Rams catcher, undeterred by injury, becomes Johnny Bench finalist

Chase Livingston, the starting catcher on the University of Rhode Island’s baseball team, was named to the 2016 Johnny Bench Award Watch List last Tuesday. A total of 74 student-athletes were named for the award’s watch list, which is given to the nation’s top Division I collegiate catcher.

This is the latest addition to Livingston’s list of accomplishments. Last year, Atlantic 10 coaches named him the conference’s best defensive catcher, despite missing the last 12 games to an injury.

Livingston started playing baseball when he was young. As a child, he would watch the games of his older brother, Grant Livingston, who played baseball at Plymouth State University.

“I’ve always loved catching,” Livingston said. “It’s basically what I’ve done my entire life. There’s pictures of me taking miscellaneous items around the house and turning it into catcher gear.”

Livingston said he realized he could make it at the collegiate level when he began playing American Legion baseball in his freshman year of high school. He realized that he was at the same level, if not better, than other players who were already committed to a college.

Then, in his sophomore year, URI was recruiting one of his teammates when they noticed Livingston.

“I was looking at a bunch of different schools all around here,” said Livingston, who was considering programs like UConn, Boston College, Bryant University and Stony Brook University. “I love URI. I’ve had so much fun here and have created such great relationships. We are such a close-knit family, we’re all behind each other and we have great facilities.”

In Livingston’s first year, he appeared in 21 games, but mostly as the designated hitter and at first base. Then, in his sophomore year, he got some time behind the plate. He threw out 8-of-11 on attempted steals and posted a .964 fielding percentage.

Despite splitting time, he was still recognized as the conference’s best defensive catcher.

“My defense is what I take my most pride in,” Livingston said. “I’ve worked so hard since I came in my freshman year. To see that recognition was great.”

And then in his junior year, he brought his game to another level when he posted a .984 fielding percentage while batting .230 at the plate. However, an injury forced Livingston to miss the remaining 12 games. He suffered from a Costochondral separation. In other words, he ripped a rib from his sternum.

He tried coming back for the conference tournament and was even cleared by a doctor. However, in the first day of the tournament he ripped it out again in warm-ups.

The only form of recovery for the injury is to wait. And that’s what he did.

“It was very frustrating for me because I’ve battled with a few injuries, and whenever I got hurt it was something to work for,” Livingston said. “So I always work to get back and then I work to get better. However, with this, I literally had to sit there. I would help the team as much as I could off the field, but it always killed me to not physically be able to help them.”

This year, in just 10 games, he has already caught 16 stealing, more than double his previous career-high and recorded 364 putouts.