By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
“It takes you forever to find a good walk-up song,” said the designated hitter. “It’s a very big deal. I actually didn’t decide until like the last week before our first spring games, when I had to make a decision.”
The man who agonized over his soundtrack is Joey Crunkilton, who played his final season in 2017. He walked up to the stadium country song “People Back Home” by Florida Georgia Line.
His music in 2016 was a hard reggae track: “Vampire” by Tribal Seeds.
It’s easy to understand why Crunkilton would pay special attention to his music. In addition to playing Wolves baseball, he has played cymbals for the Western drumline.
“I saw a poster, ‘Western Oregon drumline: If you know how to read music call this number, we need people.’ And I was like, ‘Well, s—, I play the drums,’” he laughs. “So I called them and ended up playing football games and stuff. That was kicka–.”
This is the can-do spirit that Crunkilton brings to his game. His positive attitude reverberated through the team this year.
“Crunk is a great guy to be around,” said Nyles Nygaard, junior third baseman. “He always has the biggest smile on his face and is a guy people can go to for anything.”
Roll back the clock a year and we would be talking about a different Crunk.
Western Oregon is his third college team, after a successful run at Western Nevada College and a less successful run at UC Santa Barbara.
“Baseball was the thing, and my ticket to get my way through school,” he says. “Because I’m a good student, but not a great student.”
Western Nevada was happy to punch the not-great-student’s ticket. For two years, Crunkilton took a scholarship to play ball in the desert mountains. Both years he earned all-conference honors. But a junior college is only a launching pad.
“I had offers from random schools,” said Crunkilton. “And I wasn’t sure, I wasn’t getting a gut feeling on where I wanted to go. So I ended up sending my own info out to WOU, and they were like ‘Yeah, we want you.’”
Then UC Santa Barbara called. “I wanted to go to a Division I school more than anything.”
Santa Barbara, however, did not go according to plan.
“Division I was much more cutthroat. I kind of got chewed up and spit out by the team. It was an eye-opening year. It’s very competitive, and if you don’t stand up and prove yourself then you get forgotten about quickly. Then they redshirted me.”
After a year of practicing and not playing, Joey Crunkilton was in a funk.
“I was talking to the coach and he was like ‘You’re probably gonna be a backup if you come back. Probably in a similar spot to where you are right now. Not a ton of playing time.’”
So he packed his bags. He had left Western waiting, but the howling of the Wolves would wait no longer.
Crunk announced himself with a home run in his debut game, a two-run smash that would prove the game winner over Azusa Pacific on Feb. 4, 2016.
Unfortunately, it would be his only homer all season. In the 13 games he played in April, he went hitless in nine. He finished the season with a .245 average, one of the worst on the team.
“I didn’t play much towards the end,” he took a pause. “I got a little nihilistic last year. It was kind of a ‘Whatever’ attitude as I stopped playing.”
As a fifth-year senior, that all changed.
“I had the thought, this is my last year. If I only play one game I’m still gonna go for it and do my best.”
For his efforts, he helped the team earn a conference championship and sweep the playoffs.
The semi-final rally against Central Washington is what Crunkilton says he’ll take away most from the season.
He recalls watching the Wildcats bat from the dugout. “I was freakin’ out. They go base hit, score a run. ‘All right, 1-1.’ Home run, 3-1. ‘S—.’ Another home run, 5-1, hit, hit, 7-1. I just got this sense of calm. We were like, ‘Screw it, let’s break some hearts.’”
Which is what they did, scoring 12 runs in the final three innings. Crunkilton scored two and added an RBI.
“And you could see Central was like ‘What the hell just happened?’” He laughed. “That game was the coolest. That was the best way to cap off the season.”
With the season done and graduation imminent, Joey faces uncertainty once more.
“I want to get out of the house, dude. Just quick as possible. Find a job first and then you can get a career later.”
What would this career be? He spitballs a few ideal career paths, from a fitness business to an online marketing company.
“I want to do something more with music. I want to really learn how to play the drumset well, and then I want to join a band. Absolute dream job: being in a rock band. That would be very fun, I think,” he nodded as he thought it over. “I also really want to learn how to fight, like boxing or jiu jitsu. I was a wrestler growing up and that was always fun. It was so much just brute effort.”
Maybe one day, Joey Crunkilton will be picking music to come out of the tunnel for a fight. Or maybe some future baseball player will walk up to the batter’s box while a Crunkilton drum solo plays.
Or maybe neither of these things. Whatever happens, you get the sense when you talk to Crunk, it’s going to be fun.
“I guess my dream would be to just make something, create a business or a product or something, that just makes people’s lives better and makes me money. Pretty simple,” and he laughed again.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
