Collegiate Baseball ranks Wichita State class No. 2 nationally

Wichita State baseball coaches started out way behind on class of 2014 recruits and had to adjust their strategy in April.

Rally time.

On Monday, Collegiate Baseball ranked WSU’s recruiting class No. 2 nationally, behind LSU, largely on the strength of six drafted players. WSU added 10 junior-college transfers, a group Collegiate Baseball editor and publisher Lou Pavlovich Jr. said would rank No. 1 for a transfer-only class.

“Holy cow,” Pavlovich said. “It’s amazing what Wichita State landed. It’s hard to get drafted players in college now because there’s such a premium that pros are paying.”

Coach Todd Butler came to Wichita State in 2013 with the reputation as a top-level recruiter as an assistant at Arkansas. He and his coaches hustled to grab commitments from athletes in the class of 2014, working from behind because recruiting stalled as former coach Gene Stephenson’s contract status became an issue.

“We were relentless,” Butler said. “When we took the job June 16, we had zero commitments for the ’14 class. We were non-stop recruiting for 365 days.”

The No. 2 ranking is WSU’s best since Collegiate Baseball started ranking classes in 1983. WSU ranked No. 4 that year, its previous high. The 1999 class ranked No. 9, its last appearance in the top 10.

Butler expected to be ranked highly, perhaps in the top 10.

“When it came out No. 2, I was a little shocked and surprised,” he said. “Now we need to coach them up.”

LSU is No. 1 with 195 points, 10 more than the Shockers in Pavlovich’s points system.

WSU brought in 27 newcomers. The large number helped the ranking, but Pavlovich said his system is focused largely on the top 10 or 12 recruits to try to even the field between schools that sign varying numbers. He awards points for draft picks and honors. A school gets 40 points for a first-round pick and one point for a player picked in the 40th and final round. All-American honors in junior college are worth 25 points and all-conference honors could be worth 15-25 points, depending on the strength of the conference. High school all-conference and all-state honors are figured and there’s a bonus for left-handed pitchers because of their rarity.

The key to the ranking is the fact things broke WSU’s way back in June in the draft. Seven Shockers were drafted. Six made it to campus. Pitcher Storm Rynard, from Cowley College, signed with Texas, which picked him in the 34nd round.

Third baseman Chase Rader, from Coffeyville Community College, went to Detroit in the 16th round. Cincinnati grabbed pitcher Isaac Anderson, from the College of Southern Idaho, in the 19th round. Pitcher Sam Hilliard, from Crowder (Mo.) College, went in the 31st round to Minnesota. Florida took pitcher Chase Williams, of Eastern Oklahoma State, in the 37th round. High school athletes Keenan Eaton, an outfielder from Parker, Colo., and Bishop Carroll catcher Taylor Sanagorski went in the 39th round; Eaton to Philadelphia and Sanagorski to the Tigers.

Butler focused on high school athletes last summer. When the Shockers lost eight straight games in April, he wanted more immediate help, especially on the mound, and added transfers in the spring and summer. He credited his players with promoting the program and encouraging recruits to stick with WSU after the draft. He said the drafted recruits kept in contact over the summer and pushed each other to attend school.

“It was kind of a team thing,” he said.

Several draftees, such as Hilliard, turned down opportunities to go higher because they wouldn’t lower their bonus price, or they were locked in on college. A shoulder (non-throwing) injury to Anderson, suffered running the bases late in the season for the College of Southern Idaho, may have caused him to drop.

Rader and pitcher Jon Ferrendelli earned All-NJCAA honors in the spring and several of the high school signees are all-state and all-league picks.

“The juco guys really put us over the top,” Butler said. “We had a lot of help from major-league baseball, the scouts in our area and the Midwest. It was the network of friendships that really put this recruiting class on the map.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2014 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Collegiate Baseball ranks Wichita State class No. 2 nationally."