Senior Ryan Atkinson hits his stride in final season

Every student athlete wants to end their collegiate career on a high note. For Central baseball player Ryan Atkinson, his entire senior season has become one.

Atkinson, second baseman for the Wildcats, has been a main cog in a successful season for Central, starting in 44 of the 46 games this season.

Among hitters in the GNAC with at least 100 at-bats, Atkinson is second in walks (22,) third in on-base percentage (.462) and first in hits (62), batting average (.387) and runs scored (44.)

“He’s just on fire,” said head coach Desi Storey. “Teams just can’t get him out.”

Atkinson has played organized baseball since he was five, but has been around baseball for much longer.

“It really started before that,” Atkinson said. “My dad played it growing up, and I have an older brother, so I was introduced pretty much as soon as I could walk.”

Atkinson, a 2012 Mount Si High School graduate, was a member of the 2011 WIAA 3A State  Championship team.

“I wasn’t the standout or anything,” Atkinson said. “I wasn’t a stud by any means, but I was part of a really great team.”

Members of the Mount Si championship team that Atkinson was a part of are currently playing professional baseball.

2011 graduate Max Brown played outfield at Kansas State University and was drafted in the 2015 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Fellow 2011 graduate Tim Proudfoot played collegiate baseball at Texas Tech University and was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in both 2014 and 2015. He currently plays for the Beloit Snappers, the single-A minor-league affiliate of Oakland.

After having a great career at Mount Si, Atkinson spent two years at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington, before coming to Central.

“I could’ve played a lot [of] places,” Atkinson said. “But I wanted to play in, basically, my backyard.”

Atkinson, a business major, has posted career numbers in his last year under Storey. He’s helped the Wildcats stay in the hunt for the GNAC title with a 22-14 record in the GNAC and an overall record of 26-20.

If “he continues the next couple of weeks, he should be in consideration for [GNAC] Player of the Year,” Storey said. “He’s definitely going to be deserving of at least consideration.”

Before playing four games against Northwest Nazarene on April 29 and 30, Central was three games behind Western Oregon for first in the GNAC, with eight games left before the GNAC Championship Tournament. During this final stretch of the regular season, Atkinson credits consistency in game and at practice to getting the Wildcats to their goal of a GNAC regular-season title.

“The results you see on the field are really a reflection of how well [we] practice,” Atkinson said. “Every day you show up to the field with the intention to get better and improve.”

The Wildcats were able to sweep the four-game series against Northwest Nazarene to take over first place in the GNAC. Atkinson helped lead the way with 10 hits in 15 at-bats, five RBIs, five runs scored, two walks and just one strikeout.

This past weekend put the Wildcats in a great position to capture the top seed for the conference tournament, and an even better chance at getting into the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament.

Coach Storey knows that getting into the national championship bracket would be an amazing bookend for his seniors, especially Atkinson.

“He’s playing great, and this is a great group of seniors,” Storey said. “At times we haven’t played to our abilities as a team, but these guys have never given up. They go out and compete every weekend.”

Atkinson is becoming more aware of what could lie ahead for the rest of the season, being part of baseball lore here at Central, just as he is ingrained in the legacy of Mount Si.

“Baseball is a game I’ve been playing my whole life and obviously I want to end strong and win games with my team,” Atkinson said. “I don’t want to take anything for granted. I want to leave it all out on the field.”