By PAUL GOTHAM
Last time Ryan O’Rourke walked on a New York Collegiate Baseball League field he and his Brockport Riverbat teammates hoisted a championship trophy. Next time the Worcester, Massachusetts native steps on the diamond he will do so as a member of the Minnesota Twins.
Monday night O’Rourke received his latest promotion, and the five-year veteran will get his first taste of Major League Baseball when the Baltimore Orioles visit Target Field.
Seven years removed, from defeating the Glens Falls Golden Eagles in the championship, O’Rourke becomes the latest NYCBL success story.
“It seems like forever ago, but at the same time it was just like this yesterday,” O’Rourke said this past spring while a member of the Rochester Red Wings. “Walking off the Glens Falls field with a championship; it was really cool. It’s one of the best feelings of my life. I’m not saying that because I’m up in this area again. It was one of the best times of my life.”
O’Rourke went 6-1 in ten appearances (eight starts) with the Riverbats. He struck out 52 and walked 12 in 48-plus innings of work. But he saved his best for last. The southpaw earned a win in the first game of the post-season against Geneva’s Red Wings. For an encore he locked horns with the eventual NYCBL Pitcher of the Year, Shane Davis, and notched a victory in game one of the NYCBL Championship Series.
“He’s a bulldog,” said former Brockport manager and current NYCBL Commissioner, Jake Dennstedt. “I’ve never been around anyone like him.”
O’Rourke’s story is a familiar one for the NYCBL. He came from Merrimack College – a small Division II school in the wood bat Northeast-1o Conference. The NYCBL became his platform. Two years later Minnesota chose O’Rourke in the 13th round of the 2010 draft. Late last year, he became the first Merrimack Warrior to make his way to Triple-A when he earned a late-season call-up.
He made two appearances in Double-A before moving up to Rochester this past April.
“There are so many things in that season,” O’Rourke said recalling his time with the Riverbats. “I played at Merrimack College and St. John’s high school. I went to catholic schools my whole life. We’re all northeastern Irish, catholic kids playing baseball. Then I come to Brockport and there are kids from New Jersey, kids from New Orleans, Texas, California . Big D1 prospects from South Carolina. I wasn’t used to that type of dimension of a person. It really got me ready for playing with and against guys from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia.”
In 329-plus innings of work in the minor leagues, O’Rourke fanned 336. With Rochester, he struck out 22 and walked seven in 13.2 innings of work for a K/9 rate of 15.0.
“At every level the hitters get a better approach,” O’Rourke said. “They kinda understand themselves more. You know a lot of kids coming out wherever they come out of – rookie ball A-ball, even high-A they try to hit home runs because they probably did that back when they were 15, 16 or 17 years old. I think everyone kinda comes into themselves a little more in Double-A.”
He held left-handed hitters at the Triple-A level to a .125 batting average.
“You’re going to less guys who are going to be free swingers at the higher levels,” O’Rourke added. “Especially in Triple-A there are a lot of guys who know what they can’t hit and what they can hit. If you make the mistake, they punish you. If you make your pitch, you’re going to get people out. It’s a chess match. Here’s my move. What’s your move to counteract me? It’s a fun game out there. You got to think about it in that way.”
Brockport finished 27-15 in 2008 – five games behind the Hornell Dodgers in the Western Division. After knocking off Geneva, the Riverbats went on to upset first-place Hornell and take down the heavily-favored Golden Eagles.
“That was one of the coolest things when you’re pulling for each other, like the Brockport team,” O’Rourke recalled. “We just wanted to win. We didn’t care if we were the underdogs. It was a fun summer. I’ll never forget that.”
Along with Jesse Bosnik and Matt Branham, O’Rourke is one of three members from Brockport ’08 to go on to minor league baseball.
“I was a naïve kid one day thinking you get drafted, you pitch for a year or two, and you’re in the big leagues for ten years. That’s every kid’s thought process at 21 years old. Once you get into it you don’t realize how hard it is. I was proud of myself for getting to Double-A. A lot of guys who played didn’t get there. Getting up to Triple-A, I’m from a small school and no one got to Triple A from where I’m from. It’s an accomplishment. I’m proud of it. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
The NYCBL, sending players to the pros since 1978.
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