Speaker 1 00:00:11 Hello and welcome to the Roundhouse podcast. This is Paul Soro of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We are at Ex Stadium talking baseball today, the shockers scrimmage Pittsburgh State on Monday at 4:00 PM Then they will have their annual fall series coming up later this fall for fans to get a chance to get out and watch the shockers play. Today we're talking with Robert Crayons, a sophomore pitcher from Keller, Texas. We also have Matt Wilkinson. Matt is a junior. He is from Cottage Grove, Minnesota, and a transfer from Iowa Central Community College. Gentlemen, welcome. Uh, let's start with some kind of random stuff. If you weren't playing college baseball, is there another sport or what's the sport that you might be playing? Matt will let you go first.
Speaker 2 00:00:54 I'd probably say hockey.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 Hockey, okay.
Speaker 2 00:00:56 Yeah, I played, I played that growing up in high school and, uh, yeah, just baseball and hockey.
Speaker 1 00:01:01 Baseball and hockey. All right. Yeah, I think I got a rodeo answer last year from somebody, which was pretty unique. We don't get a lot of hockey around here. So, being from Minnesota, tell me about your hockey experience growing up.
Speaker 2 00:01:10 Uh, I mean, it's huge, especially in Minnesota. You know, it's, it's the biggest thing up there and, um, everyone wants to go to go and play in the state, high school, state tournament. That's a huge thing up there. And, uh, that was always a goal, but, uh, I ended up not playing senior year and just focusing on baseball. But no, it was, hockey was great. So
Speaker 1 00:01:31 What position did you play?
Speaker 2 00:01:32 Uh, I was a right wing.
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Okay. And what made the decision to go baseball instead of hockey?
Speaker 2 00:01:38 Uh, I just knew I wanted to play college baseball, so I was like, you know, let's just focus up this last year and see where I can go.
Speaker 1 00:01:46 Hockey. Good sport. Yeah. Robert, how about you? What you might, what might you be doing if you weren't here playing baseball?
Speaker 3 00:01:52 Uh, I think I would've tried to play golf, honestly. Um, I I, I've been getting into golf a lot recently, and I just think the golf's a lot of fun and you can, you can just do so much with golf.
Speaker 1 00:02:02 Good lifetime sport. Oh yeah. Low injury risk too.
Speaker 3 00:02:05 That's what we like.
Speaker 1 00:02:06 Exactly. That's what we like about golf. All right. We're in the classroom here and we've got seven soccer jerseys hanging on the wall behind here. Do starting pitchers get to pick the jersey here? I I ask that every year, and I never, I can never remember the answer.
Speaker 3 00:02:20 So you, Nate will usually give us like an option, like he'll give us like two options, but you can't, like, you can't pick everything about it. You can't wear like a white Jersey and gray pants, you
Speaker 1 00:02:30 Know? Okay. But starting pitchers does have some do, do have some control over what, Okay. Uh, favorite jersey off that wall. What, what do you like, Robert?
Speaker 3 00:02:38 Uh, I have to say the pin stripes, I just think it's the cleanest look and it's a lot of, it's a lot of fun to wear the pin stripes, you know?
Speaker 1 00:02:45 That is a good one. I'll paint a little bit of a picture for our listeners. We've got a yellow one. We've got the white pin stripes, we've got black with Wichita State. We've got what they describe, I think as the old school Shockers White. We've got Gray, Wichita State, Black shockers, White Shockers. Matt, how about you? Do you have a favorite?
Speaker 2 00:03:03 Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with the, the old school cream one and then the, the black jersey. The all black uniform, the black pants, black, uh, jerseys.
Speaker 1 00:03:12 So you like the all black look? Yeah, totally. That's good. Look,
Speaker 2 00:03:14 It's
Speaker 1 00:03:15 Also good option. I know gear is a big deal. When you're choosing a school, how much does that, did that affect, does that affect where you, where you end up?
Speaker 3 00:03:24 Uh, I, I honestly think it has a huge thing to do with it, you know, Um, talking to kids that play different schools and stuff, seeing what they get is kind of cool, you know? Um, but we get great stuff here and we have great facilities and that's, I think that's a huge part of recruiting nowadays is what you get and what you have.
Speaker 1 00:03:40 Matt,
Speaker 2 00:03:40 I'd have to agree. Yep,
Speaker 1 00:03:42 For sure. Sure. How about a favorite hat? We've got lots of different hats here. Wichita State now, Do you have a
Speaker 3 00:03:46 Favorite? I think my favorite hat's, the, uh, the black with the cream. W I just think it's a very clean look. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:03:52 Matt?
Speaker 2 00:03:53 I haven't seen any of the new hats yet.
Speaker 1 00:03:54 You're new, you still haven't gotten, gotten. Look at all the, the mini variety of hats. Wichita State, uh, Matt, tell us a little bit about how you ended up at Wichita State. Why did you choose this school?
