Bazzana looks to write the ultimate chapter, ending in Omaha

Travis Bazzana has put together one of the best offensive seasons in Oregon State baseball history in 2023 (courtesy OSU sports communications)

CORVALLIS — Beaver Nation recognizes Travis Bazzana as Oregon State’s best hitter, a team leader and a key to the Beavers’ chances of getting to Omaha for the College World Series.

Mitch Canham sees something else.

“Travis is more than just a baseball player,” Oregon State’s fourth-year coach says about his sophomore second baseman. “He is really good at that and passionate about it. If you tell him no, he is going to find a way to prove you wrong.

“But I am impressed by everything he does away from the field, too — like taking time for other people, and caring about the mental game. The guy does his breathing and meditation (exercises) all the time. He has a great routine. He is as inquisitive as heck. He wants to know everything about everything. One of the conversations we had was about one of the books he is reading and how much he is getting from it.”

Canham glances down toward home plate at Goss Stadium, where 15 minutes after Oregon State’s 23-5 victory over Western Carolina last Friday, Bazzana is still signing autographs.

“He is late coming over here because he is spending time with the kids, and he enjoys it,” Canham says. “It’s refreshing.”

Bazzana arrives shortly for an interview, and I ask about the books he has been reading lately.

“I’m obsessed with human performance and the brain,” says the native Australian, a psychology major at OSU. “The world becomes my library with that. I am constantly obsessing how I can be better at baseball and in life. I read books about the greats of baseball and what they do, and also what great thinkers do. How can I speak more effectively? Anything that helps me. A lot of psychology stuff, I’m kind of a nerd for.”

Recently named Academic All-District, Bazzana has plenty on the ball in the smarts department. That combined with the baseball part makes him one of the hottest prospects for the 2024 major league draft. DI Baseball ranks him 21st on its top 150 list. Future Star tabs him fifth among its top 200 prospects.

“The kid could hit in the major leagues right now,” says former OSU coach Jack Riley, who has watched him closely this season. “He’s a player.”

Bazzana put together one of the greatest regular seasons in Oregon State history in 2023. The 6-foot, 200-pound second sacker leads the Pac-12 in stolen bases (with a school single-season record 36), runs scored (74, second all-time to Cole Gillespie’s 83), walks (56, second all-time to Adley Rutschman’s 76) and on-base percentage (.509) and is tied for the league lead in hits (79). Bazzana ranks fifth in batting average (.376) and also has 19 doubles, 10 home runs, 52 RBIs and 134 total bases in 55 games.

“He is the best player in college baseball right now,” UCLA coach John Savage says.

Bazzana will get competition from several players, most notably Tommy Troy and Alberto Rios of Stanford, for the Pac-12 Player of the Year Award.

“I’m pretty damn biased, but I think Travis is the best player in America,” OSU assistant coach Ryan Gipson says. “He is deserving of the Pac-12 Player of the Year, but there are a few other guys in conference who have Nintendo numbers. In my mind, he is damn close to the most exciting player in America.”

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Bazzana could have gone in a different direction. The Sydney native began playing cricket at age 3, started playing organized cricket at age 10 and, as a standout wicketkeeper/opening batsmen, was captain of the Turramurra team that won the state championship his senior year.

“I was fully into it,” Bazzana says. “I didn’t train really hard for cricket because I was training so hard in baseball. But I played cricket at a high level, wanted to do well in it and loved the game. Cricket is pretty big in New South Wales, where I’m from, so that was special to win state. I love and miss cricket, but baseball is where my heart is at.”

Baseball was always where Bazzana’s future was, too.

“I knew I wanted to play baseball in the USA from a really young age,” he says. “I started thinking about how to pursue my goal of being a major league player. I didn’t get any good pro offers, so I had to find a college.”

Bazzana had at least one pro offer — from the Detroit Tigers, whose Northwest scout, Kevin Hooker, played second base for Riley and Pat Casey at Oregon State. International players are not subject to the draft and can be signed at age 16, “and Kevin offered him a couple of times,” says Brooke Knight, coach of the Corvallis Knights of the West Coast League. “Travis had already committed to Oregon State. He made the right choice.”

Bazzana played in a two-week tournament in Arizona at the end of 2019.

“I was lucky enough to have the (Oregon State) recruiting guys there,” he says. “They liked what they saw. Now I’m a Beav, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Bazzana says he also strongly considered signing with Arizona State, “but Oregon State was the perfect fit for me.”

