[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Solentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thanks so much for your time. Our guest today is Wichita State softball associate head coach Elizabeth Econom. She's joining the podcast for the seventh time. She is now leading all Shocker coaches and appear. So she's kind of become Regis Philman to my David Letterman, I guess. For an old reference, we will discuss fall practices, which included a lot of individual work, all that kind of stuff. Scrimmages against three junior colleges, Kansas Emporia State and Southern Nazarene. So, Elizabeth, Shockers, I think the main story from a fan perspective, you've got some significant hitters to replace from last spring. What's that mean at the start of the fall? How do you go about filling these openings in the lineup? And you've got, I think, seven new position players from what I was able to count.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, you know, we've had a couple years in a row where we've had big shoes to fill, so I think that we're okay with that. That's something that we're getting used to because that means we've developed the kids before, so they come through and they get bigger, faster, stronger and smarter, more mature, and then, you know, hopefully are playing their best softball by the time they leave us. So we've been fortunate enough to have that happen many times in the past few years, so kind of approach it business as usual. You know, I can always really speak to the hitting part. We get in there and roll up our sleeves and go to work. And, yeah, nine new faces overall this year, so.
And seven of them in the. In the cages with me. So we just start from day one and start plugging away and see who's. Who's got what and how they fit in and how can we make them better.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Does the structure of the fall stay pretty unchanging from year to year, or does it really depend on, oh, we need a lot of work on defense or, oh, we need a lot of work on. On fielding, that kind of thing.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: You know, it stays pretty much the same. We usually start with a week of individuals kind of break everybody in, kind of a, you know, get them familiar with, you know, classes, campus, all that stuff. And then once they feel like they have their feet kind of under them, we'll go into the team portion, and we generally keep it about the same structure. We usually finish up by fall break and then get back into individuals. It works well for classes, and then it also works well for weather. So you Know me, I'm always pulling for more hitting time, no matter what the. What the personnel calls for. I want to get some cage time. So we do a good job of splitting it up. And Coach B is great at organizing that and getting everybody scheduled so that people get, you know, equal ish time. I'm sure Coach Easton would love to have more defensive time, but, you know, we work it in, we do some team stuff, so we get enough of it.
It'll change a little bit based on personnel, but it's been pretty similar for the past eight falls that I've been.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Here, and I guess I should remind people departed from last spring. Addison Barnard hit a few home runs in her time here. CC Wong played one year with the Shockers. I think was second in the nation in batting average. Laney Brown had a nice season at catcher, and it started behind the plate. I think three straight years. Bailey Urban had been an experienced hitter for the Shockers, so some significant losses. Okay, fall practice starts. People walk into your area, the batting cages. What's the first drill you like to use to start finding out what you've got?
[00:03:34] Speaker B: You know, I kind of like to just throw them in and watch them, and so just do kind of some easy stuff or just, you know, here's some front toss. Let's see what your swing looks like. Because we've watched all the girls during the recruiting process play with their club teams and, you know, and follow them around or their junior college team or whatever it may be. And we watch them and so we know what their body looks like. But then to get them to start talking about what they're doing in their swing, and they get more comfortable with that as time goes on in the fall. But kind of throw them in there and see what they look like. And then, you know, in the first, I think the first day, or at least the second day of the first week, do something really challenging and see how they respond. Are they open to feedback? Are they frustrated? Are they excited? Are they, you know, are they trying to learn and see what their mentality or their emotional state is? Because then that helps me figure out how I can reach them in the future. Because everybody's different, so we have to figure out who responds with what type of emotion. And then I can kind of guide them in a way that maybe I can get them to learn or apply the information differently based on how they respond. So some of the freshmen or newcomers have a little bit of frustration in that first week, and sometimes it lasts a little bit longer, but I think they come to understand it's coming from a good place and we need to figure out how they can tackle themselves and make themselves better.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: What is your new favorite hitting drill? Maybe something you've added in the last year or two that you think is helpful.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: I don't know if it's new or maybe it's the same concept but a different way of explaining. We work on off speed all the time because in my experience here, the scouting report against the shocks is that we're going to get a ton of off speed. So. And we talk about it every day in the cages with the girls and then the returners are able to explain it to the freshmen that, yeah, this is no joke. We're going to see a lot of change ups because speed change and keeping hitters in a rocking chair is tough to overcome. And if you can't hit a change up, everybody's going to know. So we have to figure out how to hit it or at least hide it that maybe we don't love it. So we've done for the past four or five years a lot of similar things and really we're doing the same thing. Maybe just talking about it differently to see who has a light bulb moment. But I don't really have a favorite drill. I like to keep everybody on their toes. I like to keep things interesting because it's really easy to fall into a routine of do the same thing every day and it's kind of mindless and then it becomes just kind of throwing the bats and balls out there and you just go through the motions. And I want to avoid going through the motions because there's so much to learn, whether it be about an opposing pitcher or themselves. As a hitter, if we do the same things every day, you're going to get the same results. So I like to keep them on their toes and just mix it up. Maybe it's a similar concept, but we do a different drill or, you know, show it in a different way where they can go, oh, this makes sense, or nope, this isn't for me, let's try another one. So try to keep them on their toes and keep them engaged as much as I can.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Who is the former shocker? You had the best connection with that. You could say something. They immediately got it and were able to execute it. And maybe you think they should be a hitting coach.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Oh, man. Well, I think Syd McKinney would be an easy yes. Honestly, Cece Wong is outstanding.
