after Schermerhorn's game-winning double gave
Wichita State a 4-3 win over Arizona in regional
action on June 3.
This season, in Wichita State’s best advance in a decade toward Omaha and the College World Series, the Shockers (53-23) threw their fans a bit of everything – including an NCAA regional championship.
Fans screamed their approval as players rushed onto Tyler Field at Eck Stadium on June 4 after the final out of the championship game. The Shockers rallied to win the tournament title after losing to New Orleans, 6-7, in the opening-round game on June 1.
They won four straight, defeating Oral Roberts (11-4) New Orleans (7-3) and Arizona twice (4-3, 3-0) to advance to the super regional round of the NCAA Tournament.
In the first game played against Arizona, the Shockers won in dramatic fashion in front of a crazed crowd of supporters. Senior Derek Schermerhorn, at bat with two outs in the ninth inning, hit a double to drive in pinch-runner Ryan Jones.
Despite WSU’s regional momentum, the UC Irvine Anteaters won out in best-of-three super regional play, defeating the Shockers, 0-1 and 2-3.
— Connie Kachel White and WSU Sports Information
All About Confidence: Tyler Weber
In preseason remarks, WSU coach Gene Stephenson listed three players – Tyler Weber, Tony Pechek and Cody Lassley – as the “leading candidates” to earn the starting spot at catcher.
Unsettling the situation further, Stephenson even mentioned that first baseman Derek Schermerhorn was “lurking in the background” as a possible candidate.
By now, we know who emerged as the clear winner from this key-position battle. At season’s end, Weber had earned a spot on the all-regional team, done a chat on espn.com, been named one of 10 semi-finalists for the 2007 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award and won a prestigious national honor. Indeed, Weber’s rise from part-time player to starter to postseason standout is one of the many feel-good stories from WSU’s exciting and memorable baseball season.
To summarize: Local prep hero stays close to home to play ball, patiently pays his dues and is rewarded with a big year. “He really grew up a lot this year,” assistant coach Jim Thomas says.
The Shockers with big arms and low earned-run averages – Anthony Capra, Aaron Shafer and Rob Musgrave just to name a few – receive most of the credit for WSU’s pitching success in 2007, and deservedly so. But it would be unfair to ignore the contributions of Weber, who expertly handled one of the best staffs in Shocker history.
WSU’s pitching was the main reason the team enjoyed an outstanding season, winning the Missouri Valley Conference championship and a regional title. The staff earned-run average of 2.68 ranked second in the Stephenson/Brent Kemnitz era and was also second nationally.
The casual fan might not realize how much Weber, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound graduate of Goddard High, contributed to those impressive numbers with his play behind the plate. Most importantly, the Shocker coaching staff allows its catchers to call pitches – a rarity in college baseball.
Weber handled that huge responsibility, among many others, extremely well. “He did an outstanding job calling games, working with the staff, earning their respect,” Thomas says.
While Weber enters games armed with scouting reports on opponents, he calls games based on Shocker pitchers’ strengths. “We concentrate on what our guys do best,” he says. “One of our goals is to always establish the fastball early, and we want the hitters to know we can put it on both sides of the plate. “I love it (calling pitches). I think it helps me and the pitchers both learn the game better.”
In addition, Weber’s defense was superb. He committed just one error in 628 chances, and his .998 fielding percentage and 84 assists established WSU records. He had just six passed balls and threw out 39 percent of would-be base stealers. After the regular season, he was awarded a Gold Glove Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
“You can’t ever be satisfied,” Weber says. “But it was great to be able to work with one of the best staffs in the nation.”
In addition, he made great strides in the batter’s box. After hitting just one home run and driving in 21 runs in 105 at bats in 2006, he cracked a team-high 11 home runs with 49 RBI in 2007. Showing the ability to hit in the clutch, he batted .389 in the regional, including a big home run in the clinching game over Arizona.
