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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Summer exposure in the West Coast League

Local baseball players gain experience in collegiate league

By , Columbian Trail Blazers Writer
Published:
2 Photos
Cowlitz Black Bears shortstop Seaver Whalen, a Union High graduate, gets a foot on the bag in time to retire Kitsap's Jeffery Bohling during a West Coast League game this summer at David Story Field in Longview.
Cowlitz Black Bears shortstop Seaver Whalen, a Union High graduate, gets a foot on the bag in time to retire Kitsap's Jeffery Bohling during a West Coast League game this summer at David Story Field in Longview. Photo Gallery

Summer ballplayers

Clark County connections who are in the 2014 West Coast League:

COWLITZ BLACK BEARS

• Jake Dahlberg, LHP (Mt. Hood CC/Heritage HS)

• Colton Krueger, RHP (Clark College/Union HS)

• Seaver Whalen, INF (Lower Columbia/Union HS)

BEND ELKS

• Zack Carter, RHP (St. Martin’s College/Camas HS)

• J.T. Kaul, LHP (Lewis-Clark State/Mountain View HS)

• Alan Embree, pitching coach (Prairie HS alum)

WENATCHEE APPLESOX

• Michael McCann, C (Seattle U/Columbia River HS)

YAKIMA VALLEY PIPPINS

• Tim Hergert, INF (Central Arizona College/Heritage HS)

• Austin Woodward, RHP (Oregon State/Union HS)

(Names provided by team websites. If there is an omission, please email sports@columbian.com and we’ll add the name to this list.)

LONGVIEW — It’s Tuesday night and it’s a beautiful mix of summer sunset and Pacific Northwest gloom.

At Lower Columbia College, the Cowlitz Black Bears are taking on the Victoria HarbourCats in the first game of a three game series in the West Coast League.

On the Black Bears’s website, it reads “Baseball… the way it used to be.”

Summer ballplayers

Clark County connections who are in the 2014 West Coast League:

COWLITZ BLACK BEARS

&#8226; Jake Dahlberg, LHP (Mt. Hood CC/Heritage HS)

&#8226; Colton Krueger, RHP (Clark College/Union HS)

&#8226; Seaver Whalen, INF (Lower Columbia/Union HS)

BEND ELKS

&#8226; Zack Carter, RHP (St. Martin's College/Camas HS)

&#8226; J.T. Kaul, LHP (Lewis-Clark State/Mountain View HS)

&#8226; Alan Embree, pitching coach (Prairie HS alum)

WENATCHEE APPLESOX

&#8226; Michael McCann, C (Seattle U/Columbia River HS)

YAKIMA VALLEY PIPPINS

&#8226; Tim Hergert, INF (Central Arizona College/Heritage HS)

&#8226; Austin Woodward, RHP (Oregon State/Union HS)

(Names provided by team websites. If there is an omission, please email sports@columbian.com and we'll add the name to this list.)

And for pitcher Colton Krueger and shortstop Seaver Whalen, both graduates of Union High School, they are a lucky enough to be able to say that about themselves.

The West Coast League is made up of 12 teams in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia and it’s one of several collegiate summer baseball leagues around the country.

A quick peak at the Black Bears roster and you see players from all parts of the Western U.S., attending colleges and junior colleges all over the country including baseball powerhouses like Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford and UCLA.

And in that mix of players are Krueger and Whalen, playing on a team full of people they didn’t know before, playing together like they did when they were just learning the game.

“It just happened,” Whalen said. “I was supposed to play in the California Collegiate League and then I moved to this team. I happened to have Colton on the team with me like back in the day. We played Little League together in the Cascade Little League. We were the Devil Rays.”

Krueger just wrapped up his freshman year at Clark College and Whalen is playing ball at Lower Columbia College, where the Black Bears play their home games.

Both Whalen and Krueger have aspirations to play beyond this summer collegiate league, and see the league as a chance to get exposure and play against Division I talent.

Both of them also make the hour-long drive from Vancouver when they aren’t taking long bus rides to play on the road all over the Northwest.

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They play 60 games in a season — more than in any season Krueger and Whalen have played before — and they play with wood bats, adding to the league’s old school feel.

“The travel is just setting you up for the minor leagues. If you make it to the minor leagues this is what you have to do every day,” Whalen said. “You just have to say, what do you like more? Baseball or sitting at home. And I love baseball so the drives just get me to what I love.”

“The one thing that’s probably the most taxing is the drive and same day you play,” Krueger said. “You get done with that road trip, you come home and the same day you play.”

Tuesday’s game, which ended as a 6-0 Black Bears loss, would end up being Krueger’s final start of the summer.

He had six starts and had one of the better ERA’s in the West Coast League.

“The win column doesn’t show for it but I’ve definitely made strides,” Krueger said. “I’m becoming a better pitcher and developing my pitches.”

Whalen played on Thursday and had a rough day at the plate — like all of the Black Bears in that game, as they were shutout 1-0 — going 0-for-3 in the first game of a doubleheader.

With 60 games in a season, there is more baseball, but more days to ride the ups and the downs of the game.

“It’s cool having your own real friend from back-in-the-day,” Whalen said. “So you always have someone that you can always talk to that knows you personally from outside of baseball, not just baseball. It’s good to have someone that can calm you down and actually knows who you are.”

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Columbian Trail Blazers Writer