Willie Schwanke gets back in the swing of things for Shockers

Wichita State baseball players break off into groups of pitchers and position players after each game. Following Wednesday’s loss to Oklahoma State, senior Willie Schwanke was with the pitchers, the first time that looked out of place.

Schwanke had been exclusively a pitcher for the last two-plus seasons, but he was in Wednesday’s lineup as the designated hitter, batting for the first time since 2015. He had a single and a lineout to center field.

Schwanke looked comfortable in the batter’s box, not like someone who had taken two years off and certainly not like he had only been taking batting practice for a week. He gives the offense-starved Shockers (14-14) another option as they begin Missouri Valley Conference play on Friday against Southern Illinois at Eck Stadium.

“Just kind of resting my arm a little bit,” said Schwanke, who may return to pitching later this season. “Coach (Todd) Butler asked me if I wanted to hit, and I said I’m all about it. Obviously I’ve done it all until a couple years ago. I’ve swung the bat in BP for about a week, and they just threw me in (Wednesday).”

Schwanke started at as a hitter at Arkansas, recruited by Butler, who was an assistant there. He became a two-way player in junior college and began that way at Wichita State in 2015.

With a professional future seemingly tied to pitching, Schwanke began a singular focus partway through 2015, abandoning hitting after collecting four hits in 22 at-bats for WSU. He became WSU’s top pitcher, starting this season’s opener, a win over Utah Valley.

Successes have been dampened by Schwanke’s injury history. He’s in his third year at WSU and a fifth-year senior because he earned a medical hardship after missing most of the last two seasons with two instances of a torn lat muscle in his back.

With WSU in need of hitters after failing to score more than five runs in 12 straight games, Schwanke gives the Shockers an option at DH and at the corner infield spots.

“He can hit and he knows the strike zone, you could see that (Wednesday) night,” Butler said. “He looks hitterish in the box. He squared up two balls and he hasn’t hit in two years. He was pitching so well that we took the bat away from him so he could concentrate on pitching.

“Now it looks like he’s going to have a chance to be in the lineup. He has good feel for hitting, he’s always been able to hit. For not seeing live pitching in two years, I thought he looked pretty good.”

Schwanke batted fifth on Wednesday and, if in peak form, gives WSU lineup depth it has been missing with a .239 average and one player with more than 50 at-bats and a batting average better than .272.

“I miss that, I miss the competitive side of things from the batter’s box,” Schwanke said. “Being a pitcher, I think along the line of what (opposing pitchers) are going to throw me and stuff like that. Right now, resting my arm, I want to contribute as much as I can, so of course I told them I was ready.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Willie Schwanke gets back in the swing of things for Shockers."