EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon State baseball’s Wade Meckler was drafted in the 8th round of the 2022 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants.
After spring training, the former Beaver ended up on this year’s Eugene Emeralds squad.
“At the end of the day, it’s still Oregon. It’s still a place I’m super comfortable at,” said Emerald’s outfielder Wade Meckler. “It’s a place I’ve played at. I’ve probably played 10 college games here, so it’s nice to play somewhere I’m familiar with, so I’m just super happy to be here.”
Even though Meckler may have never thought he would call Eugene home, he’s grateful to only be one hour away from the place he called home for four years.
“If I’m ever in a rut, I can just drive up there to go hit with some guys that I played with for a few years, so it’s super nice to kind of have that baseball environment, but you know without the stress of having to perform and go up there and kind of relax a little bit.”
Meckler has used many of the skills he learned while in Corvallis to find success at the next level.
“There are days you can tell you have it and there are days you know it’s going to be a little bit of a struggle, and the days where it’s a struggle, your goal is to just compete and get on base and there are days that you feel really good and it’s like ‘alright, today’s the day to do damage,” said Meckler. “So luckily I’ve felt pretty good in all the games, so I’ve been trying to do some damage, but on the games that I didn’t feel good, I did a good job of recognizing that and kind of mitigating that not feeling great and still being able to perform.”
But even through the good days and the bad days, Meckler love for baseball is unconditional.
“Baseball is pretty much who I am at this point,” says Meckler. “I go home after the game and the first thing I’m thinking about is my at-bats. I wake up in the morning, I’m thinking about what the starter has for me. At the end of the day, I recognize what my job is and baseball…that’s what it is right now, so I’m pretty laser focused on that right now.”