She understands the swing and I think she wants to be a coach so that'll be a smooth transition for when she does take that next step. But those two, I also think Lauren Lucas is going to make a great hitting coach.
Yeah, those are the three that stand out to me. And so two of them are already kind of in the coaching position. I think they'll. I don't know how much Sid gets to do with the hitters at Marshall now, but I think having her on staff and her ability to communicate with the hitters is probably a great asset for their head coach.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: Softball program has now had a full year with strength and conditioning coach Audrey Horn. Tell us how that's paid off.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Horn is outstanding. So he got here last year, but kind of right on time for the semester to start and kind of threw him right in the fire. And he did great. We were really strong and I think the girls bought in. And so now having him for a full cycle and kind of getting his off season work in the summer and then starting immediately with him in the fall this year has been, I mean, one of the greatest things, you know, for our team in general. I can say it's always hard to, you know, judge or gauge the fall on wins and losses because your opponents are, you know, KU is a division one opponent and then we'll play Butler county down the street. And so it's just different levels of competition. So it's always hard to kind of get a. Get a feel for how was your fall, you know, and the normal answer for me is some good, some bad, some ugly, some great. It just kind of depends on the day. But one thing I can say for sure is since August 26th or whatever day we started till now, the girls are stronger. And seeing the way that the ball is jumping off the bat, in the cages, or even on the field when we're hitting live, they're putting in some serious work in the weight room. And I think Coach Horn's program is, it's working and I think the girls are all in on it. They understand that it really is a big reason for their on field success. So. And he's, he's great. He's very intelligent. He's not all about weight. He does not setting records in the weight room for how much you can lift. He wants it to translate onto the softball field. And I think that's what, you know, sets him apart from some other coaches, is that he wants you to be better at your, your sport, not necessarily the best in the weight room. So whatever it takes, he can work on you, work with you on an individual basis to make sure, you are getting what you need from him. And it's paying off in a big way. It's very noticeable in the girls.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: One more off the field question and then we'll dive into the fall. When you look out at Wilkins Stadium, you can see the construction going on next door. The indoor practice facility is on its way up. What are you most eagerly looking forward to when the Shockers get to move in there sometime in the spring?
[00:09:52] Speaker B: You know what? I feel like so lucky. I walk over there and maybe I'm not the only one that does it. I walk over there and take pictures of the construction. Like, here's a progress photo so that I can look back and go, do you remember when we didn't have this? And every year at certain times things pop up on my phone of when we used to hit in the left field cages before we had our nice cages down below. And I go, oh my gosh, can you remember when we hit in that cage and a half down the line and we had a kind of a smaller cage on the right field line at one point, which has been gone for a while now. And then, you know, I look at our equipment and then so these pictures start popping up annually and it's really cool to see how different things are. Just, I mean, this is my eighth fall, how different they are just in eight years. And so from the groundbreaking, which was September 16th. Ish. I think just from then to now, it's amazing how fast it goes. So what I'm most excited about is throwing BP indoors and not trying to fight the weather and be, oh, it's okay, we'll try to go outside today because maybe we don't have the right time slot with baseball and we can just walk right over to our cages and get it done. So. But I'm excited for the girls, too. The student athletes are going to reap the rewards of this, I mean, amazing facility. And so, you know, they, they've earned it and they deserved it. And it's really cool to see them get to use something like that. And then for the recruits in the recruiting process and the kids that'll be here next year, the excitement and the enthusiasm that's kind of generated around the facility is pretty cool.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: That will be a big day when the Shockers get in there for the first time. You mentioned Lauren Lucas, outfielder for the Shockers. She missed last spring with an injury in 2023. She was fabulous. Third team all American pick, played center field. She hit 384 with 62 runs batted in. Tell us about Lauren's fall. How did that go?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah, she's healthy and pain free in her swing, which I think is kind of calming for her and you know, maybe she can relax a little bit and know that everything's going to be all right. So she's been doing great, getting stronger in the outfield too with her overhand throw. She's getting stronger every day. So she's working closely with her athletic trainer, doing a great job, doing the rehab and has been great in the cages and in the batter's box. She's been really nice. It's been a great person to have around some of our young freshmen. We have a couple of freshmen lefties that are obviously new to the program. So her with CC Wong hanging around and Lauren Lucas and then the addition of Ellie Ek who are three older left handed hitters, mature, very seasoned veterans to have them around to talk to some of the new freshmen lefties, it's kind of they all hit together so it's kind of been nice. A little extra help for me. But Lauren has a great softball mind, really high iq, understands softball, understands hitting at a very high level. So to have her back is a big deal for us.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Is there a temptation to hit her lead off or will she probably get in there in an RBI spot?
