Friday, May. 08, 2009

A Brave journey: Cousins help young baseball team prosper

By Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writer

KENNEWICK To look at their stats and watch them play, it would be easy to assume that cousins Kody Young and Shawn O'Brien are having dream seasons as they wrap up their playing days in a Kamiakin baseball uniform.

O'Brien, a three-year starter as a slick-fielding first baseman for the Braves, is second in the CBBN Cascade Division with a .513 batting average. Tuesday, he slugged a couple of home runs and drove in five runs in the opener of a league doubleheader against Eastmont.

Young, meanwhile, has established himself as one of the area's dominant pitchers, despite a misstep against Eastmont where he gave up six runs in the first inning. He went into the game with a 4-1 record, a 1.79 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings.

Both will be playing college ball next year --O'Brien has signed with Saint Mary's in Moraga, Calif., while Young is being courted by the likes of UNLV and Portland.

Moreover, the Braves came into this week with an outside shot of tying powerful Richland for first place in the Cascade -- it didn't happen, with the Bombers clinching the title. But just having a chance was a remarkable feat considering the mass graduation last spring from a team that two years in a row came up one win shy of playing in the state semifinals at Safeco Field.

So it's been all buttons and bows for Young and O'Brien this season, right?

Not so fast.

After going so deep in the postseason the past two years, the Braves found themselves struggling halfway through this season. Worse, they played horrendously in a 10-0 loss to Kennewick on April 14, dropping them to 5-6.

"It's like we were OK with losing at the time," O'Brien said, "and that's not where we needed to be."

"We came together as a team and had a good talk the day after the first beating," Young added.

A heart-to-heart started by the coaches got rolling among the players, and attitudes across the board picked up. Since then, Kamiakin has won seven of nine games, including a 5-4 victory over Kennewick a week after getting 10-runned and earning a split with Richland.

Coming back from a little adversity is nothing new to either player. Both have had their share of setbacks.

Young expected to be the Braves' No. 2 starter as a junior after seeing spot duty the previous spring. Instead, he had a bad outing in his first start against Richland (who didn't last season?) and wound up in the bullpen.

"Some guys were pitching better," Kamiakin coach Rex Easley said. "Kody was a pretty good guy, but we felt he didn't have the No. 2 pitch."

That all changed over the summer as Young became one of the big guns for the Twin City Titans, who finished second in the American Legion World Series.

Young credits his improvement to a change in mechanics. It didn't take long to pick up 5 or 6 mph on his fastball, now in the upper 80s. And suddenly a guy whose out pitch was a curve became a power pitcher, and his ace in the hole the split-finger.

"I started to throw that to my dad my freshman year and I worked on it last summer," Young said, "and this year that's what's been huge for me."

O'Brien, who started his varsity career as a sophomore by switching on the fly from the outfield to first base, was in the midst of a big summer when he broke his collarbone chasing down a fly ball and tripping.

"I caught the ball," he said with a grin. "The ump said I dropped it, but I have it on tape."

When the doctors told him he'd be on the bench for three months coming back, he thought it was rock bottom.

"I was really upset," said O'Brien, who has a protrusion on his collarbone as a nice reminder. "I couldn't play baseball, and all I wanted to do was play."

He chanced a little batting practice two weeks after the injury and found he could swing through the pain. Another week later, he was back on the Titans as the team headed off to Montana for regionals and then to Shelby, N.C., for the Series.

Baseball is a big part of the family dynamic. Their mothers -- sisters Cheri O'Brien and Tracy Young -- are among the most ardent (and vocal) supporters at each game, with the dads, Tom O'Brien and KC Young, never far away.

They often have dinner at Grandma Linda's house, where baseball is a frequent topic of conversation.

Kody and Shawn have been playing together most of their lives. They grew up in different Cal Ripken districts -- Young was a Kennewick American All-Star, O'Brien a National -- and haven't played against each other since Babe Ruth four or five years ago. They figure it was 50-50 as to who got the best of whom.

Most would put Kamiakin's chances to finally get over the hump and get to Safeco at somewhat less than 50-50 -- the Braves are young, with three sophomores and a freshman either starting or throwing out of the bullpen.

Young and O'Brien each took a second -- a few seconds, really -- before answering if this team has the stuff to get to the semifinals.

"We're going to have to play our best baseball," O'Brien finally said.

And, no doubt, overcome an obstacle or two along the way. Nothing they haven't done before.