The RoundHouse | 1/24/2020 3:33:00 PM

 
Third baseman Paxton Wallace hunted doves in Arizona over Thanksgiving break – quite successfully – and also added to his baseball education.
 
Wallace hunted with Marco Scutaro, MVP of the 2012 National League Championship Series with the San Francisco Giants as a second baseman. In between doves, they talked baseball and everything Wallace heard sounded familiar from fall practices at Wichita State under new coach Eric Wedge, himself a former major-league manager and player.
 
"He told me 'For me, it was quality over quantity, and that's a big-league mentality,'" Wallace said. "That's exactly what Coach Wedge preaches."
 
The Shockers start team practices on Friday with their opener on Feb. 14 at Northwestern State. The home opener is Feb. 21 against Texas Southern. The Shockers, 28-31 last season, are picked last in the American Athletic Conference preseason coaches poll. 
 
Wedge, throughout the fall, watched the Shockers respond to the new coaching staff and listen to instructions. They took direction and took it onto the field, especially on defense. He saw improvement with the fielding over the fall and likes where the hitters are now as a continuation of their work in the fall.
 
"You could always tell they cared," Wedge said. "You always tell they wanted to improve. Their work improved. Their focus improved. I'm sure there was some sense of culture shock at first. For them to overcome that and get down to business, that put us in a position to get down to business."
 
Ask the Shockers about their coach and they talk about how he talks and the weight of his words. Sometimes it's hard for them to describe how his emphasis on focus and mental toughness looks on a baseball field, but there is no doubt they believe it works. When Wedge tells them to play catch like a big leaguer – with purpose - and insists they aim for the "oc" in Shockers on their shirts, it matters. When he tells them to clean up the locker room, it is clean.
 
"Everything he says is powerful," Wallace said. "Everything he says has a good meaning, even if it's simple. It just means more, coming from his back background, where he's been, what he's seen."
 
Wallace wants to get in plenty of extra swings. He's learned the difference between good swings and putting in time. When he thinks about the differences in his ability and preparation between this spring and past ones, he goes to focus and habits. When he watches teammates hit, he sees teammates who are polishing their mechanics and paying attention instead of swinging to get through the drill.
 
"It's quality over quantity – take 20 good ones instead of just taking 40 ground balls," he said. "Or, if you're going to take 40 swings off a tee, take 25 good ones. People get tired and they just keep swinging and you make bad habits."
 
The time for talking about mental toughness is almost over. The time to show it on the field is coming fast. For catcher Ross Cadena, Wedge's lessons matter most when it comes to fixing mistakes immediately, so that they don't infect a game, a series, a week and a season.
 
"When someone slips up in practice, the captains address it and therefore there's never a lack of focus in practice," Cadena said. "We're doing a better job now than we ever have. We address it right there so it does not continue on throughout practice and practice gets gradually worse."
 
The result of improving practice bit by bit is that the bad times don't last – that's the plan, at least. Wedge talks to the Shockers about stacking good moments into a good practice and good practices into a good week.
 
"One of the things that really stuck with me over the fall is that our bad needs to be better," pitcher Preston Snavely said. "If we have a bad day, it needs to be the best bad day that we've had."
 
For Shocker pitchers, much of the fall focused on throwing strikes.
 
"Huge deal," Wedge said. "We progressed. We're by no means where we need to be, yet. We need to trust our stuff and throw it over. If we get beat, we get beat. I don't want us to beat ourselves."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.