Bryce Johnson playing in Cape League
7/13/2016 5:31:00 PM | Baseball
Sam Houston center fielder Bryce Johnson has taken his talents to Massachusetts, to play for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League, one of the top collegiate summer baseball leagues.
The move from college baseball into the minors came thanks to the connections Bearkats' assistant coach Shane Wedd has with Commodores' manager Jeff Trundy and assistant coach Brad Stoll.
“The Cape Cod League is just awesome. Nothing is better than playing up here in the league with some of the best players around the nation,” Johnson said.
Johnson is teammates with players like Brady Singer, a pitcher for the Florida Gators who was picked in the second round of the 2015 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays; Florida State pitcher Cole Sands; JJ Matijevic, first baseman for national runner-up Arizona; as well as TCU outfielder Josh Watson and catcher Evan Skoug. He is competing against other top players on a daily basis.
“It's just another day to come out here and get better. It makes me work a little bit harder,” Johnson said. “The competition is incredible. It's a good thing knowing that you are going to come out here and get everyone's best.”
Even though Matijevic and the Arizona Wildcats defeated the Bearkats at the Lafayette NCAA Regional, the two have quickly become good friends during their short time as members of the Commodores.
“Having just played against JJ Matijevic in the regionals and seeing them make it all the way to the College World Series final, it was pretty cool to talk to him about it,” Johnson said. “He is a great guy. It doesn't get much better than playing with these guys.”
While Johnson started all 64 of Sam Houston's games this past season in center field, Trundy has played Johnson in all three outfield positions throughout the season.
Johnson has played in 15 of the Commodores' 26 games and has done a solid job of tracking down fly balls, recording 26 putouts. He has yet to commit an error.
“We have about seven outfielders so we're in a sort of rotation to get us rest and so each of us get to play,” Johnson said. “I've been playing all over actually, left, center and right field. I'm used to it. In high school, during my first two years of varsity, I played left and a little bit of right field. I would say right field is a little bit different than left and center, but it's better if you can play all three.”
The Commodores have won eight of their last 11 as of Monday night, improving their record to 16-10 and moving into first place in the West Division.
One of the highlights of Johnson's summer occurred last week when he got the chance to step onto the field of one of the most legendary stadiums in all of professional sports, Fenway Park.
Johnson was awestruck as he got to work out with his teammates on the hallowed grounds that the Boston Red Sox call home.
“The history in that place is just incredible. When you walk you in, you just start thinking about all of the old players,” Johnson said. “You think about Babe Ruth and all of those who walked in that stadium and played, then you think about Big Papi (David Ortiz). Being able to actually work out on the field was pretty incredible.”
Although baseball has taken up a lot of his time during his stay in Massachusetts, Johnson and his teammates have made the most out of the days they've had away from the diamond.
“We have visited about three different beaches that are really cool,” Johnson said. “We have a teammate, Ryan Chandler, who is staying at a pretty nice house with a basketball court and a big old pool. We've been to a Boston Red Sox game, so we've been having fun on our off days. Thank God, we have some of those, too.”
Johnson is one of many Bearkats playing in wooden-bat leagues across North America.
Clayton Harp, Garret Miller and Barrett Koerselman are playing in Boulder, Colorado, for the Boulder Collegians in the Rocky Mountain Baseball League. Playing for the Hutchinson Monarchs in the National Baseball Congress in Hutchinson, Kansas, are Jordan Cannon, Josh Biles, Jaxxon Grisham and Riley McKnight.
Close to home in the Texas Collegiate League for the Victoria Generals are Mac Odom, Riley Cooper, Hunter Hearn and Dakota Mills. Earlier in the summer, Hearn played for the Liberal Bee Jays in Liberal, Kansas, in the Jayhawk Collegiate League, before joining his Bearkat teammates earlier this month in Victoria.
Sam Houston third baseman Andrew Fregia is spending his summer north of the border playing in the Northwoods League for the Thunder Bay Border Cats in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
