Some big shoes to fill

Junior infielder Jason Ogata gets his first crack at becoming a full-time infielder for OSU

By: Kye Johnson

Posted: 2/20/08

Replacing Darwin Barney is going to be a tough job. In fact, it's almost an impossible chore for any college baseball player to attempt. But with Barney gone and a huge hole to fill in the middle of Oregon State's infield, Jason Ogata has the daunting task of replacing an athletic icon at OSU. And being a life-long friend of Barney's, Ogata may be better fit to fill that role than anyone else.

A Beaverton native and a graduate of Westview High School, Ogata left the state of Oregon and played his freshman year of baseball at Louisiana State University. At LSU, Ogata only played 24 games, starting 16 of them and hitting .255 on the year.

"It's great to be back home," Ogata said about being at Oregon State. "I have a lot of support here. I love the coaching staff here and all of the players that I'm surrounded with, so I'm really glad to be back."

Ogata played little league baseball for the Sun Creek Little League Organization, where he learned at a very young age what Barney was all about.

"We always had to face Murray Hill, which was always Darwin's team," Ogata said. "So they always won everything."

Last year at Oregon State, with Barney at shortstop and Joey Wong at second base, Ogata didn't get a great opportunity to play in the field on a consistent basis. But that changes this year with Barney's departure, and now Ogata will get his chance to become a full-time player for OSU.

"No one is ever going to replace Darwin Barney," Ogata said. "He's a great player, a great guy, a great teammate and one of my close friends. Joey is going to be who he is, and I'm going to be who I am and I'm just going to do what I can and try my best to show what I can do."

As of right now, it appears that Ogata will move to second base and Wong will move to shortstop to fill Barney's role defensively.

"Last year I was coming in and just wanting to be a role guy. I wanted to do whatever I could to help the team when I got in," Ogata said. "This year, I'm trying to be a full-time guy and be a leader by example to show everyone that I can play and deserve to be a starter."

The Beavers kick off the 2008 season as two-time defending national champions, and in both championship seasons, Barney was viewed as one of the team leaders, especially last year.

"We're going to miss Darwin this year, but we don't have him and we're going to have to step up."

It's not making up for Barney statistically that worries Ogata, but rather the leadership that no longer is a given without Barney around.

"His competitiveness is amazing," Ogata said about Barney. "He's a pretty unique guy where he can be fun around you when you're not around the game, and then all of a sudden he just turns it on. And I love that about him. He is a competitor when he plays and he made all of the players around him better, and that's what I'm trying to do."

How well the Beavers will fare without Barney is another story. But Ogata and the Beavers are ready to find out what kind of a team they will be this spring.

When asked which players need to step up and perform right away, Ogata said, "It's not just one guy. I think we have a lot of guys and a lot of transfers that are going to make a major impact this season that a lot of people aren't expecting."

"But we need our freshman pitchers to step up right away," he said. "We're going against some top 10 teams in the nation, and if they aren't ready, those other teams are going to let us know."

Ogata and the Beavers will soon find out their fate as they take off for Arizona to play in the DeMarini Invitational starting Friday.

Kye Johnson, sports editor

sports@dailybarometer.com