Bees' Cauy Massner hopes to sharpen his baseball skills

Community Field was the site for some of Cauy Massner's birthday parties not too many years ago, but now it's his home field.

Massner, a right-handed pitcher and former Mediapolis High School athlete, joined the Burlington Bees last week for the Prospect League season.

"I actually celebrated three or four birthdays here," Massner said Thursday, just before the Bees left for a seven-day road trip. "We came to a lot of Bees games when I was younger. It's cool to be playing on the same field I grew up watching those guys play on."

Massner was The Hawk Eye's 2019 high school baseball player of the year after compiling a 7-0 record his senior season. He had a career 15-3 mark at Mediapolis with a 2.55 earned run average. He struck out 140 high school opponents in 117 2/3 innings. He compiled a career batting average of .367 at Mediapolis.

He joins the Bees after two seasons at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant. As a Tiger pitcher, he has a career mark of 8-8 with a 5.08 ERA. He's fanned 76 batters in 85 innings.

With the Bees, he'll probably get some starts and some relief work. "After talking with coach (Jack) Gray and Coach O (Owen Oreskovich), right now it's probably being a long relief guy and maybe a few starts here and there," Massner said, "especially when we have those long weeks when we've got back-to-back doubleheaders and playing six or seven days in a row."

Massner went to Central College in Pella after graduation at Mediapolis, but that turned into the COVID season.

"I was there for a year," Massner said. "That was COVID year. I think we played four games, maybe, when the season was canceled.

"I got to thinking that spring," Massner said. "I had a lot of time to think, obviously. I really want to go into sports management and maybe be a little closer to home. And Iowa Wesleyan has both of those. I thought that would be a pretty good move for me in the long run.

"Both of my sisters went there, too, so I already knew a little bit of what it was like. That kind of helped a little bit."

Cauy's older sisters Darcy and Allie both scored over 1,000 points for Iowa Wesleyan's women's basketball team. Darby had 1,223 career points and was selected to the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Decade Team. Allie scored 1,003 points for the Tigers. She's currently the softball coach at Danville High School.

Massner is enjoying his time at Iowa Wesleyan.

"I've really liked it so far," he said. "This year was our first year back in NAIA, which is a lot of fun. The competition is really good, so it was fun to be able to play against some of those guys and we got to travel quite a bit. It's been a lot of fun so far."

He's learned how to balance his studies with baseball.

"It can be tough," he said, "but I usually try to get most of my work done before we leave for a road trip. Sometimes that's not possible. Usually it's after the games you're in your hotel room and turning in assignments before they're due, studying and making sure you're still in contact with your teachers so you're not missing anything. I mean it's pretty easy to balance if you're focused."

So how did he get on the Bees' roster?

"My coach over at college, Coach (Blake) Beaber, texted me one night and asked me if I was interested in playing for the Bees, and I was like, 'Yeah, that'd be awesome,'" Massner said. "Then Coach Gray got in contact with me and one thing led to another and here I am.

"This past fall when (Iowa Wesleyan) scrimmaged SCC was the first time I've ever played over here," Massner said.

The summer season is an opportunity for Massner to sharpen his baseball skills.

"Mainly, it's just getting my summer work in," he said. "Obviously, I'm playing against some really good competition, so I want to keep building up. It's mainly working on mechanics, working on a few things and getting ready for the coming (college) season."

He's preparing for life after baseball by majoring in sports management.

"It's business administration with a concentration on sports management," Massner said. "This fall, I'll actually be starting my master's program in athletic administration.

"Ideally, I'd love to work in professional sports someday, maybe like in the front office for a baseball team," he said. "I think being a college athletic director is something that I'd really enjoy doing, too. I hope to work with our athletic director this fall to hopefully get a little taste of that. That's ideally what I'd like to do in the future."

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Massner sharpening his pitching skills with Bees for next season