The summer before his freshman year, Bazzana played for the Knights. Boy, did he. Playing with and against college players as much as four years older, he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player in leading the Knights to the 2021 championship. He hit .429, a record in a wood-bat league that has been in existence since 2005.

“I kept texting Kevin throughout the summer,” Knight says, chuckling, “saying, ‘You should have offered more.’ ”

It didn’t take Knight long to get a read on Bazzana’s abilities.

Bazzana “is a very clean infielder and turns a good double play,” says Beaver assistant coach Darwin Barney, a Gold Glove second baseman for the Chicago Cubs who tied a major league record for consecutive error-less games (courtesy OSU sports communications)

“The game is so micromanaged,” Knight says. “For me, it was like let the horse run and see what he can do.    The first game at Port Angeles, he got thrown out stealing at second and at third. He was frustrated and probably a little embarrassed. I knew what kind of player he was. I just said, ‘Buddy, we’re not going to stop running. We’re going to keep creating opportunities.’ He was in a new environment, and I didn’t want to handcuff him at that point. He did a lot of damage after that. The bat performed at a really high level early on.”

“I didn’t know where I fit in,” Bazzana says. “I hadn’t played much ball against guys from the U.S. my age. It was just like, ‘Let’s give it my all.’ I started playing well early, which    gave me the confidence to ride it out, and I had a really good summer.”

Knight was impressed with Bazzana in just about every way.

“Travis has an analytical mind,” Knight says. “He likes taking each piece of his game to the nth degree to look for opportunities to work on his weaknesses while he maintains and improves his strengths. He believes in himself but has enough humility to think, ‘I know where I’m light, and I’m going to keep working on it until I get better.’ He is super coachable, more than willing to put in the time and hard work.

“He is really personable. He loves to communicate with people. He is high energy and wants the team to play with high energy. He leads by example. He is just outstanding — a great human being.”

Bazzana stole 18 bases in 45 games with the Knights. He made 11 errors, “but he gets to balls only the elite guys can get to,” Knight says.

In 14 years with the Knights, Knight says he has coached “13 or 14 guys who have made the big leagues.” Asked to name the best players he has had, Knight mentions Adley Rutschman, Nick Madrigal and Brooks Lee, a shortstop from Cal Poly who was chosen by the Minnesota Twins with the eighth pick in the 2022 MLB draft. Lee is currently playing at the Double-A level.

“I’d feel comfortable putting Travis on a short list with the best,” Knight says.

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Bazzana had a banner freshman campaign at Oregon State in 2022, making consensus Freshman All-American, All-Pac-12 first team and the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team. He hit .306 with 16 doubles, six homers and 14 stolen bases. Early in the season, he blasted a grand slam and had eight RBIs in a 21-0 rout of Arizona State.

Given his work ethic, it’s no surprise he has been better in nearly every area as a sophomore this season, leading the Beavers to a 39-16 record, including 18-12 and a second-place finish in the Pac-12.

“I just went to work and tried to learn from all the great resources I have available to me here to build on the player I am and to help this team win,” Bazzana says. “It has been a great season, and the boys are getting really hot right now leading into the postseason.”

Bazzana say he has a “great relationship” with the entire coaching staff, including assistant coach Darwin Barney and pitching coach Rich Dorman.

“Gip knows how to get me right offensively, keep me in the right mindset,” Bazzana says. “Darwin changed my game defensively completely. Just an incredible teacher. Dor is great conversationalist. I can talk pitching with him and talk about a whole bunch of things. Coach Canham is helping mold me as a person and the player I never knew I could be. He is helping me in great ways. I look up to him. The staff as a whole is awesome.”

Gipson has done the most work with Bazzana at the plate and finds him a willing learner.

“Travis made a set-up adjustment last summer to help him keep a taller posture,” Gipson says. “That just gave him so much more space. When it comes to his approach in studying what pitchers do and knowing how to attack certain pitches, he is as good as anybody. He is as much a student of the game as anybody I’ve seen at this level.”

Gipson provides a standard pitching report and shares video of every starting pitcher the Beavers will face.

“There is also a Trackman report to let us know how their pitches move, providing a clearer picture,” he says. “Travis has a really good feel for how to break down what (the pitcher’s) stuff really does. During a game, we keep a tendency chart in the dugout. Dar is able to talk Travis through the last at-bat and how they’re attacking him.”

