Wiffle balls, 18-hour road trip & close friends gave Mizzou its best hitter of ‘26

There are only three seats at the dinner table in Jase Woita's apartment. Two of them are chairs and one is an ottoman.

At one time, there was a chair for each of the four Mizzou baseball player residents. A game led to one's demise.

A deck of Monopoly Deal cards was scattered over the table. In the midst of a game, Gehrig Goldbeck, often considered the most competitive of the bunch, was getting increasingly frustrated. He was losing.

After a hit from Woita, Goldbeck had officially lost. He fell back in his chair and heard a loud crack as it collapsed beneath him. Bad timing for both Goldbeck and the chair.

"Somehow, a chair ended up getting thrown out of our apartment," Woita said.

The game is a nightly ritual among MU players Goldbeck, Woita, Peyton Basler and Luke Fricker. Sometimes, someone will have a hot run. Other times — as in the Goldbeck chair incident — nothing goes the right way. It just depends on the cards dealt.

"You just kind of laugh and roll with it," Woita said. "It's just like baseball. It evens itself out."

This school year was the second time Woita and Goldbeck have been roommates. The first was when they both played for Kansas City Kansas Community College. While not officially a roommate then, Basler often slept on the couch. The three players led the way in most hitting categories at KCK in 2024.

The makings of a slugger

With ESPN pitching highlights on the television, a toddling Woita stood in his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a little baseball bat in his hands. His mom, Marcy Woita, was playing with his six-month-old sister, Aly, not too far away, when Jase swung his bat.

The TV was broken. Marcy made a call to Jase's dad, Jeff, to tell him about the incident. Jeff had just one question: "Was he swinging left or right?"

Jase was about 20 months old at the time. The answer: he was swinging lefty, as he still does.

His path to playing in the Southeastern Conference is not quite typical. Jase Woita didn't spend his time going from travel-ball tournament to tournament as many Division 1 prospects do. Most of his days were spent with his dad, a former college baseball player and high school coach. Jeff Woita recalls throwing Wiffle balls to him and fishing at the lake together.

His parents wanted him to be a kid as long as possible.

"I felt it was more important just to do more in the backyard than it was to travel all over the place and maybe not get as many at-bats as he could being at home," Jeff said.

But Jase was looking to the future. He would routinely write that he wanted to be an MLB player on any elementary or middle school assignment that asked what he wanted to be when he grew up.

Finally, around the age of 12, Jase joined a travel-ball team and, later, his high school team, Lincoln Pius X, where he received All-City and All-State honors in 2021. In his senior year, he hit .341 with 34 RBI.

Woita's ability to hit has rarely been in doubt. His glove work and running speed didn't stand out among his peers, though. The tryouts for various teams weren't always going as he wished. So, he worked harder.

"He's always had the chip on his shoulder that he wanted to prove to people that he could play at the highest level," Jeff said.

Nebraska isn't exactly a hotbed for baseball players, with around 0.5% of players in Major League Baseball history coming from the state. That, along with COVID-19 during his junior year, stunted his recruitment process. Few major-program coaches came to see Jase play in person. Word of mouth was his friend.

"One of our former players had told us about him and our assistant coaches, Bill Sharp, kind of took the lead on him, brought him in for a visit," said KCK head coach Matt Goldbeck, who is Gehrig's dad, " We just noticed, as a hitter, he had a unique ability. His power and ball-to-bat skills were pretty special from that standpoint."

After receiving just a few NAIA, Division-III, and junior college offers, Woita chose to go the junior-college route and play for KCK in 2022.

His parents were glad he had the opportunity to keep playing. It meant, however, he would have to work harder to play at the highest level of amateur baseball, also known as the SEC.

"Nothing has come easy for him, and I wouldn't want it any other way," Jeff said. "I don't think he'd want it any other way either."

The beginning

There was one factor that brought Woita, Goldbeck and Basler together despite their varied personalities.

"We were a couple of cage rats," Jase said.

Goldbeck was still enrolled at Tonganoxie High School when Woita began his freshman year at KCK. With Goldbeck spending time around his father's team, he naturally got to meet Woita and was drawn to his similar work ethic.

"I could tell that, from the first day I met him, we were gonna be good friends," Goldbeck said.

Goldbeck joined him on the roster in 2023. Then Basler transferred in from Charleston Southern in 2023. Basler was a natural fit for the group and often joined them in their adventures.

The three spent many hours together hitting in the batting cages.

During Goldbeck's sophomore year, Matt Goldbeck forced his son out of the house in a quest to teach him to live more independently. This is when Goldbeck first landed with Woita as a roommate. Matt Goldbeck thought it was a good fit because Woita wouldn't get his son in trouble.

It did have another effect.

Woita, Goldbeck and Basler became nearly inseparable while they were with the Blue Devils. Matt even had to encourage them to bring other people along to the batting cages with them.

Their many hours spent practicing together paid off. The team went 47-12 in 2024 with the trio. Woita, who missed games due to an injury that year, hit . 427.

Goldbeck and Basler played in every game that season, filling out the middle infield. Goldbeck at shortstop hit .407, led in nearly every offensive category and won a Gold Glove. Basler trailed narrowly in many stats, putting up 68 runs on 67 hits in a team-leading 204 at-bats.

"They wanted to be baseball players, and that was important to them to be the best they possibly could be," Matt Goldbeck said. "Their work ethic and their willingness to do more and how they want the team to do well (stood out)."

It was only the end of their time at KCKCC that broke the trio up. For the 2025 season, Goldbeck and Basler went to Columbia, Missouri. Woita went to Columbia, South Carolina.

