Photo courtesy of UW baseball

Casen Taggart led the University of Washington baseball team with a .326 batting average this spring.

Casen Taggart led Huskies in hitting

By Tim Clinton

Baseball keeps Casen Taggart busy, even after the end of his senior season as the starting first baseman for the University of Washington.

One afternoon the week after it ended was a workout to try to catch the attention of the Miami Marlins organization and the next was a team year end meeting for the Huskies squad he led in hitting for average this spring.

Taggart plans to train hard this summer, aiming for the July 15-18 baseball draft or to more workouts beyond if he is passed up.

"I have one this fall with the New York Yankees," said Taggart, who will not play summer college ball this year.  "I'm just in training."

Meanwhile, he also has two weeks left in his studies at the UW this quarter followed by two more quarters to go to graduate with a Real Estate major.

That's a switch from the previous year at Washington State University, where he majored in Finances while also playing as a left fielder and designated hitter for the Cougars baseball team.

"They wanted me to be a DH and I wanted to play a position," Taggart said of the reasons for his transfer across the state.  "That and the conference change and everything."

The UW moved to the Big Ten, while WSU opted to remain a Pac-12 school along with Oregon State and in the meantime play mostly against the Mountain West.

Taggart blossomed as a hitter with the Huskies, pacing the team with his .326 batting average including the just concluded Big Ten playoffs in Omaha at 56-for-172.

He also amassed a .494 slugging percentage, blasting six home runs and 11 doubles.  Taggart added 32 RBI, 38 runs scored and 46 walks while getting hit by pitches four times.

"I think it was just the change of scenery and maturing," Taggart said of the reasons for his success.

His efforts helped the Huskies earn the No. 5 seed into the Big Ten playoffs.  They finished with a 29-28 overall record including losses to Penn State and USC in Omaha.

"We made it to the Big Ten Conference playoffs and that was pretty cool," Taggart said.  "We beat Iowa this year and they were first in the conference.  We won every Friday night game except one."

While in Omaha the teams played at the same site as the College World Series.

"It was pretty cool to see the atmosphere and play on the College World Series field," Taggart said.  "It was a good-sized city.  It's a college town with real nice facilities for basketball and baseball.  They had really good steaks."

Prior to his time at Washington State, Taggart played catcher and first base at both Everett High School and in his two years at Centralia College.

"I like catching, but it's pretty hard on my body," he said.  "If I could I'd have stayed catching, but it didn't make sense.  I stopped catching when I went to Washington State."

As a catcher, Taggart had an early opportunity to learn from the best.

Future Platinum Glove winning catcher Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners stayed with Taggart's family during a tenure with the Class A Northwest League's Everett Aquasox in 2018.

"It was pretty cool," Taggart said.  "He is a very calm, easy going, go with the flow type of guy.  I picked his brain on my pitch calling and stuff like that."

And what about on his hitting?

"A little bit about hitting," Taggart said.

Judging by the spring he just had with the Huskies, Taggart put what he learned about hitting from Raleigh and others over the years to good use.

"It was pretty strong," Taggart said of his season.