Raiders’ Oden discovers passion for baseball while growing up around the game

QUINCY — It might not have seemed out of the ordinary to any of the Quincy Gems players to have the 9-year-old son of their pitching coach running around the outfield with them shagging baseballs.

Those moments, though, turned out to be priceless.

Nearly a decade later, everyone sees why.

Quincy Notre Dame left fielder Harry Oden will embark on an NCAA Division I career when this season ends, having signed to play for Lindenwood University. How that came to be goes back to those summers tagging along with his dad, current QND coach Ryan Oden, to Gems’ practices and games.

“It made me feel like it was in the big leagues,” Oden said.

The game became a passion running around that outfield.

“That’s when I really started loving the game and really started putting my heart into it,” Oden said.

It’s given him the drive to help push the Raiders to new heights.

Riding a 20-game win streak with the most regular-season victories in program history, QND (29-2) opens postseason play in the Class 2A QND Regional at 4 p.m. Wednesday against Athens at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield.

Oden doesn’t see the streak or the success as pressure.

“Right now, we’re 0-0. We haven’t proven anything yet,” he said. “We have to keep playing the game and see how we operate.”

What has transpired to date gives the Raiders confidence and swagger. A lineup with Oden, an NCAA Division I signee, hitting fifth has averaged 10.2 runs per game, and they have a pitching staff that has allowed just 21 earned runs during the winning streak with a 1.26 ERA.

Overall, the Raiders have posted 13 shutouts.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise with a head coach with a pitching background.

“We love watching college baseball together,” Harry Oden said. “He tells me all about the pitchers and they’re pitch sequence, and he’s always right somehow about what the pitcher is going to throw next. It helps me learn a lot from the pitcher’s mentality.”

A starter at Crowder College when he arrived as a freshman, Ryan Oden went 4-0 before being moved to the bullpen because of his ability to recover quickly and throw multiple outings in a week. It led to a career 3.54 ERA and his 2018 induction into the Roughrider Baseball Hall of Fame.

After leaving Crowder, Oden pitched at Central Missouri State and was part of the staff that won the NCAA Division II national title in 1994 and took third place at the D-II World Series in 1995.

“Since he was a pitcher, he’s told me how he would work batters and stuff,” Harry Oden said. “He’s going to work away, work away. When you’re hitting, you have to take what’s given to you. They’re not always going to be a cookie right down the middle for you to hit.

“You just have to hit the ball where they’re throwing it to you.”

Patience at the plate, the knowledge gained from his father and the willingness to use the entire field had made Oden such an efficient hitter. He heads into the postseason hitting .402 with a .519 on-base percentage, nine doubles, four triples, three home runs, 20 RBIs and 39 runs scored.

“I take a lot of pride in hitting the ball,” Oden said.

It’s his God-given talent.

“My dad didn’t give me the arm he has,” Oden said. “But I definitely hit better than him.”

The ability to hit, along with the way he covers ground in the outfield, intrigued the Lindenwood coaching staff. When Oden signed with the Lions, who are coached by former Culver-Stockton College coach Doug Bletcher, Lindenwood was still an NCAA Division II program playing in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

An announcement was made in February that Lindenwood will make the jump to NCAA Division I and join the Ohio Valley Conference.

“I wouldn’t say they told us anything directly during the recruiting process, but there were hints about going bigger,” Oden said.

When it became official, he got excited.

“I was like, ‘Heck, yeah,’” Oden said. “I always wanted to play at the D-I level. I didn’t think I was going to have the chance, but now I do. It’s up to me to make the most of it.

“I feel like it’s going to be a great experience to go down there and compete at such a high level and see where I’m at.”