SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Summer and baseball have always seemed to fit together perfectly. For fans of the game, summer is a time to enjoy the sights, sounds and atmosphere of America's pastime. For college baseball players, it is a time for development. In summer 2015, 15 Santa Clara baseball players are competing for 12 different teams from the Bay Area to New England. The "All Summer Long" series, in its fifth season, chronicles these Broncos as they play in various summer leagues nationwide.
Rising senior Ryan Budnick finished his first season with Bronco baseball in spring 2015, after spending two years at Edmonds (Wash.) CC. Budnick hit a solo home run in the 10th inning of a 1-0 victory at Stanford May 5; the only RBI of the game helped the Broncos secure their first season sweep of the Cardinal since 1974.
Budnick is spending his summer with fellow SCU rising senior Nick Medeiros as a member of the Battle Creek Bombers (Battle Creek, Mich.) in the prestigious Northwoods League. In 16 appearances this summer, Budnick has 10 RBIs and 14 walks against just eight strikeouts. He drove in five runs during a three-game stretch June 19-23. SantaClaraBroncos.com caught up with Budnick to talk about playing in the Northwoods and the summer baseball experience.
Ryan Budnick – Battle Creek Bombers – Battle Creek, Mich.
SantaClaraBroncos.com (SCB): How is the summer going for you on the field?
Ryan Budnick (RB): Baseball is going well. I am getting a lot of at-bats and innings with our schedule having games every day. I'm able to consistently work on some things my coaches at Santa Clara gave me in our exit meetings before we left for the summer. Playing every day and traveling from town to town has been great.
SCB: What aspects of summer baseball make it conducive to developing as a ballplayer?
RB: Summer ball just allows us so many opportunities to work on things we need to get better at. We play games every day, so we get a lot of in-game reps and don't have anything else to do besides get better at baseball during the day, so we have a lot of time to be at the field before games to work on specifics of our game. I get to the field usually an hour before we need to work on running and defensive drills; then we have an hour before the game starts while the field is prepared and I go work on my swing in the cages.
SCB: Your fellow Santa Clara teammate Nick Medeiros is also a teammate of yours in Battle Creek. How have you enjoyed having a fellow Bronco on the Bombers?
RB: It has been awesome being able to play this summer with Nick. He and I sit next to each other on the bus rides most of the time and that's allowed us to get to know each other better. We went to Detroit on an off day together with some teammates which was fun. I hit a sac fly and as soon as I came off the field, Nick was right there and said "that's Bronco baseball right there," and that was cool. He's been dominant this summer on the mound and that's been fun to watch and play behind him as well.
SCB: The Northwoods League is known for having large crowds and great ballpark atmosphere. Aside from home games at Battle Creek, what has been the best venue you've played at this summer and why?
RB: My favorite venue is the Madison Mallards, they had 6,500+ fans both nights we were there and the atmosphere there was crazy. They have a really cool setup with stands going all around the field, a big video board in left field, and a zip line for their mascot to ride from right field all the way to home plate to start the game. Their fans were into it the entire game.
SCB: What has been the most memorable game for you and Battle Creek to this point in the summer?
RB: I would say the most memorable game to date would be a game we were playing in Madison. We were down by one in the top of the ninth, got the bases loaded with two outs, our hitter was down to his last strike when he hit a grand slam to put us ahead. The entire atmosphere of the stadium changed when that happened.
All Summer Long 2015
Ryan Budnick
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