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Great question.
Thank you. Yes.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: I rarely ask great softball questions because I don't understand a whole lot. I really appreciate that.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: I think you got it. I think it's, you know, we missed her RBI production last year in such a big way that I think it would be and who knows how it will go. But I think she'll probably be in a two or three spot when the season starts because that gives her a chance to hit some of the runs in that we missed last year. But you know the beginning of the season is always a shuffle. So she's definitely hit for high average, has high on base percentage in the last in 2023. So she'll be on base. So if we can get more people behind her to go too, then we can kind of shuffle a little bit. But she'll be somewhere in the top. But I think we'll need her for RBIs.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: First Taylor Solacek. She played right field and shortstop last season as a sophomore, had an all conference year. She hit 254, 14 home runs, 613 slugging percentage and she walked more than she struck out. So that arc suggests to me that Taylor is maybe not far from hitting another level. Taylor's mission this spring. How would you describe that she is all in.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: She is all in. In the weight room. She is all in. In the cages. She's all in. In the infield. She is ready to break out this year. I think if you asked her, she would be.254 is not good enough for her. And while she improved, I thought from her freshman year to her sophomore year she had double digit home runs. The walks over strikeouts is a big deal. That's part of being a young hitter. It's hard. Hitting's hard. So she's got the experience now to lean on and I expect her to have a great year and I think she expects that of herself. So we're super excited about where she's at.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: That leads us right into Sammy Hood. Taylor has played a lot of shortstop this fall. Sammy Hood, excellent defender at second base. They're both upperclassmen. Now tell us about Sammy's fall and what she is looking like heading into the spring.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's wild because maturity is really a thing that you just kind of have to wait for. It happens over time. And Sammy's having a great fall, especially offensively. I think she's really confident and comfortable with where her swing is right now and has had some success in games and in practices, scrimmages and all that stuff. So I think she's feeling confident more now than she ever has. And yeah, those two are great. I mean having them as upperclassmen is crazy to think how fast it's going. But in the middle infield, to have those two really kind of hitting their stride, that's a big deal for us.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Let's stay on the infield then. Caroline, talent at first base. Take us through her fall.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Caroline's having a great fall as well. She's another one that's all in in the weight room and her strength is. Is you can't miss it. So she's had some really good at bats this fall. Whether it be scrimmages or hitting wars or against opponents, she's looking really good. She's taken her fitness and strength to the next level. So we're excited to see what she can do now with. She had a ton of in game experience to go on from last year. So now she's really getting. I mean this is the best we've seen of her. So we're hoping she can take off too.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: We talked about Laney Brown a little bit earlier. She caught most of the games over the past three seasons. Really good defensively back there.
