Baseball’s O’Brien family returns to Wichita State at first base

The O’Brien family is back at Wichita State baseball.

First baseman Mason O’Brien is one of 12 athletes who signed with WSU recently. He is a sophomore at Cowley College who spent two seasons at Oklahoma State, one as a redshirt.

O’Brien (6-foot, 210 pounds) is the nephew of Charlie O’Brien and the cousin of Chris O’Brien, both of whom played catcher at WSU.

O’Brien played in 17 games in 2015, going 2 for 22. He redshirted in 2016 at OSU. He is from Owasso, Okla., where he hit .350 with 12 home runs as aophomore and junior before a knee injury ended his senior season.

▪  Outfielder Blake Burd, from Collinsville, Okla., hit .502 as a junior and is ranked No. 6 among outfielders in Oklahoma by Perfect Game scouting service.

▪  Southlake (Texas) Carroll catcher Ross Cadena hit .385 with five doubles as a junior. He is ranked the No. 3 catcher in Texas.

▪  Pitcher Ryan Steumpfig of Flower Mound (Texas) compiled a 2.78 ERA as a junior and is ranked the No. 8 right-hander in Texas.

▪  Catcher Bryce McDermott, of Piedmont (Okla.), hit .298 with five doubles last spring.

▪  Pitcher Jacob Lindemann of Burlington (Wisc.) struck out 73 in 63 innings last season. He is ranked the No. 3 right-hander in Wisconsin.

▪  Pitcher Liam Eddy, from Brighton, Colo., struck out 48 in 30 2/3 innings. He hit .463 with three home runs. Eddy is ranked the No. 2 right-hander in Colorado.

▪  Pitcher Tyler Davis, from Spring, Texas, went 8-2 with a 1.43 as a junior at Oak Ridge High and hit .353 with five home runs.

▪  Logan Easley, from Rogers, Ark., plays the middle infield and pitches. He hit .357 with five doubles and three homers for Heritage High. Perfect Game ranks him No. 2 among middle infielders in Arkansas.

▪  Infielder Garrett Kocis, from Omaha’s Millard West, hit .242 with six doubles last season. He struck out seven in eight innings and is ranked Nebraska’s No. 1 player.

▪  Pitcher Ronnie Taylor, from Allen, Texas, struck out 23 in 16 innings as a junior. He is ranked the No. 30 right-hander in Texas.

▪  Pitcher/infielder Paxton Wallace, from Greenbrier, Ark., hit .493 with a home run. He is ranked the top third baseman in Arkansas.

Volleyball — WSU added Cheney’s Madison Freund, an All-Central Plains League hitter, and Alayna Maslinski a setter/outside hitter from Nashville, Tenn., to its recruiting class.

Setter Kora Kauling (6-2) of Neuqua Valley (Ill.), outside hitter Chase Jackson of Denver East and middle Brooke Smith of Goddard Eisenhower, a second-team All-AV-CTL Division II pick, also signed.

Golf — Taylor BeDell, of Warrensburg, Mo., signed with WSU. BeDell is a two-time Kansas City Golf Association player of the year and a two-time Missouri Amateur Champion.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Baseball’s O’Brien family returns to Wichita State at first base."