Spencer Kober has found the fun in baseball again with state-bound Rochester Royals – Post Bulletin

ROCHESTER — This summer, playing for the Rochester Royals, Spencer Kober, in a way, rediscovered his love for baseball.

Kober, 19, a utility player for the Royals and a 2024 graduate of Mayo High School, finished his first college baseball season at NJCAA Division II Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa, this past spring.

The leap from high school to college baseball was a big one, he said.

“I had an OK year, I’d say. I definitely struggled, it’s a huge adjustment from high school,” Kober said. “It was a big eye opener, because I’ve always been one of the better kids, and once you get to college, everyone’s good.”

Townball was a nice change of pace for him this summer.

“It’s just more laid back, but at the same time, it’s very competitive, and you’ll run into — especially in our league — a lot of good pitchers,” Kober said. “You can still get ready for the college season and just have fun. I think it’s just so much fun, and that’s just what I really needed this summer after college, just (to) have fun playing baseball.”

The Royals, who earned the third seed out of Section 1 in the Class A Minnesota Amateur Baseball State Tournament, face Air Freight Unlimited at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, at Barney Tadsen Field in Brownton, Minn. Rochester lost to Air Freight in the state tournament last year and hopes to see a different outcome this time around.

“They’re going to be pretty good, probably some pretty good pitching,” Kober said. “So I say, if we just play clean defense, field, make the plays that are supposed to be made, we’ll scratch a few runs across and hopefully win.”

During the regular season, the Royals had trouble producing a consistent lineup and were lucky to gather nine or 15 players on some days. Kober said they’ve had about 25 players every game during the playoffs.

“(That) has been so nice,” Kober said. “Towards playoff time, everyone is more committed, and that’s why I think we’re going to state, because we have all our guys there now and we’ve been able to put a good team on the field.”

In his second season with the Royals, Kober boasts a .338 average across 65 at-bats with 22 hits, 22 runs scored, nine RBIs and one home run.

He will head back to school next week, but if the Royals advance in the tournament, he said he’ll come back for the games as Estherville is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from home. If the Royals advance, they will play the Moorhead Mudcats at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23 at Walsh Field in Gaylord, Minn.

Growing up, Kober was a three-sport athlete playing football, hockey and baseball in an athletic family.

He started playing T-ball when he was five years old, and eventually progressed to youth baseball and then high school with the Spartans before heading off to play at the junior college level.

Kober’s parents are undoubtedly two of his greatest sports influences. His mom, Jandra, played hockey growing up and went on to be a golfer at Rochester Community and Technical College. His dad, Blake, who Kober says taught him everything he knows about the sport, is a former baseball player from Fairfax, Minn.

“I think he just instilled a good work ethic in me, and just really pushed me,” Kober said. “He’s just always been my biggest fan.”

Kober’s younger sister, Grace, who was a standout goaltender throughout her high school days with the Mayo girls hockey team, will play NCAA Division III hockey at Concordia College, in Moorhead, this fall.

“(My mom), she’s the one that got me and my sister into hockey,” Kober said. “And my dad got me into football and baseball.”

Of all the sports he’s played, baseball was always his favorite.

“I was talking to schools for football more than I was for baseball, but I just liked baseball more,” he said, thinking back to his college recruiting experience.

When he’s not on the baseball field, Kober has spent his summer building houses in Rochester and nearby towns. He is deciding between two career paths, either exercise science or entrepreneurship. If he continues playing baseball after his second season at Iowa Lakes, he’ll transfer to a four-year school to pursue a certification in strength and conditioning. If he decided to finish school after two years, he wants to start his own business.

This season with the Royals taught him a lot, perhaps most importantly, reminding him how to have fun on the diamond through the highs and lows.

“The game is way too hard to put extra pressure on yourself, which is something I see with a lot of the young guys,” Kober said. “And I think it’s something I’ve definitely matured in a lot from last year. … When things aren’t going your way, you can’t be your own worst enemy.

“I just think the mental side of baseball really gets people, like that separates everyone. That’s something I’ve been really able to understand from college, because I struggled with it, and now I’m just having fun, even when things aren’t going my way. Just have fun.”