LOS ANGELES, Calif. – In between the hectic six-day playing week, you can find Occidental Baseball's Dylan Fanelli traversing Medford, Oregon's Rogue River and Thomas Munch exploring New York City's vast skyline.
 
The Tiger duo is playing summer ball – typical for collegiate baseball players looking to face some of the nation's best competition while experiencing the grind of an independent or minor league ball club.  
 
Despite both student athletes excelling at the sport they love, each is in a wildly different environment. Fanelli finds himself playing for the Pacific Empire League's Medford Rogues and Munch is on the east coast, playing on the Shelter Island Bucks of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League.
 
"It's a lot. It's a lot of baseball, but it is an awesome experience," Munch said. "We've been to the city a bunch…Mets and Yankees games, we saw Broadway and go to Central Park. It's awesome."
 
Munch, who was on one of New York's most iconic modes of public transit – no, not the subway – a ferry at the time of recording, noted back to his first time on one of the boats as 'the coolest thing in the world.' From Aurora, Colo., the incoming junior catcher felt a major culture shock moving near the US's largest city.
 
"This is my first time ever going to the east coast," Munch said. "But for the most part from the day-to-day perspective nothing really changes. At the end of the day, baseball is baseball."
 
The economics major hasn't let the stark changes disrupt his play on the field. Munch – who's slashing .364/.500/.523 with a 1.023 OPS (that's really good) as of July 9 – was selected to the HCBL's All-Star team. They face the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League's All-Stars this Saturday, July 12 in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
 
Just over 3,000 miles away in Oregon's Rogue Valley, Fanelli is setting records for his squad in front of nearly 2,000 fans a night.
 
"I broke one of the team's long-standing records – 19.1 scoreless innings pitched," Fanelli said. "It's pretty cool to etch an Oxy player in the history of such a prominent collegiate summer team."

A team with 23 players drafted to Major League Baseball, the Medford Rogues were home to the likes of Ramon Laureano, Seth Brown and Spencer Steer, all MLB players for multiple seasons.
 
Through Fanelli's first four starts, he posted a 3-0 record with a 2.92 ERA in 24.2 innings. The rising senior noted that he is one of two Division III players on the Rogues' roster, an opportunity he received a year ago while wearing a different uniform.
 
"I was (facing the Rogues) on a team called the Redmond Dudes…and I went against a Team USA, TCU pitcher in Trey Newmann and I had the same exact stat line as him," Fanelli said. "The (Rogues') owner was standing next to me – doing a mid-inning sponsorship, dizzy bat of some sort – and I asked what I needed to do to come up and play in Medford. He said…you had the same stat line as him, you can come up whenever you want."
 
A year later, Fanelli is shining in the Rogues' rotation, living it up in Medford – playing free golf, eating free food at local restaurants and forming bonds with his teammates at the Rogue River on off days.
 
Although there are still a few weeks left in their seasons – the Rogues end in early August and the Bucks finish up July 22 – Fanelli and Munch are looking forward to next season with the Tigers.
 
"What makes Oxy is just, like, who the athletes are and how much of a bond we're able to create as a community," Munch said. "We're only getting better and better and (I'm excited) to see the new guys and be able to build those relationships."