By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ALBANY, Ore.– West Salem’s Brody McMullen has really improved since he graduated from West Salem High School in 2022 as a member of the Linn-Benton Community College Baseball program.
After his redshirt year in 2023, McMullen appeared in 11 games, starting a game and collected three saves in 25-and-two-third innings pitching with 17 strikeouts. This season, McMullen saw more of a starting pitcher role with the Roadrunners. Having started in eight games, played in nine total, with a 4-1 record with 40 strikeouts in 53 innings pitched on the year with a 1.70 ERA.
On Saturday, McMullen pitched five-and-two-third innings,with five strikeouts against Chemeketa as the Roadrunners are sitting out front of the pack in the NWAC South Region standings with one more series left in the regular season.
“I think being able to mix more pitches for strikes has helped me out a bit. I was able to mix super well. But I think the next couple of weeks with this week and NWAC’s, I think the pressure being on a little bit more, I think it’ll be really good,” McMullen starts. “The outing today has for sure helped me get better. The first few innings, I was thinking more about sequences and stuff like that rather than pitches. Just having the guys behind me and I love every single one of the guys at LB, just having them behind me and those guys chirping in the dugout and in my ear a little bit and all those guys always around me benefits me a lot.”
McMullen will be continuing his career beyond this Spring as he’ll join his older brother Brock McMullen at Southeastern University. The elder McMullen still has a year of eligibility left and the two McMullen brothers will be playing together after years of playing against one another in High School, Brody going to West Salem and playing Legion Baseball with the Post 20 Dirtbags and Brock being at Sprague and playing with the Withnell Dodgers.
“It’s going to be sick, I’m pretty excited,” said McMullen. “I’m in a group chat actually with a good amount of them right now and it seems like it’s going to be a really good team, they seem to be a really good family as well over there. Gabe Grinder over there is a very, very good coach, and I’m super excited to be with Brock next year, and I’m super excited to be with the program.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
