Fansler has grown for playoff-bound Golden Bears
May 1—The last time WVU Tech baseball won a conference championship, there was no University in the name. It was West Virginia Tech, and the team won the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference at a time when the country was not far removed from the impacts of World War II.
Might as well end that run this weekend, the way coach Lawrence Nesselrodt sees it.
The Golden Bears are in Chillicothe, Ohio, to begin play in the River States Conference Tournament. They are the No. 6 seed and will take on No. 3 Shawnee State Thursday at 9 a.m.
Tech (27-20) is having its most successful season since 2017, the last time it played in a conference tournament. The 27 wins are the fourth-most in program history behind the 40 in 2016, 31 in 2017 and 30 in 2015.
Tech's WVIAC title came in 1947.
"We always say, it's not how you start, it's how you finish," said Nesselrodt, whose team has won six straight games. "The guys seem to be playing their best baseball right now."
Several players have had big years for the Golden Bears, not the least of who is Hunter Fansler. The 2019 Woodrow Wilson graduate was 6 for 10 with a triple, home run and six runs batted in in the Golden Bears' two-game sweep of IUP-Columbus in last weekend's tournament play-in series. He raised his batting average to .411, which is second in the conference and in the top 50 nationally.
Fansler also leads the team in homers (9), is second in doubles (10), second in RBIs (38) and tied for second in triples (2).
Making contact has been huge for Fansler. He has 22 strikeouts in 145 plate appearances, compared to 46 in 157 a season ago.
"Honestly, my biggest approach coming into this season was just cutting down on strikeouts and just trying to put the ball in play more," Fansler said. "That's been really the game changer for me. We can only control so many things as baseball players and that's just really our effort and attitude. Just try to stay positive with yourself and keep the fundamentals the fundamentals and perfect them."
Fansler was a Class AAA first-team all-stater as a senior at Woodrow who went on to sign with Marshall. He played in four games with the Thundering Herd in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He then transferred to his hometown Golden Bears, and Nesselrodt has enjoyed watching the growth process.
"It's one of the best parts of coaching is when you see a guy reach his potential, and there's still more," Nesselrodt said. "He's such a great talent, such a great person. But it's really come together for him the last three or four weeks. He's a guy that could always throw, he could always hit, he could always run, but never put the game together at the college level.
"Covid slowed him, and then just getting that level of confidence of knowing that he belonged at this level and could excel the same way he had done in high school and every level up to it."
One way in which Fansler's game has evolved has been hitting in the leadoff spot, even if it was an acquired taste.
"Initially I didn't really like being the leadoff hitter because it was new to me," he said. "It was uncomfortable, something I had never done. But as I started to progress through the season I was like, I kind of like this. I get to set the tone for things. I get to see the pitcher and help my teammates out, give them some feedback.
"But as far as approach I'm just trying to see ball, hit ball, because I'm the first one. I'm not getting any intel from any other guys. See the spin and put it in play, you know?"
Really, he didn't have much choice.
"He was a guy that never felt comfortable there, and somewhere around three or four weeks ago I told him, 'You've got to get comfortable,'" Nesselrodt said, smiling. "We stuck him in there and he really took off. He had bounced back and forth from one to even eight and nine where we wanted get him down there and see more fastballs.
"He shortened his swing and made the adjustment to college baseball. The guys at this level not just have a little more velocity but they have better location, and if you've got a hole they're going to exploit it. He has closed that gap as a hitter. We shortened his swing and maintained more balance with his body."
Of course, Tech is not a one-man show.
The Golden Bears are third in the conference in hitting with a .311 average. They will have to move on without a big chunk of that — first baseman Noah Lukas fouled a pitch off his foot in the regular season finale against Bluefield and is done for the year. He finished hitting .392 with 15 doubles and 29 RBIs.
Will Gray (.299, 6 homers, 9 doubles) leads Tech with 40 RBIs. Four other players are batting over .300, and Broedy Boyce is 16 of 21 on stolen bases.
Tech's pitching staff has posted an earned run average of 5.45, fourth lowest in the league.
Senior left-hander Matt Gainer (6-4, 3.76) will start against Shawnee State.
No. 2 starter Robert Kelley, in his first year with the Golden Bears, is tied with Montreat's Daniel Willie for the NAIA lead with 111 strikeouts. Kelley is 9-3 with a 3.71 ERA.
Tyler Wilkinson (1-2) has made nine starts. Braedan Pakkala (1-1) has made 21 appearances, 16 in relief.
Tech lost two of three at Shawnee State in March. The Bears have the Nos. 3 and 4 hitters in the conference in Nolan Tressler (.402) and Noah Sniadach (.400). Freshman right-hander Carson Wireman is 5-0 with a league-low 1.72 ERA.
"(They're a) good club," Nesselrodt said. "Coach (Ben Bennett) has done a great job, first-year coach and their first year in the River States Conference. They finished in second place (in the East Division) ahead of us and beat us two out of three. A team that really swings the bat well and has great starting pitching. The key is going to be getting into their bullpen. If we can do that, we feel like we can have some success.
"We'll take Matt Gainer on the hill for us as a guy that's a seasoned veteran. He had a little bit of a slow start (recovering from injury) and we have brought him along slowly and geared him up to this occasion."
Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on X @gfauber5
