Baseball 'Chomping at the Bit' in Getting Fall Practices Started

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            While Baylor football hosts Kansas for its annual Homecoming game this Saturday at McLane Stadium, every day is homecoming for first-year Baylor head baseball coach Mitch Thompson.
            "It's been unbelievable, the whole experience to come back," said Thompson, an assistant at Baylor for 18 years (1995-2012) before a nine-year run as the head coach at crosstown McLennan Community College, leading the Highlanders to the 2021 NJCAA World Series title and four other World Series appearances.
            "Each and every day, I walk into the ballpark, and I've got an immediate smile on my face. The Friday (before the football team's game against Oklahoma State), all of a sudden, we have six or eight former players that are stopping by to give you hugs and check in and say how excited they are. The homecoming has been great, and it will keep being great until that first loss. And then, it'll be wins and losses. We're looking forward to getting to that part as well."
            Now in its second week of official fall practices, Baylor baseball is loaded with newcomers this season, including a completely new staff and the "six to eight guys" Thompson brought in after being hired in June.
            "They're all newcomers to our staff, and we're newcomers to them, too," Thompson said. "Everything we're doing, we're trying to put it all in, starting from the very bottom and working our way through it. And there's a lot of room for improvement right now."
            One of the newcomers is middle infielder Cole Posey, a grad transfer who hit .297 last season at New Mexico. A native of Georgetown, Texas, Posey spent two years with the Lobos after playing as a freshman at Boise State.
            It's "definitely full circle" for Posey, whose mom and dad are both Baylor graduates. Putting on the uniform for the first time was "extremely surreal," he said.
            "I actually got on the phone with my parents, and it was a little emotional because it means a lot to them," he said. "When I was standing out there at shortstop (last Monday), with the cap and jersey on, looking up to the stands where I've seen so many baseball games, it was just one of those moments where I felt so blessed to be able to come full circle and enjoy that."
            Thompson said Posey was a player that "we got on to him late in the summer."
            "Him being a grad transfer, that was a good thing for us," Thompson said. "He brings some experience at a couple different universities. He's one of the older guys we have. We've got a lot of young guys, a lot of first-year guys. So, any experience we can get is big."
            Another one of the "older guys" is fifth-year senior Blake Helton, a 6-5 right-hander who finished the 2022 season on a good note with five shutout innings against 18^th-ranked and top-seeded TCU at the Big 12 Tournament.
            Having already graduated, Helton had one foot out the door with a job offer from Dell before Thompson was hired.
            "I thought I was going to do that, and then Mitch called," Helton said. "Dell said, 'We'll always be waiting.' So, that would give me another year looking at other job opportunities; and then, just coming back to get my master's degree and being able to compete and play baseball for another year sounded amazing. These are my best friends. Getting the news that I could come back and play another year was great."
            The transfer portal can be a blessing and a curse when you're trying to "make sure that everybody's sticking around," Thompson said.
            "(The portal) gives you a little hesitation there and gives you a little problem," he said. "We brought in six or eight guys from the time that we got hired until school started. And we're just trying to mis them all in together now and get everybody as one."
            Even after several weeks of individual workouts, the Bears were "chomping at the bit) to get on the field at Baylor Ballpark as a team.
            "We got an ideal about skill set through the individual workouts," he said. "Now, it's getting together as a team and trying to figure out, OK, what's going to be our best nine? How are we going to move our guys around to different positions? Who gives us the ability to provide depth in different spots? And let our pitching staff start to figure itself out so we can start to determine roles and how guys might fit in during the season."
            Helton said having more newcomers than returners is "definitely a change" from his four previous seasons at Baylor, "but it's one that the returners have really embraced."
            "We love all the new guys," he said. "It's bringing competition like we've never had before. So, I think our team is going to be a lot better for it."
            A product of the nearby Midway High School program, sophomore catcher Cortlan Castle remembers going to Baylor baseball games with his dad when Thompson was an assistant coach for the Bears.
            "I went to a few McLennan games when I was getting a little older, and I saw him there," said Castle, who hit .262 last year with 12 starts as a true freshman. "And his daughter is in my sister's grade, so we've kind of known that family, seen them around Waco for a long time. Now that our relationship has changed from someone that I kind of know to someone who's my head coach, it's been really cool."
            The Bears will host an Alumni Weekend Nov. 11-12 that will include a golf outing and intrasquad scrimmage that Friday and Alumni Tailgate prior to the Baylor-Kansas State football game.

Baseball 'Chomping at the Bit' in Getting Fall Practices Started

Players Mentioned

Cortlan Castle

Blake Helton

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