“I worked pretty hard in the off-season just developing my swing,” says Weber, who once ended the Class 6A state tourney with a walk-off homer. “Plus, getting in the lineup in a consistent basis really helps. You can build confidence, and if you go 0 for 4 you’re not worried about getting yanked out of the lineup. It was all about confidence for me.”
— Kollen Long ’90/96
Simply Indescribable: Aaron Shafer
Had ESPN focused anywhere else – Wichita State’s bench, the batter taking practice swings, a huge Eck Stadium crowd – the scowl would have gone largely unnoticed.
Instead, the camera zoomed in squarely on Shocker pitcher Aaron Shafer at a telling moment during Game 1 of Wichita State’s super regional against UC Irvine.
It was the seventh inning and Shafer had been pitching very well in the scoreless game, but he was in a bit of trouble against the opportunistic Anteaters.
Out of the dugout came Brent Kemnitz, WSU’s well-respected and successful pitching coach who knows a thing or two about when to make a visit to the mound.
But Shafer did a double-take, shot an are-you-kidding-me glare at Kemnitz and uttered something that, while difficult to make out, was probably suitable for mature audiences only.
Allow catcher Tyler Weber to explain: “He doesn’t like it when people come out and talk to him because he feels like he’s in a flow, in a rhythm. Brent had to come out in that situation, of course. But Aaron’s attitude is, ‘I don’t need any help. I can handle it.’”
Not surprisingly, then, Shafer worked out of the jam without giving up a run in the seventh, his last inning of work in a five-hit, five-strikeout performance. WSU eventually lost the game 1-0, but Shafer proved once again that he is a big-game pitcher – with an intense, confident attitude. Not that he was necessarily proud of his reaction to the mound visit.
“That’s me, I get pretty heated up in the middle of games, and I don’t like people coming out to talk to me when I’m locked in,” Shafer says a week later from his home in Moscow Mills, Mo. “I felt like I had it under control. It wasn’t anything against Brent – he’s the reason I came to WSU – I was just mad at the world right then. When he got out there, he told me I was spreading out. He was right, and I fixed it.
“After the game, Brent told me, ‘Listen, you can’t get all frayed out there. You have to keep a good presence when I come out.’ I know better than to act like that.”
Consider it one more lesson learned in the maturation of Shafer, a 6-foot-4 right-hander who, after an impressive freshman year, continued to be a dominant pitcher for the Shockers during the recently completed season.
As a freshman, Shafer exceeded all expectations by going 11-3 with a 2.63 ERA, earning MVC Pitcher of the Year and Freshman All-American honors. Despite missing about a month with elbow stiffness as a sophomore, Shafer remained among the nation’s elite starters. He went 8-2 with a 2.23 ERA, striking out 90 hitters in 84 2/3 innings.
Shafer brings an assortment of pitches to the mound: a two-seam fastball, which he said moves like a sinker and a four-seamer that he can get in the low 90s. He also throws a change-up, which he readily admits needs improvement.
His strikeout pitch is a curve. “I can throw it any time I want and the hitter knows that, so it’s a pretty big weapon for me,” he says.
Having command over such a repertoire of pitches is a luxury, but the attitude that Shafer brings to the hill is also important. “He goes right at the hitter,” assistant coach Jim Thomas says. “He’s fearless.”
Shafer is considered a major league prospect, and some envision him as a first-round draft pick after next season. While he says it’s “always been my dream” to play in the big leagues, Shafer is taking a patient approach.
“If I continue to do my job on the mound, that stuff will take care of itself,” he says.
Shafer had a chance to go pro immediately after high school, when he was picked in the 16th round by the Cleveland Indians. He has had no second thoughts about passing up that chance – especially after he took the hill in that regional opener against UC Irvine in front of an Eck Stadium record crowd of 8,153.
“I tell ya, any regret I could have ever had was taken away when I pitched in front of that crowd,” he says. “It was the most unbelievable feeling. There were more people in the stands than are in my hometown. It was just indescribable. That was as close to Yankee Stadium as most of us are ever gonna get.”
— Kollen Long ’90/96
