[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Welcome to the Roundhouse podcast with Paul Solentrop of Wichita State University strategic communications. Thanks for listening. Our guest today is Wichita State baseball coach Brian Green. So we're going to talk about the summer for the Shockers as we we're probably, I guess, maybe a month or five weeks away from fall baseball starting Brian is entering his second year as baseball coach at Wichita State. He's had a busy summer, camps, lots of recruiting and handing out hot dogs at the NBC World Series from his RV parked out in the centerfield parking lot. Shockers went 32 and 29 last season, 15 and twelve in the American Athletic Conference. They tied for third place. A lot of shockers returning names. You will probably recognize infielders Jordan Rogers, Cam Johnson, Cam Durnan, catcher Mauricio Mian, first baseman Ryan Callahan, outfielders Jaden Gustafson and Leigh Hayworth, and several pitchers, including Tyler Dobbs and Brady Hamilton. So, Brian, let's take a little bit of a victory lap back in May, strong finish to the 2023 season, a run to the AAC title game that really seemed to capture the imagination of fans.
What does that kind of performance do when you get started in the fall?
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Well, it gives us a great opportunity that we got to taste winning and, you know, those things are so hard, hard to replicate and to be able to be able to be in that arena, be in a championship environment, play for it, obviously really disappointing. But when you look back at the season, going nine one in our last ten games in May to get into the tournament, to knock East Carolina out, beat them twice by ten runs in the tournament, and just the way that we went about our business in May after a gut wrenching, just to be quite honest, miserable April that we weren't ready for, both with the amount of games played, road games, our toughness, just a lot of reasons why we weren't successful in April. But as we enter into year two, it's we've got a lot of confidence ball, both as a coaching staff and other players. You know, anytime you can go nine and one in your last ten when you need to, to make a charge and then when you've got nothing to do but win the tournament and to play for and lose it in extra innings to get walked off the way that we went about our business last year, Washington, very exciting for us and gave us a lot of pride in what we're doing. And I think the most loud thing for us as we enter into year two are those 24 returners. Like you mentioned, so many people right now are entering into the portal, dancing around with different opportunities.
Our program goes, what, five and 14 or whatever. That April was a miserable experience.
To go nine one in May, make a charge in the conference tournament, and to bring essentially your entire team back, we feel, speaks loudly about our culture and what's going on here at Wichita State, and that's got us very excited as we enter into year two.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: So when you had your exit interviews, talking to people as they were getting ready to head off for the summer, was there a common theme about, here's why I'm staying. Here's why I want to be back?
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And that was it, too. It was the culture. It was the locker room. It was how we went about our business. We heard from many players how much fun we had. Obviously, winning late is really fun, and the way that we did win late was really fun.
You know, we pride ourselves in having an environment which is fun. It's serious, and it's pro driven and it's development driven. However, we want to have a good time doing it. And I thought our relationships with our players, between players and coaches and players to players, was some of the best that I've been a part of. And it was particularly exciting because it was year one, and I do apologize for my voice. Yesterday was August 1, which means it was the first time we could get on the phone. So I do have a little bit of dead phone voice. It's August 1, and now we're into 2026 is for recruiting, so it doesn't stop. But we had a very positive message to sell to those recruits yesterday on the phone, and we're really excited about who's coming back to wear shocker uniforms again in 25.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Give people an idea about what that August 1 is like. How many phone calls do you make?
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Well, you know, I only made eight, but coach overcast, you can triple that. And there's a list of 30, and you spread that out over which coach, whether it's a pitcher, a hitter, or which players just need to hear from us.
You know, you touch as many people as you can, but at the same time, I'm not sure if we'll get into the new rule changes for the rosters for next season, but recruiting is going to drastically change again at the high school level, so we're going to be funneling down small numbers here very soon.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: I think we would be negligent if in our victory lap, we didn't mention Kaden Favors, who I think having a Friday night guy so much success. Wichita State had started with having a reliable guy on the mound on Fridays. Kaden made the transition from being a most of his time here. Really had a nice year. Signed with Cleveland Guardians drafted in the 6th round. How do you put Kaden's contribution to this program into perspective?
[00:05:06] Speaker A: It speaks volumes about Kaden and his family and their buy in to us. And they were open armed with us when we got here. That was really great. Couldn't have been more excited about that. But, you know, Caden and coach Claggs, you know, I think that was a very typical senior slash new pitching coach relationship.
