Dylan Beavers Came to Cal as a Pitcher, Now Leads Pac-12 in Homers

Power-hitting center fielder is one Bears' top threats heading into home series against USC

Dylan Beavers came to Cal expecting to be a pitcher.  Instead he is the Bears' everyday center fielder who leads the Pac-12 in home runs and hit one tape-measure shot against Utah over the weekend.

Heading into a three-game series against USC (11-9, 4-2 Pac-12) that starts today (Thursday) at Cal's Evans Diamond, Beavers leads the Bears in batting average (.321), on-base percentage (.413), slugging percentage (.631), OPS (1.040) and walks (18).

And he leads Cal (14-9, 2-1 Pac-12) and the conference in home runs, with eight.

That's a long way from the Cal single-season record for homers, held jointly by former major leaguer Xavier Nady and current major leaguer Andrew Vaughn. But it's a lot for a guy who was recruited as a pitcher and played sparingly last season as a freshman outfielder.

"Primarily I feel like I got recruited more for the pitching side," said Beavers in the video atop the story, "and I anticipated just pitching to be honest."

Soon after he arrived at Cal in the fall of 2019, the pitching aspect was phased out and he became an outfielder, much to Beavers' delight.

"I like hitting and playing outfield much better," he said. "Pitching was just something I was good at. I threw hard when I was in high school. I'm kind of glad I don't have to throw anymore, the stress of keeping your arm healthy and stuff."

But Beavers, who resides in Paso Robles, Calif., gave little indication during last year's shortened season that he would be the Bears' hitting star in 2021. He played in 12 of Cal's 16 games last season, with eight starts, and hit .250 with one homer.

"I wouldn't say I'm surprised," Beavers said of this year's improvement, "I'd say I definitely got better than last year. I worked a lot in the offseason.  I had a lot of time during COVID. I was definitely anticipating playing well this year."

Beavers is particularly pleased with his batting average this season, since he considers himself more of a long-ball threat.  And he demonstrated just how far he can launch a baseball when he hit a home run over the 420-foot sign in center field in Sunday's loss at Utah, as seen in the twitter video below.

Tied up. 👊 @dylanbeavers11 launches his eighth round-tripper of the year.

📲 » https://t.co/ccy9MuR8Sc pic.twitter.com/fWqd4WNc3z

— Cal Baseball (@CalBaseball) March 28, 2021

Beaver admits the altitude in Salt Lake City may have aided the blast.

"That was probably the bet ball I hit all year," he said, "but it did fly in Utah much better than it flies down here."

If the Bears are going to reach the NCAA playoffs they need to win series like the one this weekend at home against the Trojans. The Pac-12 appears to be wide open with UCLA, ranked No. 9, being the only team in the conference ranked among the top 19 teams in this week's D1 Baseball top-25 rankings, and no Pac-12 ranked in the top 14 of the Baseball America rankings.

The fact that preseason All-American Grant Holman returned to the starting rotation last weekend after missing the early part of the season with an injury should be a boost for the Bears.  He was on a limited pitch count in his first appearance of the season, last Friday at Utah, but he gave up just one hit and no runs with four strikeouts and one walk in three innings.  Holman will be the Bears' starting pitcher in Friday's game against USC.

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Cover photo of Dylan Beavers by Robert Edwards/KLC Fotos

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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