The making of a breakout star: Freshman sets record in top-25 win for Shocker softball

If the college softball world wasn’t familiar with Wichita State freshman Chloe Barber, it certainly is after Friday.

Barber delivered what is likely the best pitching performance in program history to power the Shockers to a 3-1 road win over No. 15 Arkansas at Bogle Park in Fayetteville on Friday evening.

In just her second career start, against a nationally ranked SEC opponent playing on its home field, Barber struck out 15 hitters — tying Ashley Bright’s program record from 2008 — and limited the Razorbacks to a single run on five hits in a complete-game performance.

“I always believed I had good stuff,” Barber said. “But this is obviously a big boost to show me that it can work against the best if I execute.”

Barber is poised to become the next unheralded recruit to blossom into a star player given a chance by WSU coach Kristi Bredbenner. Here’s the journey Barber has been on that led to Friday’s breakout performance.

How Chloe Barber’s recruiting story unfolded with the Shockers

Two weeks before the early signing period of her senior year in high school, Barber was uncommitted with no idea where she was going to play college softball.

She was previously committed to Kansas City, but a coaching change following the 2022 season left Barber without a future home late in the recruiting process.

Barber was a star two-way player at White Bear Lake, a suburb of Minneapolis, but never attracted interest from the University of Minnesota or other high-major programs. It befuddled her Minnesota Force club coach, Julie Standering, who was a former co-head coach of the Gophers for two decades.

“Chloe just needed someone to believe in her,” Standering said.

That someone came along on Oct. 20, 2022, when WSU pitching coach Presley Bell, who has since left the program, discovered Barber in a serendipitous way during a showcase tournament in Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

“The coach was actually there to watch someone else, but the pop on the glove made her turn her head and walk to our field,” Standering said. “After that game, she told me, ‘I want her.’”

Bell immediately reported back to WSU head coach Kristi Bredbenner, who immediately tapped into her Minnesota contacts for their opinion on Barber. By the next week, Barber was scheduled for an official visit to Wichita.

“For whatever reason, she wasn’t getting recruited, especially locally,” Bredbenner said. “As soon as we saw her, it was, ‘Let’s try to get her here on campus and see what she can do.’”

Barber “knew right away” WSU was the right fit and committed on the spot, just 10 days after WSU’s first communication. She was the final piece to WSU’s 2023 recruiting class, signing her letter of intent a week later.

Everything from the culture established by Bredbenner to the program’s winning reputation to the talent on the roster was everything Barber was seeking. It was an ideal union: pairing an overlooked and underestimated player with a chip on her shoulder with a mid-major program that has embodied each of those qualities in its rise to championships.

“Chloe is like a thoroughbred horse,” Standering said. “When she’s put with a bunch of stable horses, she’s going to slow down and get frustrated. But if you put her with other thoroughbreds that think like her and train like her, she’s going to run with the pack.”

The stats behind Chloe Barber’s breakout season at WSU

The talent of Barber was obvious upon arrival to WSU this past fall.

She consistently clocked 67 mph in the circle and there were days when the freshman mowed down WSU’s most-experienced hitters in scrimmages. But there were also days where Barber struggled.

“We knew there was something special there, but she wears it pretty hard when she struggles,” Bredbenner said. “That’s normal for a freshman.”

Composing herself mentally is sometimes the biggest challenge for Barber, who has grown rapidly in that department working with WSU’s veteran pitching staff of senior Lauren Howell, junior Alison Cooper and sophomore Alex Aguilar.

That maturity revealed itself in the game’s biggest moments on Friday, as Barber limited Arkansas to just a single run when it loaded the bases with one out in back-to-back innings.

“They’ve all helped me grow so much mentally,” Barber said. “In the fall whenever I was struggling, I was able to get three different perspectives on how to work on something or how to make an adjustment. And then knowing we have this many good arms, it helps relieve so much potential stress because you don’t always have to be on your ‘A’ game every single moment.”

With WSU’s challenging early-season schedule, Barber hasn’t been afforded the luxury of slowly working her way up against Division I competition. The 5-foot-11 right-hander has faced the best right away, as 14 of her 16 innings pitched have come against nationally-ranked SEC foes in Auburn, South Carolina and Arkansas.

Considering the competition, the strikeout numbers for Barber (2-0, 3.06 ERA) are astounding: 31 K’s in 16 innings with more than half of at-bats ending in a punch-out.

“A lot of freshmen are nervous and maybe a little hesitant, but she’s not like that,” Bredbenner said. “Chloe wants the ball. And that’s pretty special for her age.”

WSU fans just discovering Barber should know she’s not only dangerous in the circle, but also in the box. She holds her high school’s program record for most home runs in a career and the power in her bat translated this past fall.

Bredbenner said an ankle injury has prevented Barber from hitting early in the season, but expects her to be a factor in WSU’s lineup at some point this season.

Barber has always believed in herself, but needed that belief reciprocated from others. She has found it with the Shockers.

“It’s so huge for me to have an entire team and the coaches behind me 100%,” Barber said. “That’s really all I could ask for.”