Ray Ashford wants the ball for Wichita State despite shoulder soreness

During his daily meeting, Wichita State pitching coach Brent Kemnitz asks each pitcher to update the health of his arm.

“Sweet” means ready to pitch. “Sore, can” means I can throw, while throwing up a caution flag. “Sore, can’t” requires time off. “Scalpel” is the ultimate in bad news.

Pitcher Ray Ashford usually gives Kemnitz a “Sweet.” Sometimes it’s “Sore, can.” While Ashford isn’t exactly lying, he’s also not exactly telling the truth. When you’re a senior with no aspirations to play professionally, shoulder pain is no reason to refuse the baseball.

“Mentally, I tell myself that my arm doesn’t hurt,” Ashford said. “Just throw. This is my last year. I’m going to have to get a job after this.”

The Shockers (19-29, 6-9 Missouri Valley Conference) play their final home series of the season against Evansville (27-19, 8-10) starting Friday. It is a series WSU must win, and perhaps sweep, to keep alive hopes of finishing in the upper half of the MVC standings. WSU finishes conference play at second-place Dallas Baptist next weekend.

Ashford started the season throwing four or five mph faster than his junior season, up to 89-91 mph. Excitement turned to concern when his right shoulder began to ache. He took two weeks off and little changed.

“It wasn’t that I couldn’t throw, but when I would try to throw, it wouldn’t come out,” he said. “It was like 83-85 mph.”

Ashford dropped his throwing motion to the side, a form he experimented with in junior college, and it eased the tendinitis enough for him to pitch. He can’t throw as hard, but the change in motion helps his deception and movement with his sinker and slider.

“I have discomfort every now and then, but it’s easy to throw through,” he said.

Ashford’s picture won’t end up on Kemnitz’s office wall with the All-Americans. He won’t play on an MVC champion or, barring a surprise, an NCAA regional team. His job as a middle reliever on a struggling team guarantees a low-profile existence as a Shocker. That, however, won’t tell the story of how much coaches value his contributions.

Ashford’s willingness to change his delivery and keep throwing through the discomfort earns him the gratitude of the coaching staff. His ERA of 6.43 short-changes his value in a bullpen short on health and experience. While it’s a struggle for Ashford, he gives WSU coaches a sense of reliability that, in this uncharacteristically tough season for the pitching staff, is welcome.

“He could go either direction,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “He could go to the sour side, or try to stay on the positive side. He stayed on the positive side. His arm has not been 100-percent healthy. But he’s one of the best competitors on the team.”

WSU recruited Ashford out of Grayson (Texas) College after he played with former Shockers Tyler Baker and Dayne Parker on the Derby Twins. Kemnitz saw him as bullpen arm with the potential to close games when he watched him with Derby. Last season, he went 2-3 with a 4.26 ERA and 32 strikeouts and 12 walks. This season, his strikeouts are down and his control wavers, but the Shockers aren’t in a position to refuse his contributions.

“Obviously, it’s not the 100-percent Ray Ashford that would give you more comfort,” Kemnitz said. “But he’s still a guy that has effectiveness. He’s going to tell me that he’s good to go every day. The thing that is as big as anything is that the team believes in him.”

Ashford showed why last week against Oklahoma when he gave the Shockers 3 1/3 innings and kept a bad situation from getting worse. He entered with one out in the second inning with two men on and OU up 2-0. The Sooners added three more runs in the inning, but Ashford battled into the fifth and gave WSU a chance to rally and win 9-8. In Tuesday’s 11-5 win over Kansas State, he defused a seventh-inning rally by ending a bases-loaded threat with a popup.

Ashford, from Sachse, Texas, played catcher and third base in high school. That background, he said, helped prepare him to field his position and perform as a well-round pitcher. Even as a newcomer, Kemnitz used him as an example when teaching pickoffs and defensive plays.

“He’s one of the best we have at getting off the mound, fielding the ball, bunt plays, pickoffs,” catcher Bob Arens. “He’s a great example for the young guys. It’s confidence. He knows he’s going to get the job done.”

Ashford plans on coaching and will start this summer with a 18-and-under select travel team in Mesquite, Texas. He can count on recommendations from Butler and Kemnitz, who describe him as an athlete who handles his academics and his baseball with maturity. In their minds, he showed coaching smarts when he suggested a way to contribute even when shoulder pain changed his outlook.

“The reason I always rave about him is that he always does everything a coach wants,” Kemnitz said.

This story was originally published May 7, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Ray Ashford wants the ball for Wichita State despite shoulder soreness."