PORT ANGELES — Sequim’s Evan Hurn has been waiting for his return to Civic Field since he signed on with the West Coast League’s Bellingham Bells.
The Bells visit the Port Angeles Lefties for a three-game series starting tonight.
“It was one of the first things I thought about when I got my contract,” Hurn said of returning to the North Olympic Peninsula.
“Playing back home will be great. I’ll have family and friends there, and playing at Civic will remind me of my Wilder days. And playing in front of a crowd that big will remind me of the Sequim-Port Angeles rivalry games.”
Hurn, a former Sequim High School and Wilder Baseball standout, signed a preliminary, 10-day contract with Bellingham, a well-established wooden bat program, last winter while prepping for his freshman season with the Northwest Athletic Conference’s Edmonds Tritons.
“My head coach Scott Kelley down in Edmonds has been affiliated with the organization and is good friends with their recruiter Jim Clem [a Port Angeles native], and I was offered a 10-day contract before the NWAC season started.
“Bellingham has had a few other Edmonds guys in previous years and Jim Clem said he’s very familiar with Port Angeles and Sequim. [Former Port Angeles, Lower Columbia and Gonzaga standout] Eric Lane played for the Bells and [Sequim, LCC and University of Portland’s] Ben Grubb did as well.”
Hurn is batting .255 with one home run, three RBIs, 10 runs and three stolen bases through Thursday for the Bells (16-11).
“They haven’t told me to leave yet,” Hurn joked. “They keep telling me to keep up the good work, and I think we’ve reached the point where we’ve got all the players we are going to get. We’ve been kind of short at first base and at third base and I can play those spots.”
Hurn was a fixture at second base for Sequim and saw lots of time at third for Wilder.
So far with Bellingham, Hurn has spent his time moving around the infield.
“I’ve been playing third a lot more recently,” he said. “I started out at first, also subbed in at second. I told them I can play the outfield, too.
“I’m not necessarily the prototypical first baseman. I even had an umpire make a comment about that during a game, but I feel like I’m comfortable playing there.”
Hurn started his NWAC career as well as one can, homering in his first at-bat.
But he struggled at the plate for Edmonds, hitting a sobering .203 in his freshman campaign.
Hurn said he’s tried to improve his mental approach to hitting while with Bellingham.
“I’m working on not bringing any of my past at-bats into my next at-bat,” he said.
“I feel I had that problem in NWAC play. I got down on myself and it became a grind. And this is even more of a grind, as close to minor league ball you can get.
But I’ve gained a lot of confidence playing against this tougher competition and know I now I can be successful to a degree. So I think the No. 1 thing was mental approach and realizing every bat was a new at-bat.”
Hurn has been a mainstay for Bellingham’s “early work,” essentially pre-batting practice training time, learning from Bells’ hitting coach Rick Teegarden, a graduate assistant with the Seattle University baseball team.
“He’s been working with me in our early work before games,” the left-handed hitting Hurn said. “I’ve been learning to stay through the ball a lot better and I’m seeing less rollovers to second. And I’ve been working on hitting to all fields.”
Hurn said he’s enjoyed making friends with teammates from Stanford, West Virginia and points in between, bonding through the shared experience of late nights and long bus rides.
“Wilder prepared me for this,” he said. “I’m really thankful for playing three summers with them. It was probably the best prep I could have gotten.
“And laying ball every day, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.”
