SEATTLE – Jake Rife figured he’d spend his freshman season with the Washington baseball team getting a pinch-hit at-bat here or there, maybe a start in the outfield against a Division III school. And truthfully, that would have been enough, because he never expected to be playing Division I college baseball in the first place.
But Rife’s season hasn’t gone quite like that. Instead, Rife has been seeing regular time hitting leadoff as the designated hitter for the Huskies (28-15), who open a series against Arizona today at Husky Ballpark.
Rife, who was the Class 2A Player of the Year after leading Lakewood to its second straight state championship game appearance last season, is Washington’s starting DH against right-handed pitchers. He’s played in 30 of Washington’s 43 games and started 22 of them.
“I’m playing a ton more than I thought,” Rife said. “I knew it would be a crowded outfield. So they stuck me at DH and let me bat leadoff, and they’ve stuck with me. I learn more about the game every time I’m out there. Getting to play is paying off.”
Rife hasn’t been tearing up the Pacific-10 with the bat, hitting .247, but he’s shown enough to have head coach Ken Knutson excited about Rife’s future. Rife had 15 walks against 14 strikeouts, good numbers for a leadoff guy. He hit his only home run of the season Feb. 24 against Gonzaga, though he also went deep in an exhibition game against the University of British Columbia. Knutson believes that Rife’s power will come. After all, Rife hit .476 as a sophomore at Lakewood, .492 as a junior and .450 as a senior.
“Jake’s got speed and strength,” Knutson said. “He can swing the bat, he’s got good power, and it’ll show up. What you hope is that as freshmen, guys contribute somehow. As sophomores they’re solid players and as juniors they’re the best players on your team and they got out and sign (a professional contract). That’s what we envision for Jake.”
Rife said he never expected he’d be playing for a program like Washington. But after making the Area Code Games team, he started getting recruiting calls in his junior year, and he played on Taylor Baseball, a top summer league team coached by UW assistant coach Tighe Dickinson.
Now Rife finds himself playing against storied programs like USC and Arizona State, and says it’s an intense feeling playing on the same fields that Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Reggie Jackson once played on.
“This time last year, I was playing against, like, Granite Falls,” Rife said. “It’s been awesome. There are times I’ll be alone on the airplane or at the hotel and think about how much things have changed in one year.”
Freshman seasons are always one of adjustments, and that’s been the case with Rife. You go from being the best player in your league to being just another guy on a team of best players. And you can forget about seeing those fastballs down the middle.
“The velocity is a big change, but also just how hard and late pitches break,” Rife said. “These guys throw the ball where they want to throw it all the time.”
“It’s a huge adjustment,” Knutson said. “You’re seeing pitching that you haven’t seen before. Guys are throwing breaking balls in the mid-80s and fastballs in the low-90s. And they throw everything with command. It’s not so much the stuff that you see, but the ability to command that stuff.”
Rife got an early look at what he’d be up against in the fall when he stepped in against Husky ace Tim Lincecum, who may be the top pick in June’s amateur draft. Lincecum took it easy on Rife in the scrimmage, throwing him only fastballs, and in his first at-bat Rife hit a single.
“After that, he started mixing in curve balls, sliders, change-ups and his fastball,” Rife said. “He’s unreal. Now I’m like 1-for-9 against him.”
Getting a hit off Lincecum is certainly a highlight, but Rife’s biggest moment this season came on March 2, when he hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth inning that gave the Huskies a 6-5 win over Texas Arlington. But there’s also been plenty of freshmen moments that have kept him grounded.
“I make boneheaded mistakes,” Rife said. “I hit a line drive against BYU that the right fielder dove for and the ball popped out of his glove. I stopped running when it hit his glove and I should have ended up at second base. I ended up not scoring and we lost the game. But everything’s about learning.”
“Defensively, he needs to improve,” Knutson said. “His defensive skills are average right now. But he’ll hit for average and power. He can run and he’s a good base runner. He’s going to develop into a really good player for us.”
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