Benefield: For SRJC catcher Ryan Haug, good things come in ones

One.

That’s generally considered a small number.

But in Ryan Haug’s case, it’s huge.

Haug, the freshman catcher on Santa Rosa Junior College’s baseball team, allowed one passed ball all season. One. Uno. Eins. Une. I hesitate to use the phrase “unheard of” because I just heard it, but holy smokes.

“A pitcher throws a baseball at him 115 times a game and the guy catches every one of them,” Bear Cubs head coach Damon Neidlinger said.

Haug played in 36 games this season, so some advanced math tells me that’s about 4,140 pitches that Haug was dealt - and he handled all but one.

“He’s very athletic,” Neidlinger said. “He blocks a lot of balls that other guys can’t get to because of his toughness and quickness.”

And errors this season? Yep. One.

It seems Haug put his glove in the zone over the plate and got cracked by the bat. He also got called for interference.

“It’s never a good feeling when you get your hand blown up by someone’s bat, especially when the pitcher makes a good pitch,” Haug said.

But you know what is a good feeling? When the entire Big 8 Conference recognizes an athlete for what they do in competition, the numbers they put up - even when they are teeny, tiny ones in some cases.

See, Haug was named Big 8 Conference Player of the Year. He’s also up for Gold Glove consideration in a vote next week.

Neidlinger said he doesn’t have to do much of a sell job with other coaches on Haug’s gifts when all-this and all-that awards are voted on.

“Ryan hit .448 in league. He has a .545 on-base percentage,” Neidlinger said. “To be quite honest, when we threw it out there, there wasn’t really a vote.”

Even with his hefty batting average, Haug said defense is where he feels most comfortable.

“There is something about catching, about controlling the game,” he said. “Nothing feels right unless I’m back there.”

Haug also controls the base runners.

Thirty-seven daring souls tried to steal on the Bear Cubs this season. Haug nailed 21 of them.

Haug was the top defensive guy on the state’s top defensive team through the league schedule, Neidlinger said. Teammate Weston Bryan, an infielder who played at Casa Grande, is up for Gold Glove honors after being named all-Big 8, along with pitcher and Maria Carrillo alum Vijay Patel and Bryce Nagata of Hawaii.

The Bear Cubs, who went 28-12 overall and 15-6 in conference to take second place in the Big 8, were swept by San Mateo in the Super Regionals last weekend to end their season.

It was an unceremonious end to the season for a young team that had defied expectations.

“Grown men, that played tough, and they have tears rolling down their eyes,” Neidlinger said. “It was a very, very quick ending.”

It was a hard way to go out for Haug, who said the group - heavy with freshmen - is unusually tight.

Although he only played this season, Haug has been with the Bear Cubs two years.

He graduated from Rancho Cotate in 2013 but redshirted last season with the Bear Cubs because Neidlinger already had a stud catcher in Spencer Neve, who now plays at Sonoma State.

So obvious was Haug’s athleticism straight out of high school that Neidlinger offered to have him play left field and bat second.

“It wasn’t the easiest decision,” Haug said of opting to redshirt last year so he could get two years of catching under Neidlinger. “My heart has always been with catching and that is what I always wanted to do with him.”

So it’s a twist of irony that Haug redshirted a year but came out this season so hot, so dominant at the plate and behind it, that it looks like he won’t, in fact, play two years for the Bear Cubs.

The Division I colleges are knocking. Haug won’t say what he’s going to do, but Neidlinger doesn’t expect him to stay for his sophomore season.

“It’s part of the job, it’s what we are here to do,” he said.

One year.

Like that one passed ball or that one error - it’s such a small number.

Haug even wears No. 1 on his jersey.

Now it seems there is one more “one” in Haug’s life.

Division I.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield.