Casey Gillaspie is part of the 2023 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame induction class. The class will be inducted on Sat., Jan. 14.

First baseman Casey Gillaspie departed Wichita State in 2014 as a first-round draft pick and a first-team All-American.

While that ended his time with a bat and glove as a Shocker, his relationship with the university remains important. Gillaspie, one of five 2023 inductees into the Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, is finishing his degree in exercise science at Wichita State and intends to enter physical therapy school.

"I wanted to get my degree from Wichita State because of how much that place means to me," he said. "I definitely feel like that's a home for me."

Gillaspie, who lives in Kansas City, is considering life after baseball after playing for the American Association's Kansas City Monarchs the past two summers. In addition to working on his degree, he coaches young players at a baseball facility in Kansas City.

His career at Wichita State offers a lesson in hard work, hitting excellence and solid defense. He is one of five Shockers to earn consensus first-team All-American honors, joining outfielder Joe Carter (1980), first baseman Phil Stephenson (1981, 1982) and pitchers Kennie Steenstra (1991) and Darren Dreifort (1992).

He joins his older brother Conor, a 2016 inductee who played third base from 2006-08, in the Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame. The brothers grew up in Omaha with a batting cage in their backyard. Mark Gillaspie, their father, played for Mississippi State and coached the boys.

"He always was (at Eck Stadium) - that's part of his DNA with his dad being the player he was," coach Gene Stephenson said.

With that background and family influence, the brothers knew how to put in the extra swings that separate good players from great.

"Stay busy and work hard," Casey Gillaspie said. "That's what we always did."

Gillaspie, a switch-hitter who throws left-handed, earned consensus All-American honors in 2014 after hitting .389 with 15 home runs, 15 doubles and a .682 slugging percentage.

He also earned Missouri Valley Conference Joe Carter Player of the Year and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association District Player of the Year honors in 2014 and Freshman All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball in 2012.

He played two seasons for Stephenson and in 2014 for coach Todd Butler.

"They all had an impact on me in some way," Gillaspie said.

Gillaspie finished his Shocker career with a .320 batting average, 34 home runs and 41 doubles. His career fielding percentage of .992 is tied for fifth in the WSU record book.

He hit .299 with 11 home runs as a sophomore and went to the Cape Cod League, where he hit eight home runs to lead the wood-bat league. Those experiences made him believe in a future in professional baseball as he returned for his junior year.

"That's when it really started," he said. "That's when I really, really started putting in the work in the weight room. I really took control of my career and started taking it all a little bit more seriously."

Gillaspie's package of skill, work, size, and strength all came together in 2014 for the Shockers, when he was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy, both national player of the year honors.

The Tampa Bay Rays drafted him No. 20 overall. He rose to Triple-A with the Rays and Chicago White Sox before playing in the independent leagues since 2019.

"When he talks hitting, it's not like talking to a college hitter," Butler told The Wichita Eagle in 2014. "You have to stop and think before you answer with him. There's so much thought process in what he thinks about the game of baseball."

Gillaspie said he doesn't remember a lot of recruiting attention in high school, perhaps because he didn't play a lot of travel baseball. Shocker coaches, of course, had an edge because of his brother.

"You could see he was a guy that was going to grow and was going to get stronger," Stephenson said. "As a switch-hitter, he was really going to be something to see."

For three seasons, Gillaspie at the plate gave fans a look at a special college hitter.