Opitz grateful for his time as a Hog
Casey Opitz did not grow up an Arkansas baseball fan. His memories of college baseball were tied to road trips to watch an older brother play for Nebraska.
Jake Opitz was an AllBig 12 infielder for the Cornhuskers as a senior in 2008. Casey has great stories about the family loading into a Suburban in the Denver area for long trips to Lincoln and other Big 12 cities.
Dave Van Horn had already left Nebraska and had taken the Arkansas team to the College World Series, but the Opitz family heard the great stories of Van Horn's time with the Cornhuskers. Jake's head coach at Nebraska, Mike Anderson, was a Van Horn assistant who was promoted after Van Horn left for Arkansas.
So it was an easy recruiting sell when Van Horn began to recruit Casey, but there were no preconceived notions about becoming a Razorback. It was not in his dreams, or so he thought.
Fast forward to a post by Opitz on Twitter in March as the college baseball season came to a screeching halt because of the coronavirus pandemic. The post featured a photo of Opitz as a toddler with a red Hog hat dominating his child-sized head.
“If this is it then I just want to say thank you. I am forever grateful to Fayetteville, Arkansas and all the unbelievable friends, teammates, coaches and teachers that
I have had along the way. OmaHog for life!”
The tweet went viral among Razorback fans, in an emotional state already with the end of what promised to be another successful season by a highly regarded Van Horn baseball team.
“It's been going nuts,” Opitz said in a phone interview from his home in Centennial, Colo. “It's just been crazy how people have reacted (to the post and picture). I have gotten so much support in my time at Arkansas, but this has been unreal.
“Even from the point that I signed with Arkansas, the support has been unreal. I wasn't a big-time recruit, but it was obvious that people were excited about me coming to school. It's like that for so many of us.”
Opitz said the picture, taken when he was 3 or 4 at a friend's house, is just a bizarre coincidence that now puts everything in perspective.
“To be honest, we had all forgotten the picture,” Opitz said. “It was after my freshman year (at Arkansas) when it resurfaced. At that point, I just thought me being at Arkansas was meant to be.”
What is obvious is that he was meant to be a switch-hitting catcher. Older brothers Jake and Shane were going to be baseball players, too. Those three boys all were fantastic players in high school. Their parents, Jeff and Melanie, must have
seen a lot of baseball as they raised those three boys and a daughter, Jessica.
“My dad was a college baseball player (at Metro State in Denver) and my brothers are both middle infielders,” Casey said. “Our whole lives revolved around playing baseball. Our summer vacations were to baseball tournaments. We never had any other trips. That's all we did.”
Casey's older brothers are still involved with baseball after playing minor league baseball. So there is no problem with finding a place to work out now that Casey is home in Colorado.
“There is a hitting bay in the basement,” Casey said. “I work out with my brothers every day. I don't really know what's next, so I'm just focused on my daily workouts. We haven't been outside yet, but I'm sure there will be some nice days for that coming up.”
It's just been a little over three weeks since he packed his apartment in Fayetteville and left for Colorado after the NCAA canceled all spring sports because of the covid-19 pandemic.
The team was preparing to load a bus for Starkville, Miss., and the start of the SEC season. The plan was to play Mississippi State in an empty stadium, but less than 24 hours after that plan had been put in place, the SEC suspended the season, then canceled it the next week. The NCAA had already canceled postseason play.
There was a team meeting during which an emotional Van Horn told them to head home if they could.
“Coach Van Horn was kinda speechless,” Opitz said. “There is really nothing you can say. There is nothing you can do.”
The Hogs will put 11-5 in the record books. There was a 7-0 start, then a five-game losing streak. But they won their last four, including 10-9 over Grand Canyon State that proved to be the season finale.
To no one's surprise, Opitz just got back to work when he returned to Colorado. There are probably cheers for his brothers in the basement as they swing at balls off a tee. Opitz makes sure everyone has fun around him. He was a unanimous pick for team captain this season.
“That's just the way I am,” he said of the instant feedback for his teammates. “I just do that. It's my way of keeping everyone involved. As far as what we are doing in the basement, right now it's just hitting off the tee. We'll probably go to something else when the weather allows it, just keep working, do whatever it takes.”
For now, he is pounding baseballs on a tee, not knowing when it's his last swing and making it his best each and every time.