Who plays catcher next spring.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Yeah, another great Question, Paul. We have three options behind the plate right now and I think it's kind of, it's up in the air because they're all working hard. They all have different things that they bring to the table. So Sophie Johnson, being the returner sophomore, got a little bit of time behind the plate last year. Not a ton, had some at bats. She was the DP for a while so she's got some in game experience to pull from. But she. We've added. Gabby Scott is a freshman from Texas that we've added and Caitlin Beckerle is another option from Texas. So both freshmen, both doing a really good job trying to get our know, get to know our pitchers and working really hard with me in the cages. So I think we have three good options. It'll be interesting to see who kind of takes off and what they look like when, you know, they come back in January, who has the resources to continue to work and you know, they're starting to scratch the surface of what they can become. But it's tough for, I mean, Sophie's got the edge to me because she knows what the spring is going to be like. Caitlin and Gabby don't necessarily know, you know, you don't know what you don't know until it happens. And so Sophie's got some, maybe a little bit more maturity just because she's been here. But skill wise, I think they all, it's, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how they develop over the next few months.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Two transfers who I've heard good things about. Outfielder Ellie Eck, she's a transfer from Stanford, another shocker athlete from the Andale Colwich Metroplex. We seem to get a lot of, a lot of good athletes out of that area. Jody Epperson, who plays infield and outfield, she's a transfer from North Texas. How do those two fit in?
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Oh, they fit in like they've been here the whole time. Honestly, Ellie was so, it's so glad. We're so glad to have Ellie back. And she's kind of fit in from day one and offers a really unique perspective having been to the World Series with Stanford and obviously plays at a high level. So she fits right in and I think the girls have felt comfortable with her immediately. And Jody, the same thing for Jody, who's much quieter and took a little while to get to know her. But both Ellie and Jody are fiercely competitive, extremely strong. The girls, or Coach Horn called Jody Mighty Mouse because she's tiny but super powerful. Both Ellie and Jody have great speed Foot speed is unmatched. So them in the outfield, I mean, they're going to cover more ground than most people.
So it's been really fun to see them kind of jump in and kind of have that second chance at softball and really fall in love with softball again, where they're getting the most out of themselves. And that's, that's always fun to watch. We've seen it with CC Wong and others that have come before that they're getting a second chance or second go around and it's kind of, it's. It gets them fired up.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Yeah, just watching a little bit with Ellie Ek and Jody Epperson, with Lauren Lucas, that would be outfielders that could cover a lot of ground out there. The pitchers would have to be pretty excited. Excited about the possibility of that kind of a defensive outfield. Freshman pitcher Ava Sligar, she had a really nice fall. What makes her a pitcher that appears like the Shockers are going to depend on her next spring?
[00:19:26] Speaker B: She's great.
She's very precise, she's very confident, she's very poised.
She works her tail off. And so I think she's willing to put in the work that it takes. Not knowing what it's going to take yet. Not having much to go on but her. We watched her during her recruiting process. She played for a high level team out of Oklahoma and she pitched some really important games for that team and they were successful. And so she faced a lot of really good teams over the past two summers. Excuse me, where she's kind of been. She was thrown in the fire and had to do it. So she's faced great hitters her whole career. So she comes in here knowing that she's not where she needs to be yet, just because now everybody's bigger, faster, stronger, and you know, there's more technology and more analytics and all the things that maybe they don't have at the club ball level or the high school level. And so she from day one, just jumped right in, working with Coach O. Absolutely bought into their process and has been really successful in the fall against our opponents and her own team in scrimmages and hitting wars. So she's. I think her ability to stare down the eyes of the opposing hitter without any fear is gonna be a big deal. So. And her stuff is good. So she's got the confidence and the stuff and that's a good, good pairing.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: All right, Elizabeth O'Conneman wrapping up shocker softball for the fall for us. Thank you for your time.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Thanks so much. I Apprec.
Hi, this is Rick Miuma, president of Wichita State University.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast.
[00:21:17] Speaker C: Each episode I sit down with different.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: Our guest today is Brian Greene. Brian is entering his second year as baseball coach at Wichita State. He's going to wrap up fall practices for us. Shockers had a busy fall, of course. They scrimmaged Cali College, they scrimmaged Dallas Baptist. They played a five game World Series that the black team won three games to one. Brian, I'll start off with calling audible. I was, as I came here to the office, you were talking about hitting, you had Jordan Rogers, you were going through all kinds of minutiae and you know, stances and footwork and all that kind of stuff that I don't really understand. It seems like that's something that you really enjoy. Is that one of your favorite part of coaches is that one on one individual instruction and breaking things down with a hitter?
