Former Bend Elks infielder Tyler Smith was called up this past Friday from AAA Tacoma. That night, he debuted at Safeco Field for the Seattle Mariners at second base and doubled in his first big league at bat.
Smith starred in college at Oregon State and played for the Elks in the summer of 2010 where he hit .252 with 8 doubles, a homer and 11 RBIs.
He joined fellow OSU alum Sam Gaviglio on the Mariners roster.
Gaviglio also played summer baseball in the West Coast League. Sam pitched for Corvallis in 2009. Gaviglio also recently made his big league debut, and he earned his second big league win last night as Seattle beat Tampa Bay 9-2.
ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE
The West Coast League is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The 13-year-old, 11-team, professionally operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest features pro prospects from major conferences across the nation and an unparalleled history out west of great fan and player experiences in addition to the best summer weather in North America. In 2016, 88 players with WCL experience were selected in the MLB June draft, and more than 230 WCL alums appeared in affiliated professional baseball including 28 in the major leagues, such as 2015 home-run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore), 2015 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Matt Duffy (Tampa Bay) and rising star pitchers Matt Andriese (Tampa Bay), Matt Boyd (Detroit) and James Paxton (Seattle). Overall member attendance was 379,611 this past season.
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