12U USA Baseball<\/a> team. Although he didn\u2019t make the final cut to represent the US in the Baseball World Cup, he realized something important.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s when the spark really hit. I always loved baseball, but that\u2019s when I really realized how much potential I had,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The youngest of three, Engelhard has stood out in his family as an athlete. Neither of his brothers played baseball at a highly competitive level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably beating them up on every sport by the time I was about seven years old,\u201d Engelhard laughed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Riverwood High School, Engelhard started as a freshman on the varsity football and baseball teams, but he decided to \u201chang up the football cleats\u201d the next school year to focus on baseball.<\/p>\n
The rules of engagement are different now, but Engelhard recalls meeting college baseball coaches his freshman year of high school. Engelhard considered several schools, including Georgia Tech \u2014 the alma mater of ball players Mark Teixeira, Nomar Garciaparra, and Jason Veritek.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Engelhard landed at Tulane University in New Orleans in fall 2020. After practicing and playing in scrimmages during fall semester, he started as second baseman in the second game of the spring season. He became an All-American that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got an opportunity to start, and I made the most of it. I had two doubles and a homer, and they never took me out of the lineup for the rest of the season,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fall 2023, Engelhard transferred to Florida International University to be close to his grandfather who was unable to travel to watch him play. His grandfather Jerry Engelhard is synonymous in south Florida with youth sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On his 23rd birthday in February, Engelhard flew to Israel, met up with three other Jewish American professional baseball players, and became a dual citizen. It was his third trip to the country.<\/p>\n
It had taken \u201cmonths and months and months\u201d to find the required documents like his grandparents\u2019 birth certificates, a family tree, and proof that his parents and grandparents are Jewish and that they\u2019d had bar mitzvahs. But playing for Team Israel was an opportunity he couldn\u2019t pass up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering the circumstances of Israel and the Jewish community and what\u2019s going on today, it was a no brainer to make Aliyah and take the opportunity to represent Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud to be Jewish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in Israel, I felt at home immediately when I got there. There\u2019s a sense of pride and togetherness and camaraderie that the Israeli and Jewish community has going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Now Engelhard is under contract with the Boise Hawks, an independent baseball team in the Pioneer League, where he plans to finish the season upon his return from Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to make it all the way to the top,\u201d Engelhard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The international baseball ranking system has eight teams in the U23 tournament: Israel, Great Britain, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, and Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Europe, Engelhard will finish the season in Boise. He sees the senior national team in his future with the hope of qualifying for the Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remember World Champion, All Star Joc Pederson, the pearl necklace-wearing Braves player who helped win the title in 2021? A right fielder, Pederson also played for the Israel national baseball team in 2013 and 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Engelhard, whose nickname has been Fiver since childhood, said he\u2019s looking forward to building his relationship with his new teammates on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love baseball and I love Israel,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chase Engelhard, a 23-year-old from Sandy Springs, landed in Prague, Czech Republic, on Aug. 1 to represent Israel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,37704,13565,37705,37706],"class_list":{"0":"post-220328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chase-engelhard","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-riverwood-international-charter-school","12":"tag-sandy-springs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114959619398365656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}