On a July night in Augusta, Kansas, Wichita State hitter Jaden Gustafson stepped up to the plate to face off against Wichita State pitcher Drew Iverson, with Wichita State coaches sitting behind home plate. However, the Shockers weren’t competing in the game.
Gustafson, representing the Hutchinson Monarchs, a summer baseball team in the Jayhawk Collegiate League, smashed a home run off Iverson to give the Monarchs the lead over the Kansas Cannons.
“I still haven’t heard the end of it, honestly,” Iverson, a sophomore, said.
It’s just one quirk of summer league baseball, where players from around the country get placed on various traveling teams to get playing time, practice their technique and have some fun.
Finding a team
On May 26, the Shockers played their final game of the season, a loss in the AAC Championship game in Florida. Less than a week later, the Jayhawk Collegiate League began play for the summer.
Between that time, players decide where they will play during the summer. Most often, coaches suggest teams based on the best fit given the level of competition and playing time available. Gustafson played for the Monarchs after his freshman year and said it was obvious he would return.
“It’s kind of different for everybody,” Gustafson said. “Some people already have theirs predetermined before the season even started. Some people don’t know until really late. I just kind of knew that I was going back to Hutch.”
For players with less familiarity about the team they’re joining, like Iverson, the transition can be more difficult.
“If you know everyone’s name by the first game, then you’re working hard at it, you’re doing really well,” Iverson said. “So that was definitely something that I had to get used to, just not having the time of getting to know someone before we start our games.”
The pitcher and catcher connection is a deeply personal one, often taking weeks or months to fully click. During summer league baseball, players don’t get that luxury. Iverson said he threw just once with a Cannons catcher before his first game.
“First game was pretty much just a test run,” Iverson said. “It was kind of just (to) see how much communication we had right away. And I thought it was pretty good to be honest with you, but I think that’s just how it is. Everywhere in the summer, you’ve got to learn quick. You got to jump right in, put your feet in the water and get to work.”
New techniques, new roles
Both Iverson and Gustafson had strong summers. Gustafson hit .391 and added four home runs, although he pointed out that the competition level isn’t the same as at Wichita State. Instead, he said summer is a time for experimentation.
“I think summer is kind of a time to try new things if you’re not happy about how your swing is,” Gustafson said. “I decided to change a few things with my swing in July, (to) hit for more power. And, you know, it helped me a lot.”
His season culminated in a loss at the National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series Championship in Eck Stadium. Gustafson said that home-field advantage gets him “fired up.”
“The city of Wichita really loves baseball, and that summer baseball, it’s really fun to just bring your family out and have a good time,” he said.
Iverson performed well for the Cannons, allowing a 2.45 ERA and 2.5 walks per nine innings, compared with 6.5 in the spring for WSU. He said that improvement in control was a point of emphasis in the summer.
“I think that’s definitely going to help me carry over into this fall to show that I worked on it and got better,” he said.
Iverson was used as a reliever with the Shockers, but in Augusta, he was a starting pitcher. He said he’ll keep using some of his new pregame stretching techniques when he returns to a relief role.
“I probably should have done more of it as a reliever, but I think I got so caught up in the fact of being a reliever that I had to be go, go, go, and be ready right away,” Iverson said. “There’s some stretches that I was doing as a starter. I was like, ‘Wait, that took like two seconds. I could easily do that as a reliever.’”
Friends and ‘friendly banter’
In summer baseball, spring teammates can face off in-game. As one would expect, this can lead to some extra bragging rights.
“If something happens, like when we play, spike ball or something, and someone wants to start trash-talking, you can bring up the summer,” Iverson said.
In the case of his homer off Iverson, Gustafson admitted to giving the pitcher “some crap the first few days after the game,” but otherwise took the high road.
“He likes to bring it up more than I do, honestly,” Gustafson said after a laugh.
The WSU coaching staff, who Gustafson said were laughing behind the plate after the play, also like to rib the players on their summer league performances.
“The very next day, when I showed up to the weight room here, all the coaches … I just heard, ‘(Gustafson) hit a home run,’” Iverson said. “I was like, ‘Yep, thanks. What about me going seven innings with one run?’ I didn’t hear anything about that, but everyone wanted to talk about (Gustafson’s) home run.”
In the end, Iverson called it “friendly banter.”
“As soon as we step foot back on campus, it’s back to being teammates,” he said.
Summer baseball isn’t just about friendly rivalry. For spring teammates who end up on the same summer roster, it can strengthen friendships. Gustafson said he hung out with Monarchs and Wichita State teammate Camden Johnson every day during the summer.
“It’s just cool building up those bonds with your teammates,” Gustafson said. “And you go into the next year of college and, obviously, I still know a lot of dudes from last year’s team, but it’s just cool having that guy that I just went through the whole summer with.”
‘New connections’
Overall, Gustafson said he enjoys the “laid back” feel of summer baseball.
“Summer ball is designed to help you grow and just have fun playing baseball after the spring season,” he said. “And that’s kind of what happens, you know. Team chemistry-wise, I feel like it gels pretty quick, just because, I mean … we’re all there to improve, obviously, but we’re all there to have fun for the most part.”
Iverson called summer baseball “good for you” and for the sport.
“You just meet so many people, new connections … You can learn so much from other people,” he said. “And you never know where those people are going to be at in the next five to 10 years. And, you know, being on a summer team, you guys are together a lot … And when we play other teams that have a guy on that team from the Cannons or something like that, we go say ‘hi.’”
