Bisson Saddles up for Kentucky
23 Apr 2009
Story by Neate Sager, The Ottawa Sun
Orleans second baseman batting .391 for Wildcats
Orleans' Chris Bisson likes sneaking up on people.
It's getting a little harder for the 19-year-old former Ottawa Nepean Canadians standout to do that for the Kentucky Wildcats. The lefty-swinging second baseman, line-drive hitter with some wheels, has been raking this spring, hitting .391 entering last night's play. That's good anywhere, let alone in the Southeastern Conference, which could have four players taken in the first round of next month's MLB draft.
"My whole life, everything I've done in baseball has kind of always been a last-second thing," says Bisson, who went on an 11-for-20 tear last week. "I love it when people say, 'who's this kid, where did he come from?' I like to surprise people.
"In my life, I've had a lot of things that were given to me -- parents who had really good jobs, people who supported me," the Beatrice-Desloges grad adds. "When it came to baseball, though, it really wasn't easy, it was so much hard work. When I played with the Canadians, we used to practise at the soccer dome at the Sensplex, so sometimes I'd have to take three buses from home to get out there, and be getting home at midnight, 12:30 (a.m.), with school the next day. But it was definitely worth it."
U.S. college coaches often note that one trait of Canadian ballplayers is that they take nothing for granted, an off-shoot of growing up with shorter springs and summers. Bisson, at 5-foot-11 and 185 lbs., provides more than his share of scrappy grit quotient. That's served him well this spring, as he's broken out offensively while handling the move from shortstop to second base.
"Chris is really, really competitive, but he's able to channel that competitiveness slowing the game down," says Kentucky assistant coach Brian Green, the team's hitting instructor.
"He's made some big adjustments. Chris has increased his walks and improved his two-strike hitting. He understands who he is, a guy who can run, who needs to live in the middle of the field, hit the ball up the middle, go the other way. He's finally really learning to how to hit for himself."
Bisson, who is studying kinesiology, is also Kentucky's leader in RBI (41 in 39 games). He says that as he's grown comfortable with the lifestyle change to Lexington, Ky., he's felt more comfortable on the diamond.
"It's a big thing, when you start getting used to your environment, you start to get more comfortable, and then the confidence comes," says the son of Rene and Roxanne Bisson. "Canada's always going to be home, but I feel like Lexington's going to be my second home."
Green has helped him adjust to swinging with an aluminum bat in the NCAA. Bisson notes the attitude adjustment came from his Canadians coaches, Don Campbell and Tim Nelson.
"I had Tim for two years and Don for four years, and what I like about them is they're get-it-done guys -- it's not about technique, it's how you think it through," Bisson says. "I credit them for the way they made me grew up on the field. The one thing Don always said is make your teammates respect you in the field and be a tough out. Don't care too much about numbers, just make it so that when you come up to bat, they say, 'Oh, no, not him again.' "
Perhaps Mississippi State's pitchers said that last weekend, when Bisson had three, three-hit games in a row and drove in six runs in the series finale. That series was in Starkville, Miss., but there's a sneaking suspicion lessons learned on the diamond tend to travel well.