WSU baseball player Justin Van De Brake made the best of his bubble

While most of the sports world grappled with how, when and if to return to play because of the coronavirus pandemic, Justin Van De Brake of the Washington State baseball team was in his own little bubble this summer in Battle Creek, Michigan.

The outfielder for the Battle Creek Bombers, who played in all 47 games of his team’s Northwoods League games before he returned to Pullman on Aug. 14, had one of the best showings of the 17 Cougs who landed on summer teams. The senior hit .277 with 33 hits, 22 runs, 17 RBIs and six home runs.

“It was a pretty typical summer ball experience, surprisingly, being with everything going on,” Van De Brake said. “Really good group of guys and had a lot of fun doing it.”

Van De Brake said the COVID-19 protocols put in place made for a mostly smooth summer.

The Bombers played only the two other teams in their pod: the Kalamazoo Mac Daddies and the Kalamazoo Growlers. All players were tested for the coronavirus when they arrived in the Great Lakes region, temperature checks occurred before every practice and players wore masks and physically distanced as best they could when not in the game.

“They were fairly strict about it, which obviously is understandable,” Van De Brake said. “You definitely get used to it. Honestly, the hardest part is not being able to high-five. (That’s) your natural reaction – your teammate hits a home run, you want to give them a high-five.”

Van De Brake recorded 119 at-bats with the Bombers – more than doubling the 57 he tallied in the spring during his shortened debut season with the Cougars.

Van De Brake transferred to WSU from Tacoma Community College, where he earned All-America honors with the Titans.

His solid hitting carried into the Pac-12, where the Tacoma native hit .333 and led the team with 19 RBIs in 16 games. He started 15 of those games in left field.

Van De Brake’s hot start with the Cougars was halted by the sports cancellations, and he was forced to try to land a coveted spot on a summer team.

“I was super lucky to be able to play anywhere,” Van De Brake said. “I’m fortunate to be able to get a season in. A lot of guys didn’t get to do that. I don’t know exactly how many at-bats I got, but it was over 100, so that’s obviously huge going into the fall.”

It was an up-and-down season for Battle Creek (27-31-3), but the Bombers had a stretch in late July when they had walk-off wins in four of five games.

“I had one of them – just a single down the right-field line that was a walk-off,” Van De Brake said. “We had four in five games, so that was a super fun stretch of games for sure.”

Van De Brake is no stranger to big hits. He hit a grand slam in his 10th game as a Coug in a 10-2 win Feb. 29 against Rutgers.

Van De Brake didn’t have any fellow Cougs in his pod this summer, but eight WSU players landed in the Northwoods League in other groups.

None of his college teammates played in as many games as Van De Brake, who spent most of his time at right field and second base. The Bombers had doubleheaders almost every day, leaving little time for anything besides baseball.

With the summer finished, Van De Brake finds himself outside his baseball bubble and back in a world of unpredictability.

The Pac-12 earlier this month decided its athletes won’t participate in sports for the remainder of the calendar year. The impact on baseball still is unknown.

“We’re just so uncertain even in front of us right now, so I’m just kinda taking it day by day and doing what I can,” Van De Brake said. “I can’t even be in the cage right now because I need to pass some COVID-19 tests and stuff like that … but we’re all definitely excited to get back to it.”