Speaker 2 00:04:04 Yeah, so, um, I went, like you said, I played, um, I played at Iowa Central for two years. Um, I pitched there. I was actually originally, uh, committed to Northern State, which is in South Dakota to play shorts up at high school. And, um, I bumped that out. I said, No, I wanna go pitch. So I went to Juco and then ended up working really good. Um, Coach Sarah, Great Eric Stein, um, David Flattery, Jonas Loving, great guys. Shout out to you guys. Um, helped me a lot with the pitching side of things. Learned a whole ton of new stuff. And, uh, I had two pretty good years. Freshman year was a little better. Um, and then I got the chance to, um, talk with Pere, Mike Pere, and, um, he gave me the shot to come here and play baseball and came and checked it out. And I loved the place and felt like it was where I should be, so I chose to come to Wita State.
Speaker 1 00:05:07 Okay. Robert, how about you?
Speaker 3 00:05:09 Uh, you know, went to a pretty big high school in Texas. You know, you can get a lot of looks that way. Um, wasn't, wasn't originally a pitcher until junior year of high school, really. And, uh, kind of saw a big velo jump and, uh, Siri contacted me and all that. And, uh, you know, it was during Covid, so it was kind of different. Never got to come on a visit really or anything, but Siri was talking the place up, send me some cool videos. Uh, loved talking to pe, loved talking to Siri, and I just thought it was the place for me to be. Um, so when they offered me, I commit.
Speaker 1 00:05:39 Okay. Siri, you're referring to Mike Sirianni, one of the, sir, one of the assistant coaches. Okay. So Covid, how did you get a sense of what Wichita State was about? Without being able to visit?
Speaker 3 00:05:49 Like I said, Sir Sirianni would send me, uh, videos and kind of just talk about the program and we'd, he'd call me, uh, and we just, I just kind of got a sense of, you know, this is a place that, you know, it's got a huge history and they're kind of trying to bring it back, and I wanted to be a part of something special.
Speaker 1 00:06:06 So if you're an assistant coach, is it important to find that sweet spot of letting a player know we're really interested and calling them, but not bugging 'em, not calling them too much? How, what, what advice would you give an assistant coach when they're recruiting a, a, a player?
Speaker 3 00:06:23 Uh, I'd say you just gotta be enthusiastic and, you know, you don't have to call too much. So you called me like once, once every two weeks or something. Like, it wasn't crazy. It was just kind of like, Hey, tell me when you're free, I can and we'll call. And, um, yeah, I think just being persistent, but not being annoying and just talking to place up a lot.
Speaker 1 00:06:42 Matt, you're nodding your head. Does that sound like
Speaker 2 00:06:44 Appropriate? Yeah, just, just keeping in touch, Um, and like, just trying to create a relationship with, um, Cause the coach is trying to create a relationship with you. That's always a good thing. So
Speaker 1 00:06:56 How many times did you see a phone number from a coach come up on your phone and you, you declined? Did that, does that happen or do you take 'em
Speaker 3 00:07:02 All? I don't, I don't think I ever declined one. You know, college, playing college baseball is a huge stream of mind, so you can't turn down anything you get
Speaker 2 00:07:09 Really. Yep, for sure.
Speaker 1 00:07:10 Okay. Okay. Very, very good. Good phone etiquette. Robert, you are number 14? Yes sir. You're a story behind number 14?
Speaker 3 00:07:17 Uh, I wouldn't say there's a story. Fourteen's just always kind of been my favorite number. You know, I wore it all through high school, wore in peewee ball, all that. And so when I got here, I didn't even have to choose it. I walked into my locker and it said Robert Crans, number 14, and it was, it was actually pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 00:07:32 You think they had done the research or?
Speaker 3 00:07:34 Uh, I think, I think so. I would imagine so. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:07:37 Good research skills by our, by the coaching staff. Uh, Matt, 46. Is there a
Speaker 2 00:07:42 Story? Nothing special with 46. That's what I got given. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:07:45 What did you wear in junior college?
Speaker 2 00:07:47 I wore 12.
Speaker 1 00:07:48 Okay.
Speaker 2 00:07:49 Yeah, that was, that was my number. All
Speaker 1 00:07:50 Right. Uh, introduction songs. Robert, do you have one? I'm sure you do. What is it and, and is there a story behind it?
Speaker 3 00:07:58 No story behind mine, really. Uh, this year I've been doing Red, Red Wine by UB 40, and I just think it's kind of, you know, I don't like hardcore music. Whenever I'm on the mount, I just like to relax. And I was, I played Star Ball in California this year, and it was kind of like a, a California vibey song, so I just wanted to get up there and be happy when I'm warming up. So that's what I chose.
Speaker 1 00:08:23 Okay. Matt, For relievers, for closers, introduction songs sounds like a big, big deal. Do you, what, what's your introduction song and why?
