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KU Career Records within Reach for Skutt Alum Walz; Will Face #1 TCU in Feb. 18 Opener January 12, 2011 |
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TJ Walz' collegiate debut wasn't particularly impressive.
On February 23, 2008, the University of Kansas walk-on trotted in from the bullpen at Simmons Field in Kona, Hawaii to take the mound for the first time in a Jayhawks uniform. Walz inherited baserunners on the corners with two outs as his team trailed the University of Hawaii-Hilo, 4-2, in the second half of a daytime doubleheader on the opening weekend of the season. The lanky freshman reliever out of Omaha Skutt Catholic needed just one out to get his team back in the dugout and keep them in the game.
Three batters later, Walz was back in the dugout -- but his team was still on the field. His first collegiate appearance turned out to be a very brief one that included -- in this order -- a run-scoring balk, a one-run double, a walk and a hit batsman. The Jayhawks went on to lose 12-4.
Now, nearly three years after that inauspicious beginning, Walz heads into his senior season in Lawrence as the Jayhawks' team captain and within striking distance of becoming KU's all-time career leader in wins and strikeouts.
"TJ epitomizes what KU baseball is all about," said Jayhawks head coach Ritch Price recently by phone. "He represents himself, his family and his school in a first-class manner at all times, and his development as a ballplayer has just been incredible."
That Walz is a Jayhawk -- let alone one who is poised to rewrite the KU record books -- is fortuitous.
"I was always a huge Husker fan," Walz said while back in Omaha between semesters. "That's where I really wanted to go, but they told me that I wasn't big enough and didn't throw hard enough. After that, I figured if I wasn't good enough to play Division I, I probably wouldn't play baseball at all because I really wanted the academic experience of a larger school. Going to a juco just didn't appeal to me."
But as fate would have it, in the fall of his high school senior year, several of his baseball buddies at Skutt invited Walz to ride along to a KU camp. "Mostly, I just thought it would be a fun road trip," he now recalls with a broad smile. Walz took his turn on the mound and immediately caught the eye of the KU coaching staff.
"TJ just has such a good feel for pitching," said Price. "When we first saw him, the thing that impressed us was that he could locate his breaking ball, and it had good action and depth. It was a plus breaking pitch. His fastball was only about 86, but we figured he could develop some strength and pick up some velocity. He couldn't have weighed much more than 135 pounds at the time."
KU pitching coach Ryan Graves followed Walz' progress during his senior season at Skutt during which he struck out 81 batters. At the end of the spring the Jayhawks offered him an opportunity to walk on with a promise of a guaranteed roster spot. After accepting, TJ led the state with 136 strikeouts that summer for a total of 217 on the year, a figure that may have been a Nebraska record at the time.
"TJ is a great student, and he wanted to go to a four-year school," observed Price. "In reality, he was a perfect juco candidate. He could have gone to a juco and gotten bigger and stronger and developed his pitches, but academics were just too important to him. He really wanted to play at Nebraska but they said he wasn't good enough -- and they were right. At that time, he wasn't good enough to play at Nebraska."
Listed generously at 6'1" on the KU roster, Walz weighed in at 149 pounds when fall practice began his freshman year. After battling an intestinal disorder that plagued him that fall and into the next spring, the right-hander gradually built his weight up to his current 180 pounds. With the added muscle, his velocity is now in the 90-93 range, according to Price. And, under Graves' tutelage, he has developed an effective change-up to challenge left-handed hitters.
"Give a lot of credit to TJ for understanding the importance of the change up and for working really hard to develop that pitch and learning to trust it," commented Graves. "It's become a great weapon for him."
"TJ now has four legit pitches he can throw for strikes," said Price. "A curve ball, a slider, the change up and his fastball."
As a freshman Walz saw some action as a mid-week starter, earning wins over University of Maryland - Baltimore County and Benedectine, before drawing his first Big 12 conference start in a nationally-televised game against the program that didn't want him -- the ninth-ranked Huskers -- with 5,964 in attendance at Haymarket Park, including about 100 of TJ's family members and friends.
Walz earned KU's only win of the Jayhawks' three-game series against the Huskers, a 7-3 decision, allowing six hits in 7 2/3 innings with five strikeouts. "That was incredible," said TJ. "One of the three biggest games of my career."
He finished his freshman season with a 4-1 record, including a second conference win over Oklahoma.
During his breakout sophomore season TJ was a regular weekend starter and garnered national attention with a road win over fourth-ranked Arizona State -- the second of his three biggest games. He later earned Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors with a complete-game three-hit shutout of seventh-ranked Baylor and added a win against #9 Oklahoma to notch victories over three top ten teams that season. He also earned wins against #11 Kansas State and #17 Oklahoma State as well as his second win over then-unranked Nebraska by racking up ten strikeouts against Oklahoma State and Nebraska and twelve against K-State.
