The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 20, 2009 Page: 25 of 28
twenty eight pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
0 I
THE RICE THRESHER BASEBALL 2009 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20,2009
B5
* 4
* 4
O %
a t
According to head coach Wayne Graham,
the universe is tilted in freshman Taylor
Wall's favor.
"Wall is a left-hander, [and) the world is tilt-
*9 % ed toward left-handers," Graham said. "Physics
in the world work in left-handers' favor. Physics
majors haven't discovered exactly why that is."
Just another thing, it appears, that is pro-
pelling the freshman pitcher to an embarrass-
ment of riches.
The failings of physics majors comes at the
% expense of batters, who, if Wall's past suc-
cesses continue, are set to squirm when facing
the rookie southpaw. With a heady three-pitch
arsenal and a solid 6*2" frame, the freshman
has thrown his way into a starting rotation that
features junior right-handers Ryan Berry and
Mike Ojala.
As it stands, Wall seems like a perfect fit for
a pitching corps roughed up by departing draft-
ees. He came to Rice last fall with knowledge of
Reckling Park's history in his back pocket af-
ter growing up only a few miles from campus.
Wall had frequented both Owl ballgames and
Reckling Park baseball camps in his adoles-
cent baseball career, acquainting himself with
the staff and a few of the players.
But this familiarity, and Rice's 13 con-
secutive conference championships, was
almost not enough to convince Wall to join
the Owls.
"My mom pretty much brainwashed me,"
Wall, who attended Westside High School, said.
"She wanted me to go to the University of Texas,
so I grew up as a Texas fan. Come recruiting day
[Texas] just wasn't good for me, and Rice came
->nH offered rne a lot."
Actually, college was not the sole option
for the Houston Chronicle's 2008 All-Greater
Houston Pitcher of the Year. After going 14-1
with a 0.64 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 86.2
innings in his senior year — all while lead-
ing his Wolves to the Class 5A Region III
finals — the Arizona Diamondbacks select-
ed Wall in the 40th round of the 2008 Major
League draft.
The 19-year-old passed up a shot at the Lig
leagues to play for Graham and the Owls, a
move neither he nor his parents regret.
"|My parents] definitely told me I made the
right choice," he said. "1 just welcome [Rice's
storied success]. I'm just having fun with it."
Following a crushing loss to Louisiana State
University in last year's College World Se-
ries, the baseball team went home for the
summer. Some players prepared to enter the pros,
while those with a college career left to finish took
to summer leagues to hone their games.
But for junior Diego Seastrunk, the coming
of summer brought with it tough choices and a
chance for change.
After two years at Rice, Seastrunk has emerged
as the squad's ultimate utility player. After being
named to the Freshman Ail-American year in 2007,
he rasied his batting average 49 points last year to
•353- In addition to his stellar performance at the
plate, head coach Wayne Graham used him at
almost every spot in the infield at one time or an-
other, including an appearance out of the bullpen
for an inning in the 2008 campaign.
However, in keeping with the Rice tradition
of striving for perfection on the diamond and
despite his already gaudy numbers, Seastrunk
wanted to do more.
"Coaches are looking at me to be a leader," he
said. "I have to look into myself to be a leader... I
needed to make a change. Now, I have to do what-
ever it takes to get this team back to Omaha."
What it took for Seastrunk was a complete
restructuring of his role on the squad and a
move from a third-base position that required
relatively fleeting attention to a post that will
make him the air-traffic controller of the dia-
mond — catcher.
"It is a transition," he said. "Just being in the
infield, you don't get the ball hit to you every
time. You might not get the ball hit to you every
game. But when you are behind the plate, you
get the ball every pitch."
The decision to move to catcher had a counter-
intuitive motivation behind it, which Graham con-
ceived. Seastrunk approached Graham when he
began having consistency problems on defense.
"I had some trouble focusing in the infield,"
he said. "[Graham] said that [catcher] was the
best place for me if I am having trouble focusing.
... I was one of the loose guys around. I needed to
make a change. I can still be loose, but the guys
% need to know that they have somebody in their
^ % corner that is going to step up and take care of
things when they need to get done."
