By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Given time to reflect on a 20-35 campaign in his first year at the helm, Baylor baseball head coach Mitch Thompson said the squad knew it wasn’t going to “set the world on fire.”
Thompson said it wasn’t the Bears’ time yet. But after being hired late in the recruiting cycle for the 2023 season, the head coach has a much firmer grasp on this year’s group.
“The future looks bright with what we’re able to do now recruiting-wise and who we’re able to bring in here to help us,” Thompson said.
Coming off a last place finish in the Big 12 and missing the conference tournament for the first time in program history, Thompson said there was no time to be down in the dumps. The Bears rattled off four wins to close the year, which showed Thompson there was something to build on.
“You look back at the season, and while it was disappointing, you can look back and go, ‘Gosh, we were so close in so many of these ballgames,’” Thompson said. “The difference might be one player, one play or one pitch. We have to correct this either with different talent, different players, or we have to do a better job getting our point [across as coaches].”
The movies might show a baseball head coach kicking back and relaxing when a season ends, but Thompson doesn’t live in Hollywood. His summer months were full of recruiting, retooling and looking into the mirror, trying to coordinate how to continue bringing in talent.
“That’s how we’ve made a name for ourselves as coaches over the years: being able to recruit and identify talent,” Thompson said. “Then, once we get it here, we can coach it and we can improve it. That’s what we’re going to continue to do, and I think kids want to get better, and they want to be around other kids that
are hungry.”
Before fall camp started, Thompson said he could see the changes his players worked on during the summer. Redshirt sophomore outfielder Gavin Brzozowski, junior catcher Cortlan Castle and transfer redshirt junior outfielder Enzo Apodaca played summer ball to gain more experience.
“I was in Iowa this summer playing in the Northwoods League,” Castle said. “The greatest thing about that is that it was a lot of repetition and a lot of games. It’s hard to mimic anything else, so just playing was a really big benefit for me, and I think I learned a lot doing it. I think that’s benefited me a lot so far.”
Others like junior third baseman Hunter Teplanszky and senior outfielder Hunter Simmons stayed in Waco to work on their craft.
“You think back to this time last year, we were returning two home runs off of our entire ballclub from the year before,” Thompson said. “We’re not doing that now. We’re returning guys with some experience, and we have some guys who can step in.
“They’ve improved. They’ve shown that improvement. They’re continuing to improve, and they’ve improved again this fall.”
When the athletes returned to Waco, Thompson said he set his eyes on his first full recruiting class and saw the fruits of his labor. However, he said the incomers looked different from how he anticipated the rest of his Baylor tenure.
“We have 51 players out here right now,” Thompson said. “It’s the most we will probably ever have in the fall. It’s more than I want to have, but coming off of last year, we needed to bring in a huge recruiting class, and we needed to try and flip the program and get it turned back in the right direction. I’ve been very happy with what we’ve seen so far.”
Filled with versatility and heavy competition, Thompson said there’s a competitive atmosphere for the fall to emulate the cutthroat nature of stiff conference competition come spring. He noted there has already been tremendous growth in the outfield and that he feels like the lineup can compete at a high level.
The clock is slowly ticking through the fall and winter months, but Thompson said he and the squad are excited to show improvement in hopes of making a run at shocking the college baseball world in the upcoming season.
“My coaches tell me that my walk-up song is ‘I want it all and I want it now,’” Thompson quipped. “That’s just the way it is, and that’s probably true. I’m a really impatient guy, and I do want it all, and I want it now. So give it to me now, and let’s do it.”
