Payton Tolle delivers one of the best two-way games in Wichita State baseball history
It’s rarefied air when a Wichita State baseball player is mentioned in the same sentence as Darren Dreifort.
But Wichita State sophomore Payton Tolle made it seem like it was 1993 all over again on a Saturday afternoon at Eck Stadium, delivering perhaps the best two-way performance of the young college baseball season in the Shockers’ 17-5 win over Oakland at Eck Stadium.
At the plate, Tolle crushed a three-run home run, collected a hit in all five plate appearances and had 6 RBIs in a career-best hitting performance. On the mound, Tolle struck out a career-high 10 batters with one walk, two hits allowed and no earned runs in six innings of work.
“It was like watching little league,” WSU interim head coach Loren Hibbs said. “Somebody hitting home runs and striking people out like that, you usually only see that in little league.”
The only comparison for something like that was Dreifort, the 1993 Golden Spikes award winner who was 11-1 on the mound with a 2.48 earned run average and hit 22 home runs with a .327 batting average to help the Shockers reach the College World Series championship that season.
“That’s one of the greatest players to play college baseball, so I think I would tell that comparison is a little early,” said Tolle, laughing. “I see his picture every day in the indoor because he was an All-American, so I just want to dominate like him. It’s a fun comparison. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but maybe one day.”
Tolle flashed his two-way potential last season, finishing with a .317 batting average in 104 at-bats and a 4-6 record and 4.48 ERA on the mound. But Saturday’s game was his best hitting performance and pitching performance rolled into one.
“I’m thankful for coach Hibbs for giving me the opportunity to two-way like that,” Tolle said. “I try not to let one affect the other, but if good things do happen then they definitely carry over. It gives you a confidence boost, but I always try to take it one pitch and one at-bat at a time.”
While Wichita State isn’t likely to be competing for the CWS title this season like the Dreifort era, the Shockers were pleased to see the offense bang out 17 runs on 17 hits in a bounce-back win after losing to a one-win Horizon League opponent in the series opener on Friday.
Tolle made sure a repeat performance wouldn’t occur on Saturday, silencing Oakland’s bats and then extending WSU’s lead at the plate. His towering three-run shot to right center gave WSU a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning. Then he delivered a double to the left-center gap to bring in two more runs the next inning. He produced an RBI hit for the third straight inning in the bottom of the fifth to put the Shockers up 12-1.
But the most emotion Tolle showed was when he struck out his 10th and final hitter to end the sixth inning.
“That’s the stuff you live for,” Tolle said. “Just competing and then throwing a good pitch and keeping the boys fired up. It’s just so much fun. I love going out there and having fun and firing the guys up.”
Hibbs gave some of the credit for Tolle’s big day on the mound to first-year WSU catcher Mauricio Millan.
“Mo has done a better job with him the more he’s caught him,” Hibbs said. “I think that working relationship is improving each time Tolle goes out there and pitches. Tolle is just a big, strong kid who pounds the strike zone and his fastball was working today and we played pretty good defense behind him.”
Seth Stroh and David Herring also hit home runs for WSU, while Garrett Pennington finished with three hits, four runs scored and two runs knocked in.
WSU improved to 5-4 this season and will look for the series win in a 1 p.m. Sunday game at Eck Stadium.
This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 4:24 PM.
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