That wasn't rocky, but it was just, you know, there was a level of trust that wasn't quite there yet. You saw that really start to form, establish in October. And that was about the time we had our Black and Yellow series, which favors one of the captains. And that was one of the more special stories that, you know, we all have great stories in coaching, but to watch Kaden and not become a good pitcher, which he did, he was a good pitcher of the year before. He just had a different role. But what he did from a leadership perspective, he's the reason we played for championship.
You know, I'll tell the fans if they haven't heard it, but. And I'll probably say this story at the gala, but we get walked off against East Carolina and now we've got to play another game. Winners going to the championship. I don't know what to say. I wasn't even prepared to go back to the hotel. We were just going to win and we were just. And I wasn't prepared for us losing. And Kaden asked if he could talk to the team, and I'll keep it clean, but it wasn't clean on the bus. But the message was very simple. He stood up and he told our team, if anyone on this team doesn't think that we're going to do damage against East Carolina this next game, don't get on the bus. And this was a guy who had just thrown seven innings on two days rest. And the same guy was warming up in the bullpen a day later in the event he was going to pitch in the 11th, which he had asked for the ball. I mean, there was leadership all over the map with Kaden favors. And we saw it develop in front of our eyes. He's got another jump to make. So I'm really looking forward to seeing him develop in pro ball. But he was one of the major, major reasons, along with that senior class, that this program stayed intact and even improved.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Definitely. So you talked a lot about adding speed, adding athletic ability to the roster for the upcoming spring.
Compare the roster now. Where do you feel like you've added those attributes?
[00:07:10] Speaker A: It's a much different roster just starting on the infield. We really needed to improve on our skill level just in terms of hand skills and maybe some baseball IQ things. And, you know, if you look at Eric Fernandez, a transfer out of Miami, a very skilled defender. If you look at a Jordan black from Johnson county, another skilled defender, we've got a couple of high school kids coming in. Owen Washburn was a big name transfer for us. He was an infielder coming out of high school and he'll be an older kid. So what we really wanted to do, Paul, was, was give ourselves the opportunity to get Rogers back out to the outfield where he has got a chance to be a legitimate pro prospect and then add speed out there. We signed Caleb Duncan and Davis Mousey, both junior college all american type players. Mousey was the conference player of the year, led his team to a tremendous year. But both of these guys can fly. Mousey can really run. So for shocker fans, you're going to see a much entirely different outfield of speed this year than he did last year. Last year's team was strength driven and we kind of were an OPS Oakland, a type game type team.
Don't make mistakes. Try to hit doubles and homers and see if we can walk and get hit by pitches.
The fans are going to see a different team this year, certainly with those same players coming back. Livy, Mian, Rodgers, Lane Hayworth, Gus, who's ripping the COVID off the ball in NBC right now. Cam Johnson is, too.
There's a lot of great players coming back for us who were really good contributors, but we're going to add athleticism and speed to this group. So it's going to be a little bit different brand of ball this year.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: So you mentioned a few names. I want to go back and make sure it's clear for the fans. Owen Washburn is a transfer from Texas Tech. You mentioned Jordan Rogers, who fans would be familiar with. He played on the infield a lot of second base last year, so he may be in the outfield this year. You also mentioned Josh Livingston, and he had just kind of a fascinating season. Had 20 hits last season. In the 28 games in which he played, 16 of those were for extra bases. Eleven of those homers, he just caught fire in the AAC tournament. Four home runs take us through Josh's season, his progression, and what that might mean for him coming through the fall and into the spring.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Number one for Livy. And I told him this in our fall exit meeting, but I said, look, josh, you had a very strange year, and you deserve a ton of credit. I probably should have played him a little bit earlier. My wife told me I was an idiot for not playing him. A couple weeks prior, my wife had been literally telling me, paul, I'm not. This is true to the fans just being transparent. My wife said, I don't know why you're not playing Livy. That guy's a baller. You need to play him more. You're stupid. That's my wife's quote.
And she proved herself right. But, you know, we went through a phase. Livy opened up the season. I'm looking at our opening day lineup. He was in the four hole, and he was a guy that we really expected to. To do a lot for us. And he had a superb season at Crowder, and he's a baseball IQ guy, good hitter, and he can handle left on left. But as the season progressed, you know, his numbers just started going down and down. And then I start. He got the press bug a little bit, and he started pressing, and about the same time, Callahan was hitting. And here comes Gannon Snyder, the freshman who hit 340 and was kind of showing that he could hit against left handed pitching. And so Livy kind of found himself as a part time player, and he got an opportunity to play again late.
