Johnson does well in collegiate summer league

Chase Johnson showed up late to the Corvallis Knights for the West Coast League collegiate summer baseball season, although it was an acceptable absence since Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is on the quarter system and he was still in school when the season began June 3. Johnson ended up staying late in the West Coast League, as the Knights followed their 60-game regular season with playoff games which ultimately led to the league championship.

“It was a really great experience,” Johnson said. “It was probably one of the better teams I could have gone to and quite nice.”

Johnson had a decision to make the previous summer, when he was drafted by the Texas Rangers out of Fallbrook High School. He chose the baseball scholarship to pitch at Cal Poly.

“It was a solid season,” he said of his National Collegiate Athletic Association portion of 2011. “It was a good season.”

Johnson had eight starts for the Mustangs, although he spent the latter part of the season working out of the bullpen. Cal Poly participated in the West Coast Conference tournament but failed to make the NCAA regional playoffs.

“We barely missed out on making the regionals,” Johnson said.

Johnson pitched in a total of 18 games for the Mustangs, hurling 49 innings and compiling a 2-5 record along with a 3.67 earned run average. He struck out 34 opponents during the NCAA season.

Before the NCAA season even began, Johnson was invited to play for the Knights during the summer. Although Johnson showed up for the summer league two weeks late, he made an impact with the Knights. Johnson was selected to the league all-star game, although he didn’t pitch due to his starting rotation schedule.

“It was more of an honor,” Johnson said of his selection. “It was an honor just to make the team.”

Although Johnson didn’t appear in the all-star game, he participated in practices with witnesses.

“There were a lot of scouts,” he said.

Those scouts also watched league competition. Because Johnson signed a college letter of intent he will not be eligible to be drafted by a major league team until he completes his junior season, but his performance during the year earned him an invitation to play with Orleans (Massachusetts) of the Cape Cod League during the 2012 summer season.

Johnson’s six starts and three relief appearances produced a 3-1 record and a 2.03 ERA. That included seven runs in 3 1/3 innings June 22 at Wenatchee, which was his first start of the season and his only loss. He did not allow an earned run in any of his other appearances, and he struck out 25 batters in 31 innings. The statistics do not include seven innings of shutout ball and the mound victory in the Knights’ Aug. 14 win over Bend during the playoff semifinals.

Fallbrook High School did not reach the CIF playoffs during Johnson’s career with the Warriors, so other than the WCC conference tournament his first post-season appearance was in the West Coast League semifinals. Corvallis’ win in the semifinals placed the Knights into the championship series against Walla Walla in which the Oregon team also prevailed. “Winning the whole thing was awesome. It’s probably the biggest championship I’ve won,” Johnson said.

Cal Poly’s 2012 season will be minus this year’s Friday and Saturday starters, creating an opportunity for Johnson to capture the Mustangs’ prime pitching role next year. “Hopefully I’ll be the Friday starter this next season,” he said. “My goal really is to be the Friday starter next year.”

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