How Wichita Trinity baseball won first state title with first-year coach
A final pitch was thrown, a strike was called and players on the Wichita Trinity Academy baseball team stormed the mound to form a dog pile in celebration.
But there was no championship trophy to hoist, no screaming fans to acknowledge in attendance, no pictures to pose for.
No, this was March 3 at the conclusion of a 3-hour practice at an empty ball park at Trinity on the first day of the Kansas high school baseball season. First-year head coach Matt Baty wanted to set the standard by teaching his team how to celebrate a championship.
“That was definitely the first time I’ve ever practiced a dog pile,” Trinity freshman Cam Killgore said. “We were all kind of confused, but we got the message. It was: ‘This is the goal for us at the end of the year.’”
The practice came in handy exactly 88 nights later when Trinity defeated Hesston 10-3 in Manhattan to win the Class 3A championship — the first state title in program history.
That made the real thing all the more sweet.
“A dog pile is the greatest feeling in the world of sports,” said Baty, a former player himself at Maize and then Kansas. “I was fortunate enough as a college athlete to win the Big 12 tournament and end up in a pile with my brothers who I grinded with. You look around and see them all screaming and yelling and it’s such a satisfying feeling.”
As a first-year head coach following Josh Robertson, who helped launch the program and returned to lead the team back to prominence, Baty realized the practice stunt was a bold move.
After all, the Knights had lost more than half of their production from last year’s team that played for the 3A title. But with a talented freshmen class that Baty had coached at 316 Baseball Academy for years mixed with a solid cast of veteran leadership, he was telling athletic director Dan Beckler back in the fall that it was “championship or bust” for the team.
“At Trinity, a championship is always the expectation,” Baty said. “When you set that in stone and you practice it, it’s like you’ve already been there.”
The underclassmen were pulled along during the season by five seniors: Josiah Sems, Braden Roberts, Matthew Bolt, Nolan Willson and Luke Myles. Winning a title for the seniors, who experienced the heartbreak of losing 5-3 to Topeka Hayden in last year’s title game, immediately became the rallying cry for the team.
“You could just tell by talking to Braden and Jojo about last year, how much pain was in their voices,” Killgore said. “We really wanted to send them out with a win.”
Baty and his coaching staff, which includes other former standout players like Tymber Lee, Brady Hoover and Evan Marshall, have been training this particular group of freshmen at 316 Baseball Academy for years. They played up an age class last summer in preparation for playing high school and have been competitive all across the Midwest.
That experience helped Killgore, Bryton Baty, Brody Lee and Cale Kauffman along the way, but it was the introduction to a high school weight-room program that prepared them even more to contribute right away this season for the Knights.
Trinity outscored opponents 275-104 this season while compiling a 27-5 record.
“I’ve had this group since they were 8 or 9 and my philosophy has always been that I’ve never coached down to their level,” Baty said. “I’ve had an expectation and they have to meet it or exceed it. The terminology that I use to coach a kid is no different whether he’s 8 or 18.”
Baty also made sure the current players were aware of the coaches like Robertson and Dave Martin who paved the way for the program. Trinity finished runner-up at state in 2007 and 2024, while also reaching the state semifinals in 2003, 2005 and 2006.
“It’s about saying thank you to those who built the foundation of Trinity baseball,” Baty said. “This wasn’t just about the 18 guys and the four coaches. It was about the previous teams who have come before us. This is a state title for everybody. I think when you play for something bigger than yourself, then the game comes a lot easier. And we have a really special group of kids who bought into that.”
Baty’s championship standard also paid dividends at the state tournament.
He emphasized the importance of bunting all season and had it circled on the white board ahead of the state tournament. He promised the players that effective bunting would win the team a game at the state tournament.
And sure enough, in the state final, Myles, a senior who Baty said had never executed a bunt before, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to help score a run.
At the end of the day, that practice helped Trinity turn its dog-pile practice into reality.
“Man, that really is the greatest feeling,” Killgore said. “We’ve won a lot of tournaments in (summer baseball), but this was by far the best accomplishment so far in our careers.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 6:02 AM.
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