And he did it off the bench. I think it was three consecutive games. He came in off the bench and had these unbelievably tough at bats.
So we finally just said, coach, you gotta start him and stop screwing around. And we gave him the rest of the entire May, and there was no way he was coming out. He was not gonna let us take him out. It was one of the best hitters in the conference in May. So you've got livy coming back, and Mo and Rogers and Lane. I mean, these were guys that went off late. Durnan went off late. Cam Johnson at 400 in the month of May. So we got a lot of experience coming back and older experience, so very excited about that. Livy is definitely one of those guys.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: He made the all AAC tournament team with his performance down in Florida. Do you think your wife would be available for a podcast?
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Maybe in January?
[00:11:11] Speaker B: We could kind of get her on the record before the season starts?
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah, because she will. She'll take all the credit all the time. But, yeah, I think if we could put. Put her on the. Put the screws to her a little bit earlier and see what she thinks. But my wife loves it. This is a shout to our players, but if you have supreme confidence in your body language, I'm going to hear about it, my wife, that I need to be playing you.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Ok? Ok. That's good.
Pitchers Jace Minor and Grant Adler. They're both back after spending last season in the big twelve. Minor at Oklahoma, Adler at the University of Kansas. How did this return of those two help the pitching staff?
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Well, that's just. I mean, that's an exciting story for shocker fans. I think it speaks to this program and the experience that the kids had and have. And I think our current team maybe getting on the phone with those guys or when they're talking as players do, saying, hey, the culture is great. You might like it here. Who knows? But for those two guys to come back is loud for us, and we're just excited that they were so good here when they were shockers. And if you look at what Jace did, he threw some of the nastiest stuff that we saw all year out of the bull pin at Oklahoma. He was really, really tough, and we're hoping that we can have a favor story with him, you know, because he's kind of been a multi role guy himself. We'd like to get him in here and make a run at him just being a flat out starter, and then Adler was obviously a weekend starter for us two years ago, so him. And then you throw in Brady Hamilton and Tyler Dobbs, and then what we did in the portal, we're going into this season, hopefully with six guys that we feel can start, and we'll have a much different left handed presence as well, so. But Jason Grant are going to get thrown right into the fire and we expect them to be starters for us on the weekends.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: So Grant Adler, AAC newcomer pitcher of the year in 2023. Jace Minor was second team all conference as a reliever in 2023. So two experienced guys with a lot of success for coming back to the shocker roster. A lot of freshmen played big roles for this team last season. Why was that group as a whole, what helped their smooth adjustment to college baseball?
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Boy, great question. And the answer to that is very simple. It's Seth Stroh, it's Mauricio Mian, it's Rogers, it's favors.
You know, so many times, especially with new coaching staffs I've been a part of now three different times, and you tend to see in that locker room early on, you know, guys are trying to grab their territory and draw a line in the sand. And those seniors were committed to having a great experience because it had been a little rocky the year for them. And so they made a point to make sure that everybody was comfortable. And I just. I give all the credit to Seth and Mo and Jordan in particular, those three guys on the position side and then Kaden on the pitch side. And I think it enabled the freshmen to be comfortable. And then flat out, we had a perfect storm with these freshmen that all decided to come in with the new coaching staff. They all banded together pretty early and they came in with a lot of confidence and a lot of personality. And Cam Johnson had one hit in the fall. He hit zero 80. So that speaks to his toughness to come back and just stay the course and hit 330. And Lane Hayworth was a guy who didn't play at all. He was always on the chart next to the coaches, and every time we give him a bat off the bench, it'd be quality, be tough. He gets a spot start. It's a tough, tough level of a bats. You give him another one and now he can't come out either. So I think their comfortability was big and I think their toughness and their ability to really like baseball enabled them to really perform, especially late summer baseball.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Is there a returner whose play this summer you've been able to keep track of and has really caught your eye?