Following the 2008 Major League draft, the
Owls had a very noticeable hole at the catcher
position. It slowly became evident to Seastrunk
over the summer that he needed to till that hole.
Up until he was 14 years old, Seastrunk was
^ accustomed to crouching behind the plate but
% t
% t
% %
% *
i %
€ %
% %
• %
dropped that role as he developed as a pitcher
and infield player.
"I didn't really want to leave the infield," he
said. "But I knew that it would be better for the
team if I moved to catcher. I talked to coach Gra-
ham about it a couple times. He said that it would
help the team more than anything, and it would
help me in the draft."
Now, Seastrunk says that he has rediscov-
ered his love of the catcher spot. He has also
found unexpected changes that accompany
putting on the mask.
"As infielders and position players we depend
on the pitchers, but even in intersquads we mess
around with them," he said. "We want to get hits
off them. Now, I find myself pulling for the pitcher
as well. It has been fun for me getting to know
these pitchers better."
Though he seems to be having plenty of fun
now, both Seastrunk and Graham have repeated-
ly shown that they are committed to doing what
it takes to win, so it should come to no surprise
if Seastrunk's number is called, once again, to
make a move for the better of the team.
"You never know how the year is going to go,"
Seastrunk said. "I wouldn't mind getting back into
the pen."
— Yan Digilov
Sporting a running fastball, a tantaliz-
ing changeup, and a newfound slurve — "I
couldn't really decide [between a curveball and
a slider], and I just started throwing it harder
when I got here," he said - Wall has slid into
the role of No. 3 starter.
However, he left any appearance of in-
timidation in the dugout. In addition to some
mentoring from Berry, Rice's last superstar
freshman pitcher, Graham instilled Wall with
the team's mantra.
"[We use] the serenity prayer: You con-
trol what you can, and what you can't con-
trol, you don't let it bother you," Graham
said. "It's what you've got to do, or you'll
go crazy in this game, because there's a lot
of capaciousness."
When he takes the hill for the first time to-
morrow, the capriciousness will be exacerbated
by some gastric butterflies. Fortunately, Wall will
have both universal quirks and a terrific three-
pitch cache at his disposal. And as it stands, he
could not be happier.
"It's a dream come true," he said.
— Casey Michel
Anthony Rendon was in the eighth grade
when Rice's baseball team won the 2003
national championship. Having been
raised playing baseball in the Houston area,
Rendon took notice.
"I remember hearing about how good [Rice
was] doing," Rendon said. "When they won the
national championship, I knew that they were a
good program."
Four years later, halfway through his senior
year of high school, Rendon learned he would
be joining the ranks of Owls searching to repeat
the achievement. On his way to a baseball tour-
nament Rendon, then attending Lamar High
School, received an important phone call.
"I was talking on the phone to the Rice
coaches on my way to Waco," the 18-year-old
said. "I ended up committing early on the phone
on the way to a baseball tournament."
A few months later, however, Rendon's base-
ball skills had attracted attention beyond South
Main. In fact, this attention was coming all the
way from Atlanta, Ga., from the offices of the At-
lanta Braves. The Braves drafted Rendon In the
27th round of the 2008 Major League Baseball
draft, just days after he was set to graduate from
high school.
The pile of teams vanquished by junior
pitcher Ryan Berry stacks high, and it
keeps getting higher. Since he became
the baseball team's Friday night starter two
years ago, the 6'i", 190-lb. Berry has spent
most of his time on the mound dominating
both conference and non-conference foes for
the Owls. His first win came over Baylor Uni-
versity in the 2007 Houston College Classic at
Minute Maid Park, and in the two years since
then he has posted marquee wins against sev-
eral baseball powers, including the Univer-
sity of Houston, Tulane University and Texas
Christian University.
If you ask him, however, he would prefer
to downplay his accolades and focus on what
he considers to be a more important goal: get-
ting Rice its fourth straight trip to the College
World Series in Omaha. Neb.
