By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

After one player with connections to the “Southern Six” was part of the Women’s College World Series earlier this month, yet another is carrying the banner for the area currently on the male side of things.
Oregon State junior Canon Reeder is patrolling centerfield for the Beavers this weekend in Omaha, Neb., at the Men’s College World Series. The Beavers are one of just four unbeaten teams in the field after the opening round, and they are back in action Sunday night vs. Coastal Carolina on ESPN 2.
Reeder was born and raised in Gulfport through his elementary school years. He and his family moved to Florida when he was around 13 years old due to business for his father, before the family ended up in Oregon a few years later.

The 6-foot, 190-pound Reeder is in his first full season as a starter at Oregon State after a solid prep career at Summit High in Bend, Ore. He has started 51 games and appeared in two more this year, hitting .300 with 11 doubles, one triple and eight home runs and he has driven in 38 runs so far for the Beavers, who stand 48-14-1 overall as they battle for their second national title on the diamond in the last eight years.
In Oregon State’s 4-3 win over Louisville Friday night to open the CWS, Reeder drove in a key run with an RBI-fielders choice.

Last season, Reeder played in 33 games, making 17 starts. He batted .273 with five doubles, a triple, and 13 RBIs. In his freshman year, he played in 19 games, making six starts, and batted .222 with two doubles and three RBI.
According to a recent interview with bendbulletin.com, Reeder’s path into the every-day lineup began just days after last season ended when he began training at Driveline Baseball, a data-driven baseball development organization in Seattle.
It was the first time in years that Reeder did not play for a team during the summer. He wanted to find personalized mechanics to improve his swing to help hit the ball harder and get the proper backspin on the ball to make it fly through the air better. And he wanted to get stronger. When last season ended, the 6-feet-tall Reeder said he was 175 pounds. He ended the training weighing close to 190, gaining 15 pounds of mostly muscle.

“I was there every single day except for Sundays when they were closed and I wasn’t allowed in the gym,” Reeder said. “It was a long summer of making myself better and a long fall getting ready for the spring.”
“I never doubted for a second that I was capable of doing what I am doing right now,” Reeder continued, in the same interview. “It has been a heck of a year and we are just getting started.”
According to the interview, Oregon State saw something in Reeder when he was still an underclassmen at Summit High, and Reeder verbally committed to the program near the end of his sophomore year of high school.
“They always saw something in me and for me,” Reeder said. “It was putting my foot down and saying, whatever I want, I have to earn it. I’m going to earn my way, hopefully I am in a program where they love me, they believe in me and the coaches support me. There is no place that I would rather be than here in Corvallis.”

Reeder is the son of Craig and Danielle Reeder, and has two brothers Carson and Cohen.
All three of the brothers grew up roaming the athletic fields of Gulfport. Now, Cannon has carried on those youthful beginnings on the largest stage in college baseball.

In the WCWS this year, Peyton Tanner was part of a Tennessee team that finished in third place. Her parents are graduates of South Mississippi high schools as her dad Heath is a 1990 George County High grad and her mom Emily (Breland) is a 1988 grad of Moss Point High.