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Yeah, Paula, no question it is. And I don't get to do it enough. Just, you know, it's so interesting when you go through your coaching development and your rise or your ascent or any of those things, but typically you get opportunities to rise or get to in another spot based on your experiences as an assistant coach. And those days are cherish those at UCLA in Kentucky and love being a hitting coach, love being an infield coach, but move into that head coach chair. A lot of times you're talking about things like Allston, Nil, roster management, scholarships, compliance, you name it. So this is a very fun time of the year for the coaches as we are back into skill instruction. And what that means is a lot of one on one time, short bursts with the players. You know, you're limited for hours through compliance and but it's a fun time of the year. This is, this is the time that I get to typically jump back into it with the guys and go one on one and work with them. I don't really get those opportunities as much during team practice.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: So as you've put more years in as a coach and you know, grown and figured things out, what have you learned about teaching kids and how they process information? What's the best way for, you know, player A to learn and that may be different from player B. How have you grown in that part of your coaching life?
[00:23:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it depends on your, on your coaching staff and the culture of your program and what's established. But in Today's world, with nil, with Portal and with rosters changing a lot. Number one, really proud of the fact that what, 23, 24 guys were retained here at Wichita State. Clearly there's a cultural thing going on positively. But what I've learned in my journey is very simple in that the system has to be.
There has to be a team phase in the sense of this is what the program is going to ask of you to be able to do. Then there's a competitive phase, which is your team practice phase. And what I've learned, Paul, is that you really have to delay. In my opinion, how hard do you go in on mechanics to your players without knowing them, without having a relationship with them, and most importantly, without knowing how they learn? That takes time. So we really try to use two to three months, get to know our players, more importantly, how do they learn, and then use that last month in November to really crank home what they need to get better at. And then hopefully they'll do a good job on their own time in December to go back and do what's required to make them the best player that they can be.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: So I guess fall baseball would be the early stages of establishing roles for your players. You've got a lot of guys, you've got newcomers, you've got returners. How do you go about explaining that part of building a team?
[00:24:51] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a great question. I actually heard a tremendous quote from Jay Billis. He was talking to the Duke basketball team. It was a week or so ago, and I was scrolling through X or Twitter or Instagram or any of that. But he made a really profound statement, I thought. And he talked about roles and what those were. And roles aren't things that limit you. Roles are just what the team requires or needs from you on the current roster. So for us with regards to roles, this is where we'll start to hammer that with our players. After seeing their body of work for two to three months and seeing what the team's body of work is and knowing, you know, do you need to be a speed skill type player and is that something we need to develop out of you, or do you need to get the ball off of the ground and into the air because you're not a runner and it looks like you might be able to provide some power to us. So really just trying to define that as a really important part of fall and specifically November, before the kids go on break.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: So let's give people an idea maybe about how fall structured what's the breakdown. You have team segments, you have individual segments. What's kind of an overview about, you know, what's the schedule like?
[00:25:50] Speaker C: Yeah, the kids will come in and we do culture training for the first week. And that's nothing more than locker room coaching, staff culture development, understanding what we really want to be about and working that from the, from the ground up to say with the coaches first. But after culture training goes for a week, the kids aren't on the field. We've got two and a half weeks of just skill stuff like catch play, how we feel the ground ball, bunt technique, very basic team things. And we really are just trying to get the kids ramped up to get to our team phase, which is where you can practice with your kids much more. And in your team phase, you're at four hours a day versus four hours for the week. So with regards to things like that and all the things that you have limited, you get through team and then you go back into skill instruction. And for us, we were planning on using this last month with the new lab that's been put in for us. Really important for us, we moved our calendar up a little bit. So overall answer to that is three weeks of skill instruction and then you take a month of team and then you spend the next four, five, six weeks of individual work working on adjustments for the kids before they hit the break.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: The performance lab you mentioned, that's something people are going to be hearing about more pretty recently. Give them a brief description of what you've got going over there.
[00:27:06] Speaker C: Yeah, really, really exciting stuff. You know, just, I mean, cutting edge technology.
You know, we've got cameras for the pictures and we've got motion analytics and robotic cameras and we've got, I think there's 12 cameras up there. We've got ground force plates, all things that we can stick into a computer, put onto a computer screen and take a look at skeletal figures with how their bodies are moving, how they're using the ground and how they're maximizing their strengths. So the pitchers are off and running with that. We're still close to finishing that up with the hitters. And once that's done, then we'll probably have two to three weeks to be able to get in there. But these are exciting things that you have to have from a technology standpoint. And now Wichita State baseball does so.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: The Shocker World Series, that would have been fans last public impression of the team. Four games black won.
What did you learn from the Shocker World Series? What were your impressions?
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Well, the Leadership is pretty good within the locker room that the guys handled the things very well. From a competitive standpoint, it was good. That's such a fun thing to watch for us when we step out. The kids run their teams, they draft their teams, they set their lineups. You know, there are those intangible things, like leaders are telling players that they're not going to play. We don't put any rules on players having to play or not. I think that's valuable for everybody.