Speaker 2 00:08:31 Yeah, for now, uh, it's 20 Mins by Low Uzi Vert. Um, I think it's just pretty chill song that I've always kind of to, um, one of my favorites ever since it came out. And, uh, Little's probably my favorite artist, so, Okay. He gets me in the zone, I'd
Speaker 1 00:08:46 Say. Describe that. I'm not familiar with that.
Speaker 2 00:08:48 He's a, he's a rapper. Okay. Yeah. But good.
Speaker 1 00:08:51 Did you have an opinion on the, uh, who is the closer for the Mets? It became such a big deal this summer and the trumpet.
Speaker 3 00:08:58 Edwin Di
Speaker 4 00:09:11 Hi, this is Rick Nema, president of Wichita State University. Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University. Listen wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 00:09:40 All right, we're back. Edwin Diaz, what did you think of the, uh, of, of his music?
Speaker 2 00:09:45 Very cool. Walkout, um, song, you know, gets you in the mode for He's been a closer, right? He was a closer, yeah. Yeah, kind of a closer vibes I'll, um, I mean, whatever works for you, right? So I thought it was pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 00:09:59 Closer vibe is important. Music seems to be a big, big part of that. Okay. Take us inside the locker room. Is there a, uh, is there a big debate going on? Football, music, movies, anything like that? What are the shockers talking about this fall
Speaker 3 00:10:12 Between the pitching staff in the locker? Right now, the debate is definitely a judge or show, hey, for mvp.
Speaker 1 00:10:19 Okay. That would be, it's been really big. That would be a good one. What's your opinion on this?
Speaker 3 00:10:23 I, I'm a judge guy. I think hitting, you know, last night he tied the record. I think that's, that's something you can't deny, you know, I think you gotta go with judge right now. You can't, you can't deny show Hay's doing either, but
Speaker 1 00:10:33 Yeah, the two way thing is quite, quite impressive. Matt, did you, could you have a side on this?
Speaker 2 00:10:38 Completely agree with him. You're,
Speaker 1 00:10:40 You're with Judge also? Yep. All right, sounds good. Uh, Robert, you played for Santa Barbara this summer. That's an organization that Wichita State fans are really familiar with. There's shockers go out there, uh, every summer. They're really good. The dominant NBC World Series team. Tell us about that experience playing for the
Speaker 3 00:10:57 Foresters. You know, it was, it was a lot of fun. I'd never been to California before, so I was really nervous going in. Um, but I knew the Forester's name, you know, uh, a lot of big players coming out of there from other schools other than Wichita State even. But, um, you know, it was a lot of fun, uh, really, really good players on the team, a good, a good coaching staff. Uh, you know, I was out there with Toley, uh, me and Toley had a lot of fun out there, you know, going to the beach on off days and then playing every other day. So it was fun. It was a lot of
Speaker 1 00:11:25 Fun. Did you have a goal, the start of the summer? What was your plan?
Speaker 3 00:11:29 Uh, my goal this summer was really just to get innings cuz uh, you know, I got opportunities in the year, but I, I kind of got hurt, uh, a little bit through the year and, you know, uh, had to come outta the bullpen at the end and lost out on some innings that I could have had. But, uh, yeah, my goal is just to get innings and of course, you know, refine my stuff and keep working on getting, uh, you know, getting in in like high pressure situations. I didn't get a ton of last year and it definitely helped me a lot.
Speaker 1 00:11:57 When I talked to Mike Riy about you, Robert, he described you as growing up this summer, uh, and he thought you were beginning or did realize that you're good enough to perform at this level. Yes, sir. Tell us about that from your perspective.
Speaker 3 00:12:11 Oh yeah, I mean, I think it, I think it's for any player that comes to the D one level as a freshman, you know, uh, you have, you know, everyone struggles at some point and, you know, you have your doubts whether you can compete. Uh, you know, I've, I've always known that I have the stuff to compete at this level, but it's kind of like, you gotta get the mindset that, you know, I'm better than any hitter that goes up there and I can get anybody out. And I think that this summer, that definitely helped a lot.
Speaker 1 00:12:35 And is that the level of competition that you play out in California with the foresters? Is that part of that picture?
Speaker 3 00:12:41 Yeah, I think so. Um, a lot of Pac 12 guys out there, West Coast guys, you know, it's a different style of baseball out there, but it's, you know, it's really good competition still. And, uh, yeah, definitely saw some really good bats.
Speaker 1 00:12:53 How about the fall? What's your goal for the fall?
Speaker 3 00:12:55 Uh, my goal for the fall is just to, you know, keep building on what I, what I got this summer, what I've built on this summer, and, you know, keep getting guys out, you know, uh, helping the team in any way I can so that I can be good for the spring.