From Columbia to Columbia

Now on the market again after his stint at KCK, Woita had a completely different experience. He was getting Division I offers.

One name easily skyrocketed to the top of his list once he got the call – South Carolina.

Jase's never-ending hard work paid off. He would go play at the highest level of college baseball under legendary coach Paul Mainieri.

Suiting up for the Gamecocks was a dream of his ever since he was a little kid. His family would often go watch the College World Series in Omaha, just an hour from their home. Each of the four Woita children chose a team to root for. Jase always cheered for the Gamecocks.

He spent just one season with South Carolina. He was a strong contributor for the offense, playing in 45 games and hitting .300, but he was limited to the designated-hitter role and primarily faced right-handed pitching.

Because both Mizzou and South Carolina made first-round exits from the SEC Tournament last season, his path never crossed with Basler and Goldbeck on the circuit. However, the three met via FaceTime a few times while all in Hoover, Alabama.

It was enough time for the two Tigers to get an idea.

"We didn't know if he was unhappy at South Carolina or anything like that, but we knew we were going to need a first baseman next year," Basler said. "So we went in, we talked to Coach (Kerrick) Jackson, and we were like, ‘If he enters the portal, we gotta get this guy.'"

Woita graduated from South Carolina in May 2025 with his bachelor's degree before entering the transfer portal for his final year of eligibility.

"(Playing for South Carolina) was a chance that I just couldn't turn down to go be a part of that," Woita said. "But really, it just wasn't for me."

Hours of phone calls and no choice

Entering the transfer portal is daunting. The players put their names into the great unknown and hope for the best. They don't know where they might end up or who their teammates may be.

Woita's great unknown featured two familiar faces yelling at him to join their team.

"Not that I was scared of the unknown, but there was definitely a lot more certainty (for me)," Woita said.

After he entered the portal, he had a long journey to make. The 18-hour road trip from Columbia, South Carolina, to Lincoln, Nebraska, loomed. And he hoped to visit potential colleges along the way.

Just a few days before he was set to make the long trip, he called his mom. He was chickening out on making the drive alone and asked her to fly out to join him.

"I don't even know if we listened to the radio on the whole way back," Marcy said. "I think he was just constantly on the phone talking to coaches and people. It was quite the ride."

One of the first phone calls was from Basler and Goldbeck. They told Woita he had no choice: He was transferring to Mizzou, and they were all going to get an apartment together.

"We pretty much told him, ‘What do we need to do to get you here?'" Gehrig said.

With both the Mizzou coaches and his former teammates interested in bringing him to the other Columbia, a scouting report was requested from a former coach. Matt Goldbeck was more than happy to oblige.

"I talked to the coaching staff at Mizzou and just told them I think he can really hit," Matt said. "I think with the way Mizzou was trending that he would be a guy that would help those guys, and that they would help him reach his ceiling."

Along the drive, the Woitas stopped in Columbia for a look at Mizzou. There, they met with Jackson and were able to get the lay of the land.

"Obviously when you can add guys that are older, that have some experience at this level, you want to be able to do that," Jackson said.

Woita needed to make a decision.

The Tigers were offering him the chance to stay in the SEC, be their first baseman and spend his final collegiate year with his friends. He announced his commitment to Mizzou on June 27, 2025 in an Instagram post.

"That was one of the big motivating factors," Woita said. "Just the opportunity to play with those two again. Granted, they can't seem to stay healthy."

One last round

At Terry Park in Fort Myers, Florida, Goldbeck was positioned at shortstop, Basler at second base and Woita at first for the series finale against Mount St. Mary's. Just like they were at KCK.

That will be a game all three Tigers will remember for the rest of their lives. Mizzou scored 34 runs in the game, breaking multiple program records. But the game will be remembered a little differently for Woita, Goldbeck and Basler. It would be the last time the trio took the field together.

Goldbeck played in one game after that series finale, before going down with a knee injury. For Basler, it was his only game before he was ruled out for the season.

They didn't know that game would be their final time taking the field together.

Since then, Goldbeck and Basler have had to live the rest 2026 season vicariously through Woita.

Nobody had any doubt of the impact Woita would have on the team's offense. He has always been a hitter and he brought his talents to a home ballpark that often sees the wind blowing straight out.

In the 2026 campaign, Woita pushed to the top of nearly every offensive category for the Tigers. He has a team-leading 50 RBIs, 12 homers, nine doubles and 54 hits. Even when he is in a bit of a slump, he finds ways to get on base. He leads the team with 26 walks.

He is just the fifth Tiger in the last 10 years to record 50 RBI.

Beyond his impact at the plate, his leadership and experience has been important to developing the younger players. Jackson has said his presence has been an asset.

His parents say it's a testament to his work ethic. His friends say that's just who he is. For Woita, this season is a full-circle moment.

His performance on the field is not what he will remember most about his final collegiate season.

"We've got a really good locker room outside of Gehrig and Peyton, too," Woita said. "There's so many guys in there that, whether it's playing ping pong or fishing or even just hanging out around the fire, it's a good group of guys, and I've really enjoyed getting to know them. That's probably what I'll take away the most from my time here."

The last game of baseball with all three in the lineup may have already passed. But until their last day together in the apartment, Basler will be forced to sit on the ottoman, two of either Woita, Goldbeck or Fricker will sit down in chairs - there is no longer a fourth chair, it also broke - and they will play Monopoly Deal each night.

Baseball. Cards. It all evens out.

Copyright 2026 Columbia Missourian

This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Wiffle balls, 18-hour road trip & close friends gave Mizzou its best hitter of ‘26."