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Well, you see what Livy's doing. We were hoping he'd hit more home runs early, but he's starting to drive the ball again. He's kind of like a very similar thing to us. The biggest returning thing that we see has been local and that's been Gus. Jaden Gustafson is, and I've always thought and said that this guy's going to be a pro if we can continue to develop his arm. You know, he's so physical. He's a really good bat to ball guy, but we've been really keeping tabs and we've got 1215 players local, so we've really been paying attention. But if Gus isn't player of this tournament right now, I'd like to see who is. He's going nuts and he's been doing it for a month, so he's swinging the bat really well. He's the one that's got us really excited to go with those transfer portal guys and to go with the five or six guys that started for us last year. We go into the fall really excited with a lot less question marks with our lineup. When you look at Owen Washburn as a senior who hit 290 with eight homers at Texas Tech, or Mousey, who is a Jucol American, or Fernandez, who was at Miami.
These are guys that have us excited because they've done it at real level. So very excited. What's going on? But Gus has been the one that's really caught our attention the most.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: And Josh Livingston has been out in California with. I hope I'm pronouncing this right, Arroyo.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Arroyo Seco? Yeah.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Okay. And then Jaden, is he with Hutchinson Monarchs?
[00:16:08] Speaker A: Yeah, he's been with him the whole time. So we've actually gotten a chance to see him quite a bit. And, you know, that was last year was my first NBC game that I'd been to as a coach. He homered. So maybe NBC. We just need to change our schedule to the NBC shockers.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Fall practices. This will be your second year. You've got a good group of returners coming back who have been through it once. How does that make things different this year from last year?
[00:16:32] Speaker A: It'll be a much different fall.
You know, our tone is always going to be our tone with expectations of fundamentals and being development driven and really paying attention to your skill acquisition and those things. But the fall will be different for us. Last year, we were so in tune with just making sure that we had the team come together, and we spent most, if not all of our time on just the how part and how we were going to look and how we were going to take the field.
There'll be a much more of why and what this fall. The skill development stuff will start much earlier, will be much more baseball driven, fundamentally sound driven earlier. In fact, we'll even start our fall program a week and a half earlier as well. You'll see two false scrimmages.
Haven't locked it down yet, but looks like we're going to lock down Dallas Baptist to end the fall like we did last fall, but it'll be here. And then we're going to go on the road early, like first or second week of team practice to Nebraska. So we'll have an opportunity to do both a beginning and an ending to that. But the fall will be much different for us. We'll be teaching more and we'll be teaching more on the field. It'll be a little less culture driven as we've, we feel like we've got a lot of help of guys who can really express everybody else. This is how we do it around here.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Fall baseball significant at Wichita State, you'll get fans that want to come out and come out and watch, give fans some tips. Who are some of the newcomers that they should be paying attention to if they get out here this fall?
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Boy, there's going to be some fun ones. Hunter Carlson, haven't mentioned him, but he's a high school player that we signed. He's got all the look and makings of a guy who's got a chance to be really special.
Good catch throw guy, really athletic body. He can hit and obviously Moe is our guy, but he's a freshman. You're going to want to watch. I've mentioned mousey a couple times, but he's a center fielder who can really go get it. I don't know if he'll be in center left or right where he'll be working out, but he's a new player that you're going to be excited to see out of the portal. Certainly Owen Washburn is going to be an exciting player for our fans to see because he's performed and had at least 100 bats in each of his two seasons when he was healthy at Texas Tech, fans are going to really enjoy seeing him.
And then on the mound, those guys that were here a couple years ago, they're going to be fun to watch. Yeah, and then, Paul, there's a couple of arms that we just can't quite announce yet, but that we're in the makings of cutting a deal and making that thing secured. But the portal has been really good for us and I think that's going to be an exciting thing. You're looking at a short stop from Miami. Who's coming in, who can really field it in. Eric Fernandez, he's a new player. Fans are going to certainly like him. Jordan Black from Johnson county, you're certainly going to like watching him again, mentioned Washburn, but Caleb Duncan from Golden West Community College, he was out here for the NBC showed well, but the pitching is going to be a couple of arms and it'll be very exciting for our fans to see that. Stay tuned on that on social media, but you're going to see some velocity coming out of the shockers this year.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: So what have you learned about the transfer portal and what's the best strategy? Where have you found success?
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we're finding success in the program or the players that were at the Power five schools who didn't quite get the opportunity that they wanted. That's kind of been our thing so far. I think if you look at what the power fives are doing right now is they're getting in the middle of the conference, player of the year from the Western Athletic Conference or the West Coast Conference, you're seeing a lot of the first team, if not conference players of the year, and the mid major is going upward to the power fives. We found success this summer in guys who, and we really wanted to target experience and guys who had success at power five levels but didn't quite get the opportunity that they wanted. So you can find a home here at Wichita State.