But what you learn is how competitive your kids are, how they're able to handle, because it's a different type of pressure. It's player to player and we publicize it and promote it and all those things. The fans showed up, we had a couple of really nice crowds. That was exciting to see. But on the baseball field itself, you saw guys doing things that they hadn't done with us. It was great to see. I think we saw 8, 9, 10 guys try to drop down a bunt for a hit. The one exciting thing for us when you do the black yellow series was only five innings. So to give the guys an understanding of you're starting the game in the fourth, you're going to need to execute early and there's maybe not a second chance. It might be a two to one ballgame. So really tried to recreate those types of games that were going to need to be improved at it, at winning.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: So, yes, I believe so. The coaches were watching from the suites at X Stadium. The players were coaching, they were running everything. How much of a debrief do you do after the games and saying, maybe you should have pulled this pitcher a little bit earlier or maybe you should have done a hit and run. Do you do those kind of things?
[00:29:21] Speaker C: We save all of the things that we evaluate on that because again, it's just, it's a skill instruction tie for the kids. They're running it and we really stay out of it.
And then we just use some of the things really more for the coaches just to take a peek out of what we need to get good or not good at. But you know, from our end, no instruction on that.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Infielder Cam Johnson, he was the first pick. The black team took him with the, with the team draft. He playing a lot of shortstop this fall? I think played third base last year. Why did he go first?
[00:29:51] Speaker C: Cam is. He's a tremendous player. You know, he can play shortstop, he can lead off. He's one of our top hitters. He just, he has turned his game into a really, really good player. Athletic, can play everywhere, can run. And I think the biggest thing was with what the leaders were looking at with a guy like Cam is that he's somebody that can create a run on his own with a punt, with hand on the bat, with stealing a base, and then obviously playing really good defense at shortstop. So he's done a tremendous job with his game. You know, with Cam Durnan still being out, Cam Johnson slides from third to short and he's done a really good job. So really excited about the spring ahead for Cam Johnson.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: And then the second pick was a newcomer, Owen Washburn, a transfer from Texas Tech. Tell the fans about Owen.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: Owen has got a chance to really be a good hitter for us. He has swung between second base, first base, right field. He's got a tremendous arm. His arm is very strong. I think against Dallas Baptist he had two outfield assists. But he's a guy who's going to provide real value for us from a multiple position standpoint. We're working him out at second base, trying to convert him and develop him into that position which could potentially, really, really impact his pro career. But his tool is going to be the bat. He's a smart hitter, he knows what he's doing. He's a left handed. And he had some success at Texas Tech prior to coming to Wichita State. So fans can expect to see Owen right in the middle of the order come springtime.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: So it looked like the Shockers had a lot of fun with the draft and the creative team at Wichita State put out a really fun video about it. The players were all dressed up, you announced the picks and then they did a video about that for social media. Why is that kind of social media presence? Why is that important in these days?
[00:31:30] Speaker C: Yeah, that was great. I really appreciated Denning and all the work that their team put in. But you know, those types of it makes it fun. Number one, it gets the fans involved. But then two, hyping it up puts more pressure on the players and it makes the series bigger than it is, maybe. So the more you can put into that and create hype with it, especially with, you know, winners and losers, things that can happen afterwards, those are all in fun. But I think it really just makes the series much more important to the players. And they did a great job with it. They ran that whole thing on their own. The black team decided of what they were going to wear. It was collar, dress shirts, white and black slacks. You saw Adler, captain Adler wearing a blazer. He had no shirt underneath. So he was doing a Miami Vice thing. But no, it was Adler and Raj and Mo and Brady Hamilton. They did a really good job of hamming that thing up.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Dennis Garrig, you mentioned immediate relations contact for baseball and does a lot of that creative stuff along with some other people in the. In the department. So let's start with the pitching staff. Fans will remember Tyler Dobbs. Brady Hamilton had really strong moments as freshman. Tyler Dobbs probably most notably threw five shutout innings and a win over Nebraska. Brady Hamilton really came up big in the conference tournament against ecu. Take us through their fall. How did Tyler and Brady do?
