By DANIEL SOLTERO, staff reporter
Something that comes naturally is something most people take advantage of. That’s exactly what Kramer Ferrell is doing with baseball.
Although the Wildcats fell short on their run to a Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament championship, losing to Western Oregon in the final series, one win short of the title. But this wasn’t a discouraging season as the Wildcats have played their best baseball in years, and part of that success is thanks to Ferrell.
Ferrell is an Ellensburg native, who played baseball at Ellensburg High School. When he graduated, he ended up going to Oregon State University to walk-on to the football team, but something didn’t feel right. Ferrell soon left OSU to come play baseball at Central.
“After spring ball, my cousin Ethan called me and asked me if I had any plans on playing baseball,” Ferrell said. “I decided I wanted to play and so I transferred here.”
Ferrell, a construction management major, ended the season with a .352 batting average, ranking him fifth in the GNAC. But Ferrell first had to get into the hang of things and get comfortable with the speed of the game.
“My cousin and I just worked out everyday.” Ferrell said. “I made sure I was getting my hits in and kept working on my game.”
Another local native and right hand pitcher Davis Engel is also familiar with Ferrell’s game. They both played high school ball together and now are coincidentally playing together again in college.
“Not going to lie, it is weird how it all worked out,” Engel said. “I’m glad to have him part of the team and part of this program.”
Ferrell didn’t know about the Wildcats drought the past couple of years, but was moved at how far they have gone in his first season playing with their, and he is excited to see how far the baseball program will go in the coming years.
“We worked toward this goal and do something that has never been done before,” Ferrell said. “I want to keep working. We have a young team and seeing how much we can achieve just motivates me to do more for my team to help us get a championship.”
Engel continued to describe Ferrell as “a calm player” and somebody who just comes out everyday to better the team.
“He doesn’t look like he’s ever panicking when he’s on the plate,” Engel said. “He’s just playing baseball and that’s a good thing to have: you fail all the time, you have to deal with adversity.”
Ferrell is hoping to graduate from one of the most prestigious majors Central has to offer in construction management, and hopes to continue his work ethic off the field to come back in the fall healthy and ready to have another season like this year’s.
“I’m not really focused so much in the future,” Ferrell said. “I am just here trying to make this team better and everyone else around me better.”