"I know, that being a junior and this be-
ing my draft year, most people would say
that I should have more strikeouts, or that
my strikeout-to-walk ratio should be great-
er than it was the past two seasons," Berry
said. "But to me, being successful is leading
the team to Omaha, putting them in a posi-
tion to win every time 1 go out there land]
having a quality start every time I go out
there. If I can do that, it would be, for me, a
Suddenly Rendon was faced with a big de-
cision: to attend college or make to leap to the
pros. This decision racked him for days, but
after talking with his parents and coaches, the
choice was easy.
"I wanted to get my education first because
I know my parents are big on education,"
Rendon said. "My coaches also had an influ-
ence on it. My coach from the summer, coach
Sinisi, had a son who came here, Vincent, so
he was high on Rice and he wanted to see me
come play here."
Now Rendon is at Rice, and while nearly
every college freshman goes through some
adjustments his first year, the freshman's
transition from high school to college was
relatively smooth. Perhaps the biggest change
for Rendon was his switch from shortstop, the
position he played throughout high school, to
third base, where he'll likely start for the Owls
this season.
Despite the change, Rendon has grown to
enjoy his new position.
"It's quicker reaction [at third base]," he
said. "You don't have to think so much, the ball
jumps on you quickly, and you just make the
play instead of waiting. I'm not a very patient
guy. I just like to get things done."
Now that he is playing third base, Rendon
identifies a little more with his favorite Major
League player, Alex Rodriguez. The New York
Yankee has spent plenty of time in the news
lately after his admission of using steroids from
2001-2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers,
but his use did not surprise Rendon.
"I kind of knew because he kind of got big
after his rookie year, but he's my favorite player
and I didn't want to admit it," Rendon said. "It
probably takes a lot of fans away from him be-
cause he's such a big character."
While playing third for the Owls, Rendon
has several goals. He'd love to become a fresh-
man All-American, win a championship for
Rice and eventually get drafted again to play in
the big leagues. Rendon isn't picky about where
he ends up in the pros, however.
"I just want to play baseball, that's always
been my dream," Rendon said. "It doesn't re-
ally matter which team but I just want to get out
there and play."
— Natalie Clericuzio
successful season."
In order to help Rice reach the College
World Series, Berry will have to take on more
of the pitching burden than he has the past
few years. Last year's relief corps, anchored
by the nearly untouchable Bobby Bell and
Cole St.Clair (Sid '08), was hit hard by the Ma-
jor League draft, and for the first time in the
past few seasons, Rice's pitching staff is run-
ning a little thin.
As a result, Berry will likely have to ex-
tend most of his starts to near-complete-
game efforts.
"This year [head coach Wayne Graham] is
asking me to be more efficient," Berry said.
"That means lengthening my starts. ... So in-
stead of coming in trying to strike out every-
body, I'm trying to get the ball in play so my
defense can get outs. That way, I can throw
more innings and save our bullpen."
Berry will use his refined three-pitch set
to keep batters off balance in his quest for
innings. He features a fastball, an offspeed
pitch and a so-called "knuckle curve," and he
can throw all of them for strikes.
He is not an overpowering pitcher in terms
of velocity, but he displays uncanny accuracy
and relies on crafty spot selection to get his
outs. This repertoire lends itself well to the
strategy of using defense rather than power
pitching to hold opposing teams at bay. Berry
said he and the other pitchers only have to
keep the ball in the ballpark, and the speedy
Rice infield will make the plays they need
to make.
"This year we're probably going to lean
on the defense a little more," Berry said. "I
can say that we're very fast, and we're going
to be able to make plays. If we go out there to
pitch to contact and keep the ball down, our
defense is going to get us out of a lot of things,
and hopefully we can get those wins."
Since he first donned an Owl uniform
two seasons ago, the 2007 National Fresh-
man Pitcher of the Year has led the baseball
team to 19 wins and two trips to Omaha. But
while he insists he will always put (he team's
needs before his own. Berry admits that
he has at least one small personal goal left
to accomplish:
"I'm actually 0-2 against the University of
Southern Mississippi." Berry said. "So I'd like to
go out there and prove to them that I can pitch."
— Dylan Farmer
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 20, 2009, newspaper, February 20, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443169/m1/25/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.