Cougars’ Hattenburg Hungers For Attention Despite .373 Average, Scouts Are Few, Far Between

It may not be that people have overlooked Ray Hattenburg in his Washington State baseball career. It may just be that people have not known where to look.

During his five-year career with the Cougars, the senior has played all but three positions on the diamond.

“Pitcher, catcher and shortstop, those are the only places I haven’t played,” he said. “And I’m begging Coach to play me one time at short before the end of the season.”

Not much of a chance in that, with ironman Shawn Stevenson anchored at shortstop.

Hattenburg, a former Mead standout, is leading the Cougars in hitting (.373), hits (63), multiple-hit games (21) and doubles (15). He is also the only WSU player ranked in any top-10 hitting category in the Pac-10.

“He does everything for us,” said right fielder Jason Grove.

“You need a hit, he gets a hit. You need somebody to stand up and take charge and he does it. “It’s hard for me to believe that everybody overlooks him,” Grove, a preseason All-American, continued. “But they do.”

A couple of years ago, maybe it was understandable that scouts didn’t look Hattenburg’s way.

“Back then, I was horrible,” Hattenburg said. “I couldn’t hit it out of the infield.”

Or batting cage, if you listen to his teammates. Now, after hitting .398 last season and .373 so far this year, it is remarkable that Hattenburg is not getting many sniffs from the pros. Sure, he is not a five-tool player. But what the construction management major has done is taken the tools that he has and built a solid career at WSU.

Hattenburg, who was an honorable mention All-American after his junior season and didn’t get drafted, has a career .358 batting average, good enough for seventh on the WSU all-time list. In 15 Pac-10 games this season, nine of which were against ranked opponents, Hattenburg is hitting .441. “After coming in and not being very good, I just worked at it,” Hattenburg said. “I put in hours upon hours, got lucky and started to hit the ball a little bit.” And a little bit more and a little bit more.

Now heading into his final 15 games at WSU, and maybe as a ballplayer, he has found himself contemplating what could be or what might never be. “Everybody who plays baseball wants to go to that extra level,” he said. “If you get that opportunity that’s great but if not you are playing just for the love of the game.

“So if it happens for me, it happens,” Hattenburg continued. “If it doesn’t then the real world is always there.” And Hattenburg knows he can find a solid position there.

Back where they started

Gonzaga heads into its weekend series with Santa Clara in the same spot it was in last weekend - a game and a half behind Loyola Marymount in the race for the WCC Coast Division crown.

While the Zags (23-17, 13-7) tackle Santa Clara in Spokane, beginning Saturday at noon, the Lions will be at San Francisco (28-15, 15-6). Loyola Marymount swept San Francisco (24-21, 9-12) earlier this season. Gonzaga took two of three from Santa Clara (16-31, 6-15).

Bulldogs head coach Steve Hertz wanted to be even with the Lions before heading down to Southern California next weekend. But in order to do that, the Zags will probably have to sweep Santa Clara and rely on some help from the struggling Dons.

San Francisco has lost five in a row, but does have one of the league’s top hitters, Taggert Bozied. Bozied is among the top 10 in average (.374), slugging percentage (.741), on-base percentage (.441), RBIs (44), home runs (12) and total bases (103).

LMU is not so bad at the plate, either. The Lions lead the conference with a .333 team average.

Gonzaga, which raised its team average seven points to .297 last weekend, could see another jump in average this weekend. Santa Clara has the worst ERA (7.36) in the WCC.

Gonzaga has 10 games left in the regular season. Six of those are at home. The other four are three on the road at LMU and a makeup game at Pepperdine next weekend. Loyola’s Lions have nine games left: this weekend at San Francisco, against Gonzaga next weekend and at Santa Clara the final weekend.

Hara honored

Gonzaga senior shortstop Kevin Hara hit .417 for the week and belted two grand slams against Portland to earn the Rawlings/WCC Player of the Week award. The 6-foot-3 Hara hit a grand slam in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, his first home run of the season, and smacked another one Sunday. He was 5 for 12 in four games, with nine RBIs and four runs scored.

Whitworth hits the road

After having last weekend off, Whitworth swings back into action Saturday against Willamette at Salem, Ore. The Pirates (11-19, 6-9) need to get their bats back on track after being shut out in their last two games. Sophomore Aaron Keller continues to be the Pirates’ most consistent hitter. In fact, he is the only regular that is hitting better than .300 (.312). Nick Schuerman (23) and Matt Squires (22) have provided the majority of the team’s RBIs.