If you are a Washburn and you had your 130 at bats, you can say, well, if I go to Wichita State, I've got a clear opportunity for 250 at bats and maybe a different relationship with a coach, who knows? So that's what we have found. But, Paul, I think the biggest thing for us, and any coach is going to tell you this, but we didn't have any portal activity last year at all. We had one player who walked on out of the portal. That was it. It was entirely junior college. Keep our players retained and then bring in the high school players. This year, it's been a different arena with, with the wheat shock collective, with the growingness of. Of our Allston funding. You know, we have been put into an arena. Now, Wichita State is a very cost effective school and institution, and if you. If you're looking at sophomores or juniors, you know, it's not very expensive to live off campus here. The help that we've received from our supporters through the collective has changed our thing entirely. And I think that's why you're seeing this recruiting class, which is going to be an extremely deep team on the field, going to be a really challenging opportunity for our players to get on the field. It's going to be really competitive this fall.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: So you led me perfectly into the next topic. Yeah. Big part of your summer has been meeting fans, talking about name, image, and likeness. How are you describing its importance?
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it's so easy for me to express this to the fans because it's just, it's the truth of where we're coming from. You know, there are different sports where all players receive a full ride.
So, you know, in that case, or if you're in a power five baseball school, when you hear nil, it can leave a sour taste in your mouth because all you feel like you're doing is throwing money into a collective that's just going to hand some player a check. And that's not how it works, particularly for college baseball.
With us with 11.7 scholarships to divvy out for 40 players, you're talking about. Most players, on average, are on 31% as their scholarship. So for us, Nil has changed our deal entirely because it's given us an opportunity to be able to contribute to funding for players for their meals or for their housing. And it's enabled us to be able to be much more successful with what we're packaging. We're getting closer to that finish line of being able to. To offer kids close to a full ride, and that's what's put us into the arena this year that we were not in last year. So thank you to the fans and supporters.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: So you are active on social media, you cooking hot dogs at the NBC World Series, the fan interaction part of the job. Why do you enjoy that?
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Well, I just. I think it is the job, you know, and I think it's the responsibility of the head coach. You know, I'm here to represent Wichita State, and I'm here to support Kevin and the administration and to defend the fact that they hired the right coaching staff who's going to make Wichita State better. And I just feel like my job is to get out with the fans. But also, I was bopped over the head with coach Stevenson and Brent, like, hey, you want to win in Wichita? Get out in the community. And that's right up my alley. I think if you want support, and this is the message that we tell our kids, but if you want to fill up those stands or if you want nil support or all and support or any support in your life, it's not going to come to you. You have to go out and earn it. And we want our fans to know how appreciative we are of the support that we get partnering with the NBC and the hot dog thing. We had 100 people in line for a hot dog for a midnight game. I could not believe it. And that just speaks to Wichita and the baseball community that it is.
I love it, though. I love interacting with the fans. And I think how you grow and build programs is you create and find as many infantry or foot soldiers as you can and amass them and create a movement. That's what we're trying to do here. But we know at the end of the day, we've got to put a good product on the field that's competitive, and we feel like we're off to a good start with that.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: We'll wrap it up. Do you have a book recommendation or something you're watching on Netflix? Is there anything away from baseball that you've occupied your mind with this summer?
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Well, I've listened to it now two more times, and it is a plug for a friend. But the book is amazing. And since I've listened to it or read it five times, combination. But Operation Pineapple Express, about a group of people who were just not willing, they were willing to do one thing, and that was take care of their teammates. The author is Scott Mann. It's a really, really extremely powerful book about getting our allies out of Afghanistan.
Just an incredible book from an incredible author and incredible friend. I would plug that all day long. And we were fortunate enough that he actually spoke to our team last year about the impact of team and putting the needs of the team above your own. And that book is about as team as it gets. Operation Pineapple Express by Scott Mann Scott Mann. Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann okay, excellent.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Brian Greene, it is almost time for shocker baseball to get back out there for fall practices. Thank you very much for your time.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Thank you, Paul. Go shocks.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: 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].
[00:25:41] Speaker C: Down to a three two pitch with two men on, two outs in the 9th.
The stretch by Tyler Green. Here it comes for Tyler Green.
A strike three call on the outside corner. 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 Jindrome 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 9th inning. Tyler Green completes a no hitter and Wichita State defeats New Mexico, twelve to nothing.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Our channel.
