Pat Casey’s 2007 Oregon State NCAA championship baseball team.
Joe Casey was a redshirt freshman and Ober a true freshman on the 2018 Beavers NCAA championship squad, so saw only spot duty on an upper-classmen loaded Oregon State roster projected to produce up to six future MLB players.
Three of the Beavers, including former HarbourCats third-baseman Michael Gretler with the Pittsburgh Pirates, signed pro contracts as soon as the College World Series ended last week.
“Those older guys were awesome and I learned a lot from them because they were such great leaders and took the time to teach the younger players,” Casey said.
Ober agreed: “It is ridiculous how good those guys are. I learned so much from them.”
As exciting as it was being in Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series, in which the Beavers beat the Arkansas Razorbacks in the final, Casey and Ober were just as anxious to join the HarbourCats.
“We didn’t get a lot of swings as freshman, so we were anxious to start swinging the bat day-to-day in summer-league [WCL] games,” said Ober, who is from Snohomish, Washington.
Casey and Ober joined the HarbourCats in Bellingham this week, where Victoria swept the Bells.
You can’t teach championship pedigree, HarbourCats GM Brad Norris-Jones said. You have to live it, which is what Casey and Ober have done.
“They are great kids and you could feel our whole team getting a lift when they joined us in Bellingham,” Norris-Jones said.
“It’s just the way champions carry themselves. They know how to win.”
Both Casey and Ober conferred with Beavers teammate and former HarbourCats infielder Gretler about life in Victoria. The Pirates prospect had nothing but good things to say about his summer-ball experience on the Island in 2015.
“[Gretler] said it was an awesome experience for him in Victoria because lots of fans come out to the games and the training facilities, such as the [PISE] gym, are first-rate,” Casey said.
The HarbourCats (14-13) begin the second half of the WCL season with the three-game series against the Knights, beginning Saturday in Corvallis.
ON THE DIAMOND: The HarbourCats defeated the Highline Bears of Seattle, a summerball collegiate team in the semipro Pacific International League, 5-4 in an exhibition game Thursday night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park.
The HarbourCats and Bears conclude their two-game exhibition set tonight at 6:35 p.m. at Royal Athletic Park.