McFarland: Resilient Beck exceling at UMary
Southeast Twins’ alum Carter Beck (Carnduff, Sask.) is hitting north of .350 with the University of Mary Marauders this season. Photo: UMary Athletics
*This article was originally published on Saskatchewan Dugout Stories on April 25. You can read it here.
April 29, 2024
By Joe McFarland
Saskatchewan Dugout Stories
When a freshman college baseball player is sporting a .400 batting average heading into April, people are bound to take notice.
Carnduff’s Carter Beck managed to do exactly that in his first season with the University of Mary Marauders, quickly rising up the batting order in the process.
A Canadian College Player of the Week in mid-March after hitting four home runs and driving in eight runs in four games, the outfielder says confidence was key to his early success.
“Just trusting myself that I can hit good pitches, hitting fastballs early in the count and hitting breakers that I know are going to be in the zone and trying to stay away from chasing,” Beck told Saskatchewan Dugout Stories.
“I think that’s been the biggest thing for me is just looking for pitches I can hit and not missing them when I do decide to swing at them.”
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Listen to Saskatchewan Dugout Stories interview Carter Beck here.
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Despite a five-game hitless streak in early-April, he is still hitting .353 with nine home runs and 40 runs batted in as he continues to write new pages in the book of his baseball journey.
One that he hopes will include major awards and a championship with the Marauders later this spring.
TREATS AND TITLES
Baseball is in Beck’s blood.
He remembers growing up watching his grandfather and father play the game, particularly as the bat boy for his dad’s senior ball team in Carnduff.
“I’d be at every game chasing down foul balls,” Beck laughed. “I’d make myself enough money to buy a freezie at the end of every game.”
He loved playing catch with the older players, and found himself playing high-level baseball early on, including making Saskatchewan’s 13U provincial team that went to nationals.
Beck starred with the Southeast A’s out of Alameda in the Regina AAA league, then headed to Estevan where he had two great seasons with the Southeast Twins.
For his efforts, the budding slugger was named the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League’s U19 AAA most valuable player in 2022 and 2023.
Carter Beck poses with his hardware in 2023. Photo credit: Blair Beck
Beck was also part of the province’s Canada Summer Games team in 2022 that won the bronze medal in dramatic fashion against B.C.
“Being Saskatchewan and beating B.C., a small province going up and beating a team like that, it was such a great experience,” he said. “Getting those bronze medals – doesn’t get much cooler than that.”
All of his success set the stage for his commitment to UMary and an opportunity to get one step closer to his goal of getting drafted by a Major League Baseball team.
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Just a three-and-a-half hour drive from Carnduff, the University of Mary baseball program has become a popular stop for Canadians looking to play baseball in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
The 2024 Marauders roster features no less than 18 Canadians, including three Saskatchewan athletes with Beck, Regina’s Dylan Edmands and Kindersley’s Joel McGrath.
The excitement of getting that first taste of college baseball was quickly dashed for Beck when he suffered a freak injury during the fall.
Running the bases during a wet fall game against Minot State, he slid into third base awkwardly and remembers his cleat catching the ground weirdly.
“Basically, I separated my fibula and tibia, and broke and fractured three metatarsals in my right foot,” Beck said. “I had to have surgery on that, which put me out for about three months.”
He says it was one of the biggest challenges he’s ever faced in his baseball career, especially because he considers himself to be a “busy body” who is always doing something.
Beck was back on the field in January, and admits it was an adjustment trying to trust himself at the plate and on the bases.
“Sometimes, I will hit the hard shuffle and stop – it makes me flinch,” he said. “There’s no pain or anything, but the fear of it happening is there a little bit.”
While a challenging time, it also allowed for Beck to have a new appreciation for the game and to not take any moment for granted.
SETTING LOFTY GOALS
Coming back from a difficult injury is just another chapter in Beck’s rise above expectations.
As a small-town Saskatchewan player, he knows what it’s like to earn his spot and is happy to take on the underdog role.
“There’s been a lot of times in my life where I’ve been the guy showing up who is a nobody and has to go up, show out and do the best I can to even get a look sometimes.”
“Having been in this spot before, I was feeling really confident in how I would fit in and trust my abilities to let my game speak for itself,” Beck said.
While his early success might be surprising to some, the 6-foot, 205-pound outfielder says he always sets goals in his mind, even if he doesn’t state them outright.
“I’m not afraid to set some lofty goals so I think it’s always been that I want to be the NSIC Freshman Player of the Year,” he stated. “You don’t want to go around sounding too cocky, but that was definitely one of the goals in the back of my mind.”
While he had played all over the field with his different teams in Saskatchewan, one position he didn’t have a lot of experience in was left field, which is where he started the season at UMary.
Beck admits it’s been a learning curve to get to know the position more, but one that he is comfortable making if it means having a spot on the roster.
TOON TOWN BOUND
Five-and-a-half hours northwest of Carnduff is where Beck will find himself playing baseball during the summer.
The left-hitting slugger was among the first recruits of Joe Carnahan and the new Saskatoon Berries, who will begin their inaugural Western Canadian Baseball League season on May 24.
“I think this summer is going to be a lot of fun,” Beck said. “I have always wanted to play on a WCBL team one year because I remember watching those games a little bit when we would go to tournaments and stuff like that.”
He says it means a lot getting the opportunity to play in his home province and to instill a love of the game with the next generation of baseball players.
Whether it’s signing a baseball for a fan or chatting with the youngsters in the stands, Beck is hoping to be a role model.
“My biggest piece of advice, especially coming from a really small town, is that you have to keep going,” he said. “Even if, at times, you’re feeling like you’re not getting the recognition or you feel like people aren’t respecting you for as good as you are, you will always get your chance if you keep going.”
It’s a mindset that continues to get Carter Beck noticed at every turn.