Wichita State baseball team hopes to play faster this year. Kyte McDonald brings speed

A faster, more aggressive offense is coming this season for the Wichita State baseball team, or at least that’s the plan.

A year after finishing with just 36 stolen bases, next-to-last among American Athletic Conference teams, the Shockers believe a handful of newcomers and a new philosophy under interim coach Loren Hibbs will lead to change.

WSU opens its 2023 season on Friday with a weekend series at Long Beach State. Clark Candiotti, a junior-college transfer, will start the 8 p.m. Friday season-opener, while left-hander Payton Tolle is slated for the 8 p.m. Saturday game and Derby native Grant Adler, another junior-college transfer, will throw in Sunday’s 3 p.m. finale. The Friday and Sunday games will be streaming on ESPN+.

“The more athletic that we can be, I think the better off we’re going to end up being in the long run,” Hibbs said.

When the Shockers went searching to upgrade their athleticism, they feel like they hit the jackpot with Kyte McDonald, who is expected to start the season in center field.

The San Antonio native owns his high school’s 100-meter dash record, fast enough to earn a scholarship offer to run track at Duke, and was a standout running back on the football field. Those two sports help describe the way McDonald plays baseball: track-star speed with the aggressiveness of a running back.

“He would run through the wall if you asked him to,” Hibbs said. “He’s like the Energizer Bunny, going 100 mph all the time.”

McDonald isn’t just a speedster on the diamond, however. Coming out of high school he earned a 9 grade by Perfect Game, which designated him as a “highest-level college prospect.” He signed with Mississippi State and was a redshirt freshman on its national championship team in 2021, hitting .389 in 12 games.

Looking for an expanded role, he transferred to Alvin Community College in Texas, where he hit .326 with 16 extra-base hits, including seven home runs, stole 17 bases, drove in 28 runs and scored 56 of his own. He picked WSU because he liked the coaching staff, but also because he saw an opportunity to help right away.

“I can’t wait to get a real opportunity to make an impact with this team,” McDonald said. “We have a great group of guys and the coaches are awesome. I’m really happy to get an opportunity to play at this level again. I think we have a really good shot to win a lot of games this year.”

McDonald says there’s still a part of him that misses the contact on the football field, but he thinks those experiences on the gridiron have made him a better baseball player.

“I think that physicalness and aggressiveness has definitely translated to baseball,” McDonald said. “I played a little slot receiver in high school and that’s helped me with angles and tracking baseballs in the air in the outfield. And then when I’m tracking a ball at the wall, that’s like the same thing as a safety coming over the top. So there’s a lot of similar feelings out there.”

When McDonald is on base, he is fast and tenacious, a combination that makes him a threat as a lead-off hitter. But Hibbs and the WSU coaching staff have been working with the 5-foot-10 junior to channel those qualities at the right time.

“As much as the aggressiveness and playing fast is a benefit, it’s also my biggest weakness,” McDonald said. “I definitely do need to slow down at times, especially at the plate.”

“I brought him in a few days ago and we talked about him sometimes just needing to breathe and get himself under control,” Hibbs said. “We do a lot of teaching about how to get them to breathe the right way and focus on the things that are most important. We’ve got to do what we can as coaches to put these guys in a good place where they can focus and execute.”

No returning player from WSU’s roster had more than five stolen bases last season, but the Shockers feel like there is untapped potential with players like Brock Rodden, Chuck Ingram, Jordan Rogers and Seth Stroh on the base paths. Newcomers like McDonald, freshman middle infielder Jack Little and freshman outfielder Jaden Gustafson, a Maize native, could also help speed things up for WSU.

“You know you can’t steal first, but when we’re afforded the opportunity, we’re going to do everything we can to play a lot faster this year,” Hibbs said. “We’re going to try to dial it up and be very aggressive and try to use the running game as much as we can and use the hit-and-run game as much as we can to move the defense around.

“We like doubles and home runs too, and we have the guys that can do those things, but college baseball is predicated on being physical in the middle of your order and also being really athletic. Those are the teams that play into June. We’ve got to create that type of team and program here. We’re on the right path.”