Speaker 1 00:13:08 So Matt, then you would be newcomer a little bit different perspective on the fall. How did you approach the fall and, and what's in your goal?
Speaker 2 00:13:14 Yeah, you know, um, being the first fall here I come and, um, prove what I can do, show what I got. So, um, I mean, I, it's been going good so far, just gotta keep, keep throwing strikes, keep doing my thing, um, and you know, be confident. So
Speaker 1 00:13:32 Mike Pelfrey described you as having a good heartbeat, which is a phrase he uses a lot. Uh, just kind of a kind of person that can handle the, you know, kind of the drama of coming in and the ninth inning, that kind of stuff. What's your mindset? What's your, how do you approach all those kind of parts of that job?
Speaker 2 00:13:48 Yeah, um, so I mean, being in a high pressure situation is pretty common as a closer, um, I mean, I just, I just don't take it too seriously. Like, don't take it, you know, just kind of relax up there, make sure you're, make sure you're breathing, um, and you know, just show what you got perform.
Speaker 1 00:14:10 The pre pre-pitch breath is something that people seem to talk about more and more over recent years. How, how does that help? Why is that an important thing for a pitcher?
Speaker 2 00:14:18 Yeah. Um, it's slowing down your, slowing down yourself, slowing down the game a little bit is, um, a big deal, um, when it comes to those high pressure situations. Um, you know, relaxing a little bit and, um, just pitch by pitch is really what it comes down to. Every pitch matters. So, I mean, being dialed in for each pitch is, is huge.
Speaker 1 00:14:41 So have you always wanted to be a closer?
Speaker 2 00:14:44 Um, actually, so freshman year, um, they ran me out as a starter, so I did that. And then, then, um, towards post-season freshman year, um, they changed me over to long, our long reliever closer role. So I did that and I did pretty, I did pretty solid and I liked that. I honestly liked that a lot more than starting. So then sophomore year, um, closer come out maybe two, three inning, sometimes a little longer, but, um, and that went really well. So, um, yeah, stuck with that
Speaker 1 00:15:19 Grew into the job. Yeah. Favorite big leaguer Robert?
Speaker 3 00:15:23 Ooh, that's put me on the spot. I'd have to say Dylan cease from the White Sox. Just really like his delivery and think there's a lot you can learn from it.
Speaker 1 00:15:31 Okay. Matt, do you have a favorite big
Speaker 2 00:15:33 Leaguer? I'm gonna go glass now. Pitcher, put the temporary ray.
Speaker 1 00:15:37 Okay. What do you like about him?
Speaker 2 00:15:39 Just delivery and, uh, his stuff's gross. So
Speaker 1 00:15:44 Gross in a good way.
Speaker 2 00:15:45 Yeah, he's got good hair. He's got cool hair.
Speaker 1 00:15:46 Oh, good Hair flow. Well, there you go. That's important too. So we may have some fans coming out on Monday to watch a shockers, uh, scrimmage. And then we'll have the fall series later this, uh, later this fall. Uh, hit us with a name or two who's a, uh, a teammate who's impressed you this fall. Matt will let you start.
Speaker 2 00:16:06 Um, there's a lot of guys. Um, I'd say, um, Brock Rodin is a pretty solid hitter. Uh, hits from both ways. Um, I knew he was, I knew he was a good hitter coming in here, um, but I never seen a switch hitter really that can compete at a level like this and I mean, perform from both sides of the plate. So I thought that was pretty impressive. Um, obvious a lot, a lot of guys on the team, honestly. Um, it's a lot different than, you know, junior college ball, junior college ball, maybe one through four in the lineup. Is is pretty dame solid here. It's one through nine. Everyone's good, right? So, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:16:49 So Brock, Rod, the played second base for the shockers last year, all conference, uh, performer had a really, really good season for the shockers. Robert, how about a newcomer? Maybe, is there somebody who maybe fans aren't familiar with that you would say you should keep an eye on him if you come out to watch a scrimmage? Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:17:03 I, I think, uh, someone who I've really liked watching so far is Kit McDonald. Um, he's gonna be, he's playing center field force right now, hidden lead off and all of our scrimmages puts together really good abs and puts the ball and play a lot. And he's really fast, covers a lot of ground in the outfield. I, I'd like to watch him.
Speaker 1 00:17:19 So Kit McDonald, he is a transfer from Mississippi State. Am I correct in that? Yes, sir. All right. Couple names to watch. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 00:17:27 Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:17:41 Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast, courtesy of Wichita State University's strategic communications. We appreciate your time. We encourage you to rate reviews, subscribe wherever you get your podcast, such as on iTunes or Google Play. You can find more roundhouse
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Speaker 5 00:18:03 And they let him pass it up court, then he gets picked off along three by Pango Snow. Good. One second. It's over. It's over. And Wichita State has beaten the number one team in the nation to Wichita. I.
