By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
Keanu Spenser’s college baseball season wasn’t quite what he wanted, thanks to a bout with appendicitis.
But before that happened, Spenser had already made up his mind where he wanted to play his summer baseball this year.
Spenser is back with the Burlington Bees, playing the second half in the Prospect League.
Why he came back, he said, was simple.
“Honestly, last year’s experience here was something I had never experienced before with baseball, and I just wanted to come back and be a part of it again,” Spenser said.
Spenser hit .304 with the Bees last season, with a team-high 10 home runs to go with 42 runs batted in. He was second on the team with 52 hits, and posted a .978 OPS.
But his appreciation of playing in Burlington had nothing to do with his statistics.
“The No. 1 thing is just the fan base here,” he said. “It’s a raw baseball experience. The host families — they don’t even know us, but they open their homes to us. People come out to the games. They enjoy the Bees, they enjoy baseball. They’re true fans of the game.
“It was the most fun I had ever had playing baseball. It meant the world to me.”
It’s why, around Christmas break, Spenser reached out to Bees manager Owen Oreskovich and said he wanted to play with the team again this season, but only for a half of the season.
“He said the second half was going to be open, so I just jumped right on it,” Spenser said.
A few weeks later, as Spenser was getting ready for his season at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C., an NCAA Division I program in the ASUN Conference, he woke up one morning with a deep pain in his stomach.
“I knew it wasn’t right,” Spenser said. “I went to class, to see if maybe it would feel better, but by the end of class it wasn’t. I called our trainer, he checked me out, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you should probably go to the ER.’
“When I got there, they did an MRI, injected me with some dye to check it out. The lady was like, ‘Yeah, your appendix needs to come out now before it blows.’”
Spenser knew such a surgery would likely end his season before it started, but a doctor presented him with an alternative.
“He said I could take some antibiotics, see if I could clear up the infection so the inflammation would go down,” Spenser said. “He said there would be an 85 percent chance of it working. So I called my parents, talked with them, and I said I was going to take the antibiotics, because it would be my only shot at playing this season.
“Everything worked out. I took the antibiotics, the inflammation went down. That way I didn’t have to have surgery.”
But it was enough of a setback that Spenser didn’t get a lot of playing time. He played in just 13 games, hitting .222 with three home runs and five RBIs.
“I understood it,” Spenser said. “The coaches, it’s their job. Our other first baseman was playing better, so I played some at designated hitter and I did some pinch-hitting.”
Spenser headed back to his home in Scottsdale, Arizona after the season, putting on some weight while playing in the Copper State League to get some work in before coming to Burlington.
Spenser has played in four games with the Bees, hitting .364.
“I think having those few weeks of playing in Arizona was good, getting regular at-bats,” Spenser said. “It’s definitely been a good confidence booster coming in here and doing well.”
Spenser is back in a clubhouse with some familiar faces from last season, but he is also getting to know some new players, including three players from Hawaii Pacific — outfielder Cooper Donlin, pitcher Shea Blanchard and infielder Skyler Agnew — where Spenser will be transferring to play next season.
“I just wanted to be able to go play baseball in Hawaii, if I had the opportunity to do that,” Spenser said. “And knowing in the last few seasons they’ve played amazing, I knew it would be a good place. It was kind of a no-brainer.
“Shea, Cooper, and Skyler are great guys. It’s been fun getting to know them.”
Spenser said he wants to spend this month with the Bees refining his swing.
If anything, he said, it’s good to be back in a place where he’s enjoyed playing.
“I really like being here,” Spenser said.
Photo: Keanu Spenser looks on from the third-base dugout at Community Field in his second season with the Burlington Bees. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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