[00:32:46] Speaker C: Yeah, starting with Brady, he just. Brady made a strength adjustment. He made a few mechanical adjustments. Him and Coach Claggs work really well together. Brady's maturing right in front of our eyes. It's fun to see. But, you know, the biggest thing with Brady is his stuff got just stronger. I think he was up to maybe 95. I think that's accurate. But there were a lot of 94s. But Brady's a guy who's learning how to use the curveball. He's got the cutter and change. But you're going to see him on the weekends. Most likely he'll stay healthy and get stronger. But he's just made a big physical jump and he's gone from an 89, 92 guy to much more velocity with that. So that's changed his game because he's a pitch ability guy. He throws a lot of strikes. Same thing with Tyler Dobbs.
Tyler came back healthy.
He's throwing the curveball, he's got the change. His mentality is outstanding. He's very mature. So to have two sophomores who were right in the middle of it last year to return with, adding in some of the new guys that I know that we'll talk about, it puts us at ease in terms of knowing that there's some roster with some real experience coming back.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: So fans will also remember Jace Minor and Grant Adler. Both of them pitched well for the Shockers, all conference picks in 2023. Now they're back. They transferred back to Wichita state after spending 2024 elsewhere. Where do those two returners fit into WSU's pitching plans?
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Right in the middle of it. Yeah, you're going to see Nate.
You're going to see. I say Nate. How about that? The Adler family. I think I've done that ball probably 15 times this fall. But no, you'll see Grant. Grant's going to be right in the middle of the weekend. Whether it's Friday or Saturday. He's a strike thrower. We call him the Professor. He can move the ball both sides. He's smart, he knows what he's doing. He's a fun guy to watch pitch because he can move the ball around and he can shape it and he sets hitters up and he's what you would hope to have as a senior. Grant's going to be right in the middle of it and Jace has been outstanding, you know, and obviously Jace had big innings here at Wichita State, went to ou, went to Oklahoma and now came back for us. That's a huge return for us. Jace is going to have a huge role as a starter, most likely depending on how things shape out with him. But he's been outstanding. So with him and Grant and Tyler Brady and that's not counting some of the other new guys, pretty excited about the potential for us to have multiple guys that have starting opportunities.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: So Grant Adler in 2023 was Wichita State's Sunday starter on the conference weekends. Jace Minor pitched a lot out of the bullpen and both of them had really nice seasons in 2023. All right, I'm going to try to make sure I pronounce this name correctly. Arnod Mulomkich.
[00:35:24] Speaker C: Perfect. Got it.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: Very good. He has an interesting story. He's a transfer from Sienna. He's a lefty left handed pitcher from Rego Park, New York. I hope it's Rego and those aren't areas we see Wichita State land many athletes from. How did Arnaud find his way here?
[00:35:40] Speaker C: Boy, you know, we left handed was something that we needed to get over the summer and he jumped into the portal and I know he had a lot of people that were interested in him, but he came into the portal and we were able to jump on that pretty quickly. But great makeup, very mature, good worker. Gonna have a real role for us again. It's a big left handed arm over the top with a breaking ball and very consistent with his habits. He's a guy that you know you can trust. He was the same guy from day one to now. He's a guy that we can very much trust. But he's going to be right in the middle of it. He's going to pitch and provide a lot of innings. If it's not starting, it'll be long. Potentially bullpen. But him and coach Claggett have done a good job. Velocity is up a little bit. Curveball is improving.
Again, another guy through the portal you're going to see with a real role.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: For us who's a Returner who leaps out at you is really making some good progress this fall.
[00:36:32] Speaker C: Well, we've had a few guys that really have made jumps. You know, if you look at. It's hard to say, Rogers has made a great jump with 310, with 13 last year.
But him and Mo, Mo is throwing better behind the plate. He is hitting the baseball harder and stronger.
Mo's game is better. Roger's game last year, you know, he was a serviceable second baseman. We run him out to the outfield. He is a much more confident defender this year. His arm is stronger than it was a year ago. That's been a real, real productive guy. And then Cam Johnson is another player who's just gotten better. And I think with all these kids we see as returners, strength is such an important piece of their development and them taking their body and their nutrition and their weightlifting seriously. Kudos to Coach D. He does a great job in the weight room. But, you know, Cam Johnson last year obviously had a great freshman year. Had a difficult April, but put up numbers and had a very productive freshman year, but had a big hole in his swing and he's worked on correcting that. And I think you're going to see a guy who's got a chance to be productive on both sides of the plate and eliminating some of those holes he's at. He's throwing better. So those would probably be the three guys that I would target and look at and go positionally. These guys have really improved their skills.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: I'll ask you about a couple newcomers that appear to have really good falls. Caleb Duncan, center fielder, transfer from Golden West Community College.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: Tell us about Caleb Duncan. Really, really go get the ball in the outfield.
