“Gren-yur”

For almost 15 months, all of Beaver Baseball has been mispronouncing one player’s last name.

Cadyn Grenier.

Although his last name appears to be said ‘Gren-eer,’ his family pronounces it ‘Gren-yur.’

“It’s something that you look at my name, and that’s how it should be said,” Grenier acknowledged. “But for whatever reason, we don’t say it like that.”

Grenier has accepted ‘Gren-eer’ as a second ‘correct’ pronunciation for his name

“My dad made a good point,” Grenier explained. “He goes, ‘Look, as long as the announcers announce the name, I don’t care how they say it because guys who are on the bench or they don’t play as much, you don’t hear the announcers saying their name, so as long as it’s being said, whatever.’ That’s kind of how I see it too.”

As Grenier has accepted two correct pronunciations, his teammates aren’t ready to let him off the hook yet.

“It’s funny because everybody’s been saying it the last couple days, and I’m like ‘C’mon guys, it’s not a big deal…’”

Growing up playing baseball his whole life, Grenier heard many different pronunciations of his name, and one of them stuck with him in particular.

“It’s always fun to go to Canada and play,” Grenier said. “Like when I was in the West Coast League, we got to go to Colona, because it’s French so you go up there and they’re like, ‘Now batting, Cadyn Gren-yay.’ And you’re just like ‘Ooh, fancy.’”

Grenier’s name will be said, ‘Gren-yur’ by announcers the rest of the season at Goss, but away games may still bring up occasional variations going forward.

KJ Harrison Injury Update

KJ Harrison will be back on the field this weekend after missing the past four games with an ankle injury.

“I feel great,” Harrison said. “My ankle’s ready to go, I’m all good. I’ll be playing this weekend, excited to get back out there.”

With a non-conference series, Harrison could potentially rest his ankle to prepare for the postseason, but he has other ideas.

“I want to play as much as I can for sure,” Harrison said. “It sucked not being out there last weekend but I had to do what I had to do to be ready to go, so I want to be out there, and play, and that’s what I want to do.”

Michael Gretler filled in for Harrison against WSU last weekend but will move back to the hot corner as Harrison assumes his regular position at first.

Abilene Christian

The Beavers will close out their regular season with a four-game series against the Abilene Christian Wildcats.

The Wildcats come into Corvallis with a big task at hand but have had hot bats recently. ACU comes in with a team .278 batting average, but have hit 31 home runs this season to the Beavers’ 21.

Starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen likes the challenge of a good offensive team.

“They got some good bats in their lineup, and they like to swing it,” Rasmussen said. “As a pitcher, it’s exciting. You know they’re going to come in here and challenge you, make you work and you wouldn’t want anything less.”

However, with the rest of the Pac-12 finishing out conference play, OSU’s scheduling played out where they had to fill their last weekend with a non-conference opponent.

“It’s a little weird to have a non-conference this late in the year, but that’s just how our Pac-12 schedule ended up working out this year,” Rasmussen said. “It should be a good test. Every team comes in here gives us their best shot.”

As many players have talked about the ‘target’ the team has on it’s back, the Beavers still have the same mentality they’ve had all season.

“We’re not going to take anybody lightly, we’re not going to take Abilene Christian lightly,” Grenier said. “We’re going to treat them the same way we treat all the Pac-12 teams. We’re just coming out to win.”

@MitchMonge55