When the 2008 baseball season began, there were several holes in the roster that needed to be filled after some of the most productive players in Oregon State history left for the professional ranks. One of those positions was shortstop.
After the departure of Darwin Barney, who was perhaps the best shortstop in Oregon State history, the Beavers needed someone to be the new leader of the infield. They did not have to look far. In fact, it was the young freshman who was Barney’s double play partner during his final season that stepped in to take the job. A soft spoken young man and a former shortstop by the name of Joey Wong.
“I’m used to playing short,” Wong said. “I played it my whole life until last year. It’s been a real comfortable move.”
Normally being soft spoken is not a quality coaches look for in a shortstop. The shortstop is the leader of the infield and being quiet and trying to lead normally do not go hand in hand. But there are intangibles that also must be taken into account to be a leader.
“I think with the position he plays you have to be a leader,” coach Pat Casey said. “Joey’s a quiet kid and he usually leads by how hard he plays.”
Playing hard and is never the question with Wong and neither is his dependability. As of Sunday the Beavers have played 43 games and Wong is the only player besides designated hitter Jason Ogata to start in every game for Oregon State this season. Much of that is due to player rotation, but it is also a testament to the importance of Wong on the field.
Defensively he is one of, if not the best defensive player on the team and that was evident on Sunday against UCLA where Wong made a series of great plays at shortstop.
“It’s something I take pride in,” Wong said. “Defense is a huge part of the game. Coach Casey always stressesthat defense and pitching wins games.”
The other part of the game that most people tend to focus on is the offense. Although his numbers are not where they were last year, Casey is not worried about his already battle tested sophomore and what he brings to the table every day.
“Joey plays good defensively all the time,” Casey said. “I think Joey has been pressing for us a bit lately. When you’ve been in the World Series and you’ve got a lot of hype and you’re a high profile player, you start pressing a little bit. He’ll be fine.”
With a long season of ups and downs, Wong knows he is pressing as well and he is quick to put it all into perspective.
“Baseball is like that. You’re not always going to hit as well as you want,” Wong said. “You can always pick it up on defense. You just gotta stick with it and it will come through in the end.”
As of Monday, Wong is batting .243 with five home runs and 30 RBI’s. In the last game of the UCLA series, Wong was 2 for 3 with two RBI’s and it looked as though he was starting to gain some confidence at the plate. Again, it is something that he can attribute to hard work.
“I’ve been working on my swing a lot lately,” Wong said. “I’m doing some individual work with coach Bailey. It’s felt a lot better lately and it finally showed up on the field.”
Getting better throughout the season is what Oregon State baseball is all about. Playing well at the end of the season is not as important as playing well at the end and Wong is mirroring that concept in just about everything he is doing this season. Working on being a leader takes time just like anything else and Casey knew it would be a work in progress, but he is starting to learn the role.
“I think sometimes he feels like if he is not playing well he doesn’t have the right to (be the leader) which is completely wrong,” Casey said. “Be the leader all the time.”
As the Beavers head towards the end of the season, Wong knows what it takes to win a championship and he has seen what can happen when the Beavers gain a little momentum down the stretch. This years team has not been as dominating as the previous three teams that made it to Omaha, but those teams also did not play as brutal of a schedule as this one has. With so many young faces on the roster, who knows what to expect when the pressure is on this coming June, but Wong knows what this group is capable of.
“Real big things,” Wong said. “We’ve played some big games and beat some tough teams. I think if we play with this kind of energy each game we can do some dangerous stuff.”
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