Barney says he has seen more consistency in Bazzana’s performances this season.

“I feel like as the season’s gone on, he has started to click more and more in different ways and understanding who he is as a player,” says Barney, the former Gold Glove second baseman with the Chicago Cubs. “The growth has been there, including understanding what kind of a hitter he is.”

Bazzana has committed a team-high eight errors in 206 chances but has a solid .961 fielding percentage.

“He is a very clean infielder and turns a good double play,” Barney says.

As a hitter, says Barney, “Travis is special in that when he is focused, there are not many better than him on the baseball field. Baseball is about learning when to focus, how to save your energy. Between pitches, don’t overanalyze and get tired, but think about the pitch ahead. When he is really into it and thinking about the right things, it’s electric. Once he opened up the whole field, he has been a tough out.”

Bazzana has shown more power recently, blasting four homers in a five-game span late in the season.

“The guy has pop,” Barney says. “We knew the power was in there.”

“It’s been about making some slight swing adjustments and learning which pitches I can damage a little bit more,” Bazzana says. “I’m a bit stronger and a bit twitchier with my swing than I was last year. Being able to backspin the ball on the pull side has been huge. I’ve been hitting the ball hard all year. Lately I am getting the ball elevated a bit more, and it’s flying.”

Says Knight: “What he already had was the off-field power. Now (opposing pitchers) are trying to get in him, and he is turning them around. The bat speed creates the backspin now.”

Bazzana has made the occasional mental error on the base paths this season.

“He’ll take a risk here and there,” Knight says.

“He has gone through some growing pains as he learns the rhythm of the game better — little things like base-running miscues,” Barney says. “He is still learning the intricacies of the game.”

Says Bazzana: “I play the game with as much heart and energy as I can. Sometimes I get sped up and sometimes I slow down, but I am just trying to progress and learn every day. I still have a ways to go in this game.”

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Besides everything else Bazzana provides for his team, there are the intangibles.

“Travis is the heartbeat on our team right now,” Barney says. “He is not your typical leader, but he is the type of guy who when he goes, you go. His confidence — the attitude he brings — is contagious. (Leadership) is something he has really worked on. He wants to be a better leader and is understanding more how to do it.”

“Travis is an energy-provider,” Canham says. “He is caring. He believes in each of the guys around him. He is not afraid to tell you the truth. That’s something we have talked about as a pillar of our program. You have to be truth-tellers — to able to hear the truth, speak the truth and respond to it.

“He does a really good job at all those things. He is not afraid of the tough conversation, which I have always loved and respected about him.”

Bazzana has earned the respect of his teammates.

“He is such a knowledgeable baseball guy,” junior shortstop Kyle Dernedde says. “He plays hard, with passion, and he keeps everyone on their toes. He is just a ballplayer. It’s amazing playing with him. I love the guy.”

His coaches believe Bazzana is bound for the major leagues.

“Without a doubt,” Gipson says. “If he stays healthy, he is the type of kid who will fly through the minor leagues. He will be a quick up to the bigs.”

“Nothing is a guarantee,” Barney says. “You have to stay healthy and get drafted into an organization that values you, but I would be surprised if he drops out of the first 10 picks. If he stays healthy, absolutely, he is a big-league player, for sure. He could play left field, center field, third, a little short. Give him some time and he would get it done. Second base profiles him well, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he played something besides second in the pros.”

“The nice part,” Knight says, “is that based on his speed, he could play outfield in the pros. It will be part of the discussion with any team. It adds value to his stock.”

The No. 2 seed Beavers will open pool play in the Pac-12 Tournament at Scottsdale, Ariz., at 10 a.m. Wednesday against No. 8 seed Arizona. Bazzana expects it to be the start of big things.

“The way we are playing right now, we would love to win that tournament,” he says. “We have all the tools. As long as we string it together, it’s a great time to put our stamp on the West Coast and take a hot roll into the Regional.

“The goal is to win out from here. There is nothing else you can do this late but win. As a ranked Oregon State team, it’s Omaha and then get it done. It’s one game at a time, playing every game like it’s your last, and we can beat anyone.”

Bazzana is ticketed for duty with Falmouth in the renowned Cape Cod League this summer.

“A bunch of Oregon State guys have played there in the past,” he says. “I’m sure it’s going to be a great experience. Not thinking about that right now, of course.

“The next step is to take the season is take it as far as we can, hopefully win a national championship, and then cruise on to the Cape.”

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