Nobody better with bat in hand at University of Findlay than Clyde's Cam Farrar
Cam Farrar would never walk away from baseball before he was absolutely forced.
The Clyde graduate already hit the most home runs and drove in the most runs in the career of a baseball player at the University of Findlay. Still, if you smash your first grand slam in front of family on senior night, you’re not going to retire unless you have to.
Fortunately, in the end, Farrar had an extra year of eligibility because of the coronavirus pandemic. It worked out perfectly as Farrar remains a senior finishing his degree.
“You’ll have a job for the rest of your life; 50 or 60 years for some people,” he said. “I didn’t want to get a job yet. It came down to playing baseball again. I had unfinished business at Findlay. Let’s run this back one more time and see what noise we can make and leave a legacy to make Clyde proud with my teammates.
"Being around the guys, I wasn’t ready to hang up the cleats. There are six of us who came back for our COVID year. I didn’t want to have any regrets.”
Baseball 5 numbers to lead off the season
Findlay advanced to the final day of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference tourney and lost to the eventual champ last season, despite Findlay losing its opening game. It was ninth, following the eight teams that qualified for regional.
Farrar drove in 178 runs and hit 38 home runs in his career. He holds program records for career runs (150) and total bases (352).
He hit 11 home runs and drove in 50 runs to establish single-season records his third season. He was first-team all-conference as he drove in 57 runs and hit 14 homers last year.
That makes him Findlay’s best slugger ever. He also has 198 hits, 21 shy of the career record. Only two players reached 200 hits prior.
Farrar enjoys studying hitting. He isn’t the typical power hitter who strikes out regularly. He struck out only once his senior year at Clyde and 29 times in 119 at-bats this season.
“I grew into a traditional 3 or 4 hitter,” he said. “Early in the count, I’m an extra-base hitter. With two strikes, I shorten things and become compact. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough it goes out with two strikes.
“Every time I’m up to bat this year and last, I was trying to change the game in some way. See seven pitches and line out or double to drive in a run or nobody is on and I catch one just right.”
He likes to sit fastball the first pitch of each at-bat and trust his hands to react offspeed.
“A two-strike approach is something I’ve bought into,” he said. “No stride; take your lower half out and don’t move your head. Set your sight fastball outside part of the plate. If a righty throws a slider inside, my hands are fast enough.”
Farrar wants to hit 20 home runs this season. But he has goals beyond personal benchmarks.
“I want to win the conference and get an at-large chance for regional,” he said. “We scored 38 runs in one game (against Cedarville). The best hitting team ever for Findlay. We outscored them by 50 runs that weekend and broke a bunch of program records.
“We’re batting better than .300 as a team. We have more than 100 steals. The next team in the GMAC has 60. We’re flying around the bases and we like to score. The only team to beat us this year is ourselves.”
Farrar grew two inches and gained 25 pounds from senior year to 6-foot-2, 215 pounds. He watches videos of Kobe Bryant playing basketball, but also talking.
“Make it hard to forget you,” he said. “All credit goes to God. I couldn’t be more thankful for the things I’ve encountered and done and experienced. Just playing baseball; all the accomplishments are extra.
“This is my last guaranteed go 'round. You can’t predict the future, I can only attack today. Playing every game like my last has been an influential factor. Prove the final point and leave a legacy at Findlay that’s hard for people to forget.”
Farrar and fellow Clyde alum Ryan Lozier helped organize a baseball clinic at the high school last year.
“I’d like to spread the game of baseball to younger kids in Clyde and Ohio,” Farrar said. “My dad (Brad Farrar) had the idea and it’s heartwarming to see young kids happy. Some of them aren’t baseball players, they just want to be around college players.
“It’s a great experience and I’d love to have twice as many kids and a couple days. We had 100. We’d like 200 or 300.”
Brad Farrar never stopped instructing his son.
“Even when I go off to college and pack everything up on my own, it was still my dad who taught me the most," Farrar said. "My dad is at every single game. He’s taught me the most from the first time picking up a bat until my senior year in college.
“He’s my No. 1 coach.”
Still, Farrar knows it took a village.
“That was the time of my life that groomed me into the baseball player and person I am,” he said of his time at Clyde. “Football, basketball, baseball, I was fortunate to play three varsity sports with great coaches. I talk to coach (Drew) Linder every week.
"Coach (Ryan) Carter, coach (Ryan) Fretz. You’re part of something bigger than sports with the passionate community. I’m fortunate to grow up in a community like Clyde and I’m forever grateful.”
Farrar is still learning to let things come to him.
“Don’t force anything,” he said. “I play with emotion; it makes me the player I am. I show emotion and I talk. Baseball is the hardest sport in the world, you’ll have frustration. When you’re trying to do too much, like hit a home run, that’s not how it works.
“My home runs are line drives that go over the fence. You can’t try to do too much.”
Farrar could never walk away from baseball. Not with fireworks left in the store.
“I want to give my team the opportunity for the most success possible,” he said. “Whether that’s the best leader, the best friend. If I’m doing that, all the other goals are attainable. I want to give myself the best opportunity to continue to play baseball after college.
“I can only control one day at a time. Be the best player and teammate I can be today. Only God controls the rest. He gave me a gift and I try to be the best player I can be.”
mhorn@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Cam Farrar sits atop several University of Findlay hitting categories