If you're a Southern California native and you golden west, you know how big their outfield is. They've got huge, huge gaps in alleys and very deep park. He can go get the ball in center field.
Really nice to see that. There was like one ball that fell this year. He can really go get it. Fans are going to like him. He's very aggressive at the plate. He's a plus runner. He'll steal some bases for us. He might steal a lot of bases for us. So he brings that thing that we didn't have last year and we recruited a couple of players with that. But Dunk's going to be a guy who's going to give you tuffet bats. He's very competitive. He's got a huge personality. You'll hear him out in center field yapping. It up, and he can really go get the ball in the outfield. So he covers a lot of ground.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Another guy that seemed to be making a nice defensive play every time I was over here watching is Jordan Black at third base. Tell us a little bit about Jordan.
[00:38:48] Speaker C: Yeah, Jordy really, really happy that he came here, transferred from Johnson County Community College, and he's a defender plus defender. And we've put him over at third base and thought maybe shortstop. But just how Cam developed at shortstop with Durnan being out. Jordan went over to third base, and he can really play third base. He's got a strong arm. He can come get the ball on a butt. He covers a lot of ground. So for us right now, really working hard at developing his bat. He's a strong kid, good athlete, and a very tough kid. He works very hard. So he's a good young man. And I expect some really, really good things out of Jordy. But he can play defense at third base.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: So you feel good about the depth at catcher. You mentioned Mauricio Milan and his improvements and. And his experience. And then you added Cole Dillon, who has a interesting backstory.
How did you land Cole Dillon?
[00:39:36] Speaker C: You know, Cole's an interesting story because all of us as coaches seem to have a run in with Cole in the recruiting process over the course of the last two, three years. I actually was on the phone with Cole and his dad, Joe, who's the assistant hitting coach for the Royals back at Washington State, and we were in conversations with him. It ended up. He ended up not coming to Pullman, but same thing with Coach Miller. They had worked together, so there was a relationship there of us knowing each other. So when Alex Burge decided to go into the Portal, you know, wanting to find somebody with experience to come in with Mo and Kresge and with Hunter Carlson, the freshman coming in, Cole has done a fantastic job. I mean, he has exceeded expectations.
He's throwing well right now. He is swinging the bat really well. He's a great personality, works really hard.
He's been a pleasure to coach. So really, really happy with the addition of Cole.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: So when you return for the spring in January, will there be a position that you're particularly interested in, seeing how it shakes out? Maybe something that's just a little bit unsettled now?
[00:40:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say it's really just going to be on the mound, you know, with Hunter Holmes and how great he was for our program last year. You know, we had him just really just on the shelf for the entire fall because he was sore so we didn't throw him. He's looking great right now. There was nothing serious. We just wanted to make sure that he returns to form. And there's a couple other arms that are on their way back that aren't healthy quite just yet. So excited to see the development of potentially a couple of guys that you didn't see in the fall. And if we have that, we feel like we're going to have some length with the pitching staff. But you know, when you return Mo and you return Johnson and you return Rodgers and Livingston and Callahan and Lane and Gannon Snyder and Jaden Gustafson, I mean, these are a lot of guys that had real roles for us last year. So to bring them in, sprinkle in some new players, pretty excited about where we're going to go if we can keep the culture intact, keep the locker room intact, keep everybody together. You know, I think one of the fears that any coach will have when you get an old team is specifically that, you know, making sure that the needs of the team are first. Sometimes when you get a lot of those seniors, Paul, you know that the draft sometimes can create some real pressure for the players. And we want to make sure that everybody's playing for that Shocker jersey, but we certainly feel really good about it and that's a tribute to some of the leadership that we have.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Brian Greene, Shocker Baseball the season is now. I guess we're just about two and a half months away from getting rolling. Thank you for your time, Brian.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Go shocks. Thank you.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Great insight as always. Thanks for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can always find more roundhouse
[email protected].
[00:42:43] Speaker D: Down to a 3, 2 pitch with two men on. Two outs in the ninth.
The stretch by Tyler Green. Here it comes. Suck him out. A no hitter for Tyler Green. A strike three call on the outside and Tyler Green has pitched the fourth no hitter in Wichita State history, the second in as many years as he joins fellow classmate Charlie Jinderome as the author of a Wichita State no hitter. And in the process struck out a career high 13, including all three outs in the ninth inning. Tyler Green completes a no hitter and Wichita State defeats New Mexico 12 to nothing.