The Jayhawks (37-22) placed fifth in the Big 12 Conference that season with a 15-12 record, their best-ever finish in the conference, and advanced to the Big 12 Tournament for the first time since 2006. KU went on to an NCAA Regional Tournament for just the fourth time in school history.
At the end of the season, TJ earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors and was selected to the Academic All Big-12 First Team. But, the biggest honor was yet to come.
In mid-June, TJ was invited by USA Baseball to participate in a one-day tryout for the 2009 Collegiate National Team. However, the invitation was not presented in the most encouraging manner.
"Eric Campbell (General Manager of USAB's National Teams) basically said, 'We'd like you to come and try out, but we're loaded.' It didn't sound like my chances of making the team were real good," TJ recalled. "But, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
Walz made the most of the tryout, allowing just one run on two hits in four innings while striking out seven. "Luckily, at the time I didn't know who all of those guys were that I was throwing against," observed TJ. "There were some pretty good players there." One of the two guys who did get a hit against Walz was Christian Colon of Cal State Fullerton, who later became the fourth overall pick in the 2010 draft.
At the conclusion of the tryout the 2009 TeamUSA roster was announced. TJ Walz became the first player from the University of Kansas ever to be selected to the Collegiate National Team and was one of only two players on the team selected from the Big Twelve. Among the other pitchers on the ten-man staff were UCLA's Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole and future first-rounders Drew Pomeranz and Asher Wojciechowski.
The team traveled to Japan to compete in the 37th USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Championship and to Prince George, British Columbia where it won Gold in the 2009 World Baseball Challenge. Walz made five appearances and two starts, earning a 2-0 record while striking out 18 batters in 18.2 innings.
"The experience of playing for your country is something I'll never forget," observed TJ. "I came out of that with a lot more confidence. It makes you believe that you belong -- not to doubt yourself. I think it also made me a much better leader for our KU team."
An outstanding sophomore season and playing on TeamUSA raised TJ's profile for the June 2010 draft considerably, according to Coach Price. "He was projected to be a 6th to 12th rounder," Price noted. "But, right from the outset of fall practice, he told every scout who was interested in him that he was going to stay in school and finish his degree. It didn't matter how much money they threw at him, he was going to graduate. That doesn't happen very often, and it shows how important getting an education is to him."
During his junior season, TJ took on the role of Friday starter -- the staff ace. His third career highlight came on March 12th at Alan Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana against top-ranked LSU, the defending national champion. With a crowd of 7,679 looking on, Walz earned an 11-9 win over the Tigers, aided by of 2.1 innings of hitless relief by closer Brett Bochy, son of the San Francisco Giants manager.
TJ followed with conference wins against Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Missouri. And, he repeated as Big 12 Pitcher of the Week after an eleven-strikeout performance against OSU in which he took a no hitter into the ninth inning and retired thirteen in a row at one point.
He finished the season with an 8-6 record but deserved more wins, according to Price. "Our bullpen blew three leads," said Price. Closer Bochy was lost to Tommy John surgery in early April, which was a big blow to the Jayhawks' bullpen.
TJ earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention, repeated as an Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection and was selected as the KU Pitcher of the Year.
During his three-year career at KU, the Jayhawks have compiled a 100-78-1 record.
Walz heads into the 2011 season with a 20-10 career record and a 13-5 record in Big 12 games. His career wins total is just six short of the KU all-time career mark of twenty-six set by Kodiak Quick in 2006, and with 222 career strikeouts, TJ needs just 21 more to break Rusty Hilbrick's record of 242 that has stood for ten years. He's also on track to set new career marks for Games Started (record is 46, he has 36) and Innings Pitched (record is 310.1, he has 237.1).
He'll have an early opportunity for a potential career highlight #4 in KU's February 18th season-opener against #1 Texas Christian University at Fort Worth where he'll likely match up against sophomore left-hander Matt Purke, a pre-season All-American who earned national Freshman Pitcher of the Year honors last year after going 16-0.
Among TJ's goals for the upcoming season are to be a leader to the younger players on the team, to do a better job of "finishing off" opponents and to make it back to Regionals. "We're going to be young this year," he acknowledged, "but some of our freshmen and sophomores have the potential to be special."
After the season and graduation in May with a degree in finance comes the MLB First-Year Player Draft. "I'm definitely looking forward to pursuing an opportunity in professional baseball," he stated.
"We're really proud of TJ," said Skutt head coach Shawn Exner. "It's not too often that I get to collect baseball cards of a former player, but I've got of bunch of his from when he was on TeamUSA. He's just a great kid from a great family, and I know he'll be very successful in life, whether it's in baseball or in his degree field. And, that's what we're most proud of."
TJ is the son of Tom and Vicky Walz of Omaha. His sister, Alise, is a senior at Skutt.
Additional information:
| KU Baseball Website | 2011 KU Schedule | USA Baseball Website |
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