For Campbell alum Raymond Pedrina, things are looking up

Last summer, Lewis-Clark State junior Raymond Pedrina watched seven of his teammates get picked in the MLB draft.

Another signed as a free agent.

Draft eligible after hitting .303 with seven homers and 61 runs scored, Pedrina had successfully come back from hand and foot surgery that cost him his entire 2016 season.

But it didn’t get him the call he had hoped for.

“I hope that opportunity arises for me,” Pedrina said in a phone interview on Monday. “I try not to concern myself with (the draft). I’m (5-foot-8). I’m a small guy. I’m going to be underrated and overlooked off the bat. But if a team is willing to give me an opportunity, I’ll show them what I got and prove them right, because I know I can play at the next level.”

The 2013 Campbell alumnus has carried that mind-set into his fifth year with the Warriors, who are three-time defending NAIA World Series champions.

Pedrina, the NAIA West player of the week honoree last month, is having his best season yet. Entering this weekend’s series against British Columbia, Pedrina leads the team with a .372 batting average and 37 runs scored in 25 games.

He also has nine doubles, three triples, three homers and a .487 on-base percentage for LCSC, which has won its past 12 games and is 24-5 overall and 14-1 in conference.

“Every year I’ve been here, it just seems like the talent just gets better and better,” Pedrina said. “The talent is there, but it’s just the mentality part with us. We’ve already got a bull’s-eye on our back and people don’t want to see us succeed, so we’ve just got to take that and prove them wrong.”

A football and baseball athlete at Kamehameha before transferring to Campbell for baseball season during his senior year, Pedrina signed with Lewis-Clark State without visiting the school.

Former Pearl City baseball coach Gavin Concepcion, who was an assistant at Kamehameha under Vern Ramie while Pedrina was there, is a Lewis-Clark State alumnus and helped get Pedrina to the campus in Lewiston, Idaho.

The Warriors have a long tradition of recruiting athletes from Hawaii and were a regular in the Rainbow Easter Tournament at Les Murakami Stadium until 2003.

“Once I signed I started to hear from people and had some of the uncles at my graduation party tell me stories about what a great school it is,” Pedrina said. “I just thought it was a good school to continue my baseball career and then I got here and realized a lot of those stories I heard about were true.”

LCSC has won 19 NAIA national titles, while no other program has won more than four.

The Warriors have had 138 players selected in the major league draft and 16 who have played in the big leagues.

Pedrina hopes to add to that number this summer, but is more focused on what lies ahead for the Warriors.

“This journey has been quite an experience in itself,” Pedrina said. “I missed a season and gained an appreciation for the game by having it taken away from me. I’m just a Hawaii boy trying to represent out here and that’s the attitude I have every single day.”