Alaska lifestyle agrees with Wichita State’s Lungwitz, on and off baseball field

Wichita State pitcher Connor Lungwitz learned to sleep through Alaska’s bright nights. He watched a moose walk by the baseball field. He caught some salmon and hiked.

“No bears yet,” he said. “I came up here and I’ve done more outdoors stuff than I’ve ever done in my life.”

So his summer trip is going well, especially on the mound. Lungwitz, a sophomore from Maize High, went 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA through his first seven appearances, six starts, for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. Through Thursday, he led the Alaska Baseball League with 38 strikeouts while issuing a mere four walks.

“His changeup has been great for him, especially lately,” Anchorage coach Darren Westergaard said. “He’s been dominating them with his off-speed and sneaking his fastball in there when he needs to and making them look silly, really.”

Lungwitz struck out 10 in six innings against Stephen F. Austin in late March, a performance that may have unfairly raised expectations. His next five outings didn’t go as smoothly and he finished the season with a 7.58 ERA. Summer is a time to work on pitches without worrying about wins and losses. Lungwitz underwent minor shoulder surgery in August and summer is also a time when he feels strength returning.

“The biggest thing for me was getting my fastball back,” he said. “I got my changeup back to where it was before I had my surgery. My arms feels like it used to. I wouldn’t say in the spring it was hurting, it just felt a little weird at times. This summer, I’ve got my feel back.”

Lungwitz isn’t sure if he is throwing harder. The Glacier Pilots don’t own a radar gun. He knows he is putting his fastball in the right spots and it seems like his velocity is up from the 85-88 mph he threw last spring.

“I’m working to get over the 90 (mph) hump,” he said.

Lungwitz used his slider early in the summer to rack up strikeouts. Hitters in the six-team league began laying off that pitch, making the changeup more important. He estimates he threw one or two changeups in games for WSU.

“In the spring, I was kind of guiding it and it would slow my arm down trying to take velocity off of it,” he said. “I got up here and I was like ‘It’s summer and it’s time to work.’ So I was just throwing it, just like my fastball. It’s been a lot dirtier and more effective.”

On the bench — NBA Summer League is a good fit for former Shocker guard Fred VanVleet in almost every way.

Playing with Toronto as a undrafted free agent does carry one big adjustment. He is often on the bench in the final minutes of close games. Barring foul trouble, that scenario hasn’t happened since VanVleet’s freshman season at Wichita State. By the end of that 2013 season, he was on the floor in those situations.

“It’s been a long time for that,” he said. “But it will probably be like that for awhile in my first couple years as a pro. It’s a learning experience. You’ve got to stay prepared. It’s definitely tough to not be out there.”

Valley switcheroo — Ben Hecht comes to Wichita State after hitting .427 with seven home runs for Lincoln Land (Ill.) Community College as a sophomore.

Forget those numbers, however, Hecht won’t play the field at WSU.

“That was just a one-season wonder,” he said. “We ran out of players.”

Hecht, from Effingham, Ill., will pitch for WSU after going 9-3 with a 3.33 ERA, 92 strikeouts and 38 walks at Lincoln Land. He struck out 13 twice and ended his season with a 2.03 ERA in his final six appearances.

He pitched at Illinois State, compiling a 5.01 ERA in 19 relief appearances, in 2014 before transferring to Lincoln Land. Shoulder soreness sidelined him for most of 2015. Last spring, he received a text from WSU coach Todd Butler and soon signed up for a return to the Missouri Valley Conference.

“I didn’t even know they had heard of me,” Hecht said. “Coach Butler made me feel very comfortable, that he had big plans for me.”

Hecht (6-foot-3) said he also considered Mississippi, Indiana and North Carolina State.

He started at Illinois State as a baseball player with a good arm. Three seasons later, he consider himself a pitcher, aided by his instruction at Illinois State and at Land Lake under coach Ron Riggle. Hecht said his two-seam fastball is around 90-93 mph and he throws a curve from two angles, plus a circle changeup.

“Coach Riggle taught me to challenge hitters,” Hecht said. “Traditionally, I tried being too pretty, I tried painting the corner. He gave me the aggressive state of mind.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Alaska lifestyle agrees with Wichita State’s Lungwitz, on and off baseball field."