After Wichita State’s baseball season ended last year, most players had plans to play in collegiate summer leagues. But pitcher Brady Hamilton didn’t have an exact idea of where he wanted to go.
He reached out to pitching coach Anthony Claggett for help.
“I was like, ‘Hey, if I’m able to play in the Cape, I know that’s kind of the top league, and if that’s something we can make happen, I would like to do that,’” Hamilton said. “He made some calls and was able to help me get onto the Y-D (Yarmouth-Dennis) Red Sox.”
Claggett said he’s always willing to try to make things happen for his players, especially when they want the opportunity to play in the Cape Cod League. The Cape Cod League is a collegiate summer baseball league that has seen players like Aaron Judge and Paul Skenes compete for organizations.
Claggett’s help and Hamilton’s hard work paid off. Hamilton was picked up by the Red Sox, and after having made four starts and bolstered a 1.00 ERA through July, he was named a Cape Cod League All-Star and was the East Division’s starting pitcher.
“It was pretty surreal,” Hamilton said about being an All-Star game starter. “When people talk about all the talent that’s in the Cape, the players who are here and who’s been here in the past. It was just something that was really cool for me to play, and that game and getting the starting nod was awesome.”
When Green heard the news, he said it was astounding. He then called Claggett to see what his plans were. Claggett told Green that he was going to be recruiting, but Green told him that he was going to watch Brady play in the Cape’s mid-summer classic.
“He (Claggett) goes, ‘I’m in absolutely,’” Green said. “So Coach Claggett went out there and got a chance to spend the day with him and watch him pitch his one inning in the All-Star game.”
Claggett said he’s already been to games in the Cape to watch and recruit Hamilton for Wichita State. However, the second time was different.
“To go out there (a second time), that was a little bit more of just going out there and being a representative of the program,” Claggett said. “To go out there and show our support and show that, ‘Hey Brady, we are proud of you.”’
After the All-Star game, the Red Sox finished with a 19-18-3 record, good enough to get into the playoffs.
Hamilton started the first game of the playoffs against the top-seeded Orleans Firebirds. He pitched 5.1 innings of one-run ball to help lead the team to a 4-1 win. The Red Sox beat the Firebirds 9-2 in the next game to advance to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, the Red Sox beat the Harwich Mariners two games to one to advance to the team’s first championship game in nine years.
The Red Sox faced the Bourne Braves, who had won two of the last three championships. After a 5-3 loss in game one of that series, Hamilton got the starting nod for game two.
“It was awesome playing on your home field where you were at all summer,” Hamilton said about getting the start in game two of the championship series. “To play in a game that big and meaningful at a place you know you can have a lot of fans and a lot of supporters, that’s all anyone can ask for.”
In the win-or-go-home situation, Hamilton pitched 3.1 innings of four-run ball. The Red Sox ultimately fell, 19-2, and Hamilton was given the loss.
“This summer was a pretty big step for me in my career,” Hamilton said, reflecting on his season with the Red Sox. “Getting able to enjoy the experience, I’ve had a bunch of people tell me that playing baseball in the Cape is going to be the funnest summer I have ever had. And, you know, you don’t really realize that until you get out there what people mean by that.
“I had a great host family, great teammates, coaches and obviously playing baseball against some of the top talent in the country and with some of the top talent was an absolute blast.”
Now that his summer league season is over, Hamilton is back on campus, even after a disappointing 36-loss season. Green said Hamilton’s commitment to stick with the program after the hardships last year and what he was able to accomplish over the summer is exciting.
“We had a very difficult season last year,” Green said. “A lot of guys left (and) we had a lot of older players. When Brady said, ‘I’m in, I want to stay. I don’t want to go anywhere,’ that’s pretty loud. I think it impacted our recruiting, and it makes me and Claggs (Claggett) proud.”
“We’re just really happy for him to come back another year with us,” Claggett said. “There’s the portal era, but Brady is kind of an outlier now. It’s going to be year three with the same program and we take a lot of clout in that, and Brady will be one of our leaders moving forward. We’re looking for him to be at the forefront of the pitching staff this year.”
