A pitcher has parlayed a couple of transfers and a 1-5 record into a scholarship offer. It doesn't happen often, yet Baylor's Cameron Wolfe did it.
Wolfe transferred from Boyd-Buchanan, spent a year pitching on the Red Raiders' JV while moving to Brandon Turner's Xposure baseball for summer and fall competition. After posting a 1-5 record last spring - prior to a summer against top-drawer travel baseball competition - Wolfe wound up receiving and accepting an offer from Belmont University.
"You know, the league we play in is very good. I really don't think about the record but how well you pitch. I worried more about going out and throwing the best I could," the lanky Wolfe said.
Wolfe also was pitching his first season for Baylor's varsity, and he started the season late after coming off basketball. He actually pitched last year at 150-155 pounds but has since gotten stronger and added 10-15 pounds.
"These guys starting here now in August and September, they're lifting four days per week and getting in speed and agility two days a week," said Billy Berry, who's preparing for his second season coaching the Red Raiders. "Guys that are just playing baseball are getting a whole dose and it's really a building that a guy coming from basketball wasn't getting.
"It wasn't his fault or the basketball team's fault. It was circumstance, but last year was tough. He came from basketball and we had like a week and a half and we're playing our first game. I think it was the next week he was pitching against McCallie, but he didn't really get into the flow of things until midway through the year."
In that effort against McCallie, Wolfe took the loss after being lifted in the sixth inning of a 2-1 loss.
"We were young and not very good defensively and he was condensing preparation into a week and a half, but there were a lot of hard-luck guys on the mound (for Baylor) last year," Berry observed.
He was therefore not surprised when Wolfe got the offer from Belmont, whose coaches spoke with both Turner and Berry before tendering the scholarship. A former college coach, nationally acclaimed for his work at Tennessee Wesleyan, Berry sees not what Wolfe is but what he can be.
"He's 6-foot-3, long and lean and he has a loose arm," Berry said. "This year will be the first he has played only baseball and I think it will be a benefit – getting in the weight room and a throwing program for a whole year. We could get him up to 85-86-87 and maybe touching 88 (mph). He gets to college and puts on the weight and gets stronger and you're looking at a guy throwing in the low 90s with a really good slider.".
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.