Collegiate baseball doesn’t end with the College World Series in June. It’s only a starting point for the next season.
Summer leagues across the country — most notably in Alaska and Cape Cod — have long been popular destinations for offseason competition among college-age ball players who are trying to get a leg up on the competition.
San Diego can now boast a robust training league of its own.
The San Diego League wrapped up its second season with championship playoffs Aug. 6 at Christian High School in El Cajon as the Hooks defeated the Brewers, 10-6, for the 2020 title.
The championship game concluded a whirlwind schedule that saw the eight-team summer circuit log 89 games in a 52-day period.
The 2020 season boasted a significant increase in membership from the four teams in its inaugural 2019 season.
Yet, it was a season like no other.
The San Diego League mixed baseball with social distancing, hand sanitizers in the dugouts and daily temperature-taking amid the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
In a summer in which youth baseball teams were limited to sports day camp practices, collegians were able to step on the diamond, throw fastballs, hit home runs, make diving catches and chug around the basepaths.
“We had our own terminology—we created a bubble of normalcy,” San Diego League vice president Mark Rogoff told the Baseball America publication.
The league did not escape unscathed, however, as seven players and one assistant coach tested positive for the COVID-19 virus (all described as asymptomatic) in the final three weeks of the season.
The positive tests took teams temporarily off the field and players out of the lineup. But the league regrouped and finished the season despite the adversity, with six teams participating in the championship playoffs.
Batter up
The league has attracted attention for its player tracking technology, especially swing-motion to maximize efficiency at bat and pitching that measures the impact of the spin of every ball to calculate its trajectory.
In a world that is being driven by changing technology, more information is always better.
Because some collegiate leagues were unable to operate this summer, it kept many players local and brought others in, which proved to the benefit of the San Diego League.
The league drew talent from not only the immediate San Diego County and Southern California regions but also nationwide.
Players descended on the league’s field of dreams from 51 different Division I schools. There were 18 Division I conferences represented, including all in the Power Five of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC.
Twenty-one Division I schools in California were a part of the league, including all three in San Diego: San Diego State, University of San Diego and UC San Diego.
It was a smorgasbord of talent.
Local spotlight
Trevor Omahen, who logged 50 plate appearances in 17 games for the Waveriders, represented Alpine on the diamond.
A redshirt junior at High Point University in North Carolina, the former Granite Hills High School standout earned second team all-conference honors while playing at the community college level at Palomar College.
In 30 games with the Eagles to close out his high school career as a senior in 2017, Omahen batted .277 with 23 hits, five doubles, nine runs scored and eight RBI. He also posted a 2.33 earned-run average in three pitching appearances.
Omahen earned three letters while attending Granite Hills. During that span, the Eagles won the San Diego Section Division I championship in 2016 and advanced to the division semifinals the following season. Granite Hills advanced to the third round of play in the Open Division in 2015.
He appeared in 36 games while attending Palomar College, recording a .313 hitting average with 29 RBI, 34 runs scored and nine stolen bases.
He appeared in seven games for High Point University in the team’s abbreviated season due to the coronavirus pandemic. He started five of those games and finished with a solid .294 batting average. A Mills Scholar Athlete, he was one of five Panthers to hit a home run.
Omahen, who is majoring in sports communications, comes from an athletic family. His older brother Johnny played professionally in the Marlins and Diamondbacks organizations while both his sisters — Amanda and Rylee — have gone the college softball route.
Johnny Omahen, a 35th round pick by the Marlins in the 2011 draft out of Cal State San Marcos, played for seven minor league teams from 2011-16. He compiled a 34-27 pitching record with a 4.20 ERA and three saves. He struck out 342 batters in 518.1 innings.
Amanda Omahen attended the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay. She led the team in 2012 with four home runs, 27 RBI and 24 runs scored.
Rylee Omahen has signed a letter of intent to play at Lander University in Greenwood, S.C., after graduating from Granite Hills in 2020.
