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Kansas pitcher makes national team

By Tim Dwyer

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

So T.J. Walz was a late invite to an already loaded tryout roster. So a Jayhawk had never made the American national team. So the odds were stacked against him.

So what?

Walz, sophomore pitcher, was invited to tryout as an alternate, pitching in one scrimmage just a day before the team cut 20 players. He impressed coaches enough with his performance during his one chance that they offered him a spot on the final 22-man roster.

“A couple of people weren’t able to make it, so coach Price called me and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to tryout on the 23rd,’” Walz said. “I knew I had to show them something if I was only going to get one outing, so I just wanted to give it my best shot and leave it all out there.”

He did just that, going four innings and allowing just one run on two hits with seven strikeouts. Despite pitching well, he knew that as a late invite he had only a slim chance of making the team.

“I definitely knew it was a long shot. They told me up front that they had a really deep pitching staff, but they’d like to add a little more to it,” Walz said. “When they called I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t expecting it, whether I did throw well or not. They just said, you know, ‘We want to make sure you know what you’re getting into. You have to represent your school, represent your country.’ Then they said ‘congratulations’ — that was pretty much it.”

Walz, who led the Jayhawks in strikeouts in 2009, hasn’t let off the throttle this summer. After his performance in the trials, Walz made a relief appearance in Team USA’s second game of the summer slate, a 14-5 victory against Canada.

“I don’t think you notice it in the game,” Walz said about facing international competition rather than other colleges. “No matter what, a hitter’s a hitter.”

On the international level, though, hitters tend to be pretty good. The Canadians tagged American starter Trevor Bauer of UCLA for an early five runs and chased him after 4.2 innings of work. In stepped Walz, who not only slowed the Canadian attack, but halted it altogether. In 4.1 innings of work, the Kansas sophomore missed a lot of bats striking out nine and holding Canada to no runs on just one hit and one walk.

Walz’ performance came under the direction of Jack McKeon, who won the 2003 World Series as the manager of the Florida Marlins. McKeon was filling in for Team USA’s regular coach, Rick Jones of Tulane.

“That was incredible. I’ve never seen someone with that much baseball knowledge,” Walz said of McKeon. “I mean, you could sit around and talk baseball with him all day. Just to have someone with that much experience in the dugout with you is something else. You know, when he says good job it’s like, ‘Whoa, I must have done really good.’”

The American national team will travel to Japan and Canada over the course of the summer, including a trip to the World Baseball Challenge in British Columbia, Canada, where it will face competition from Japan, Taiwan, China, Germany and Canada. Walz will try to help the team continue a 28-game unbeaten streak dating back to the summer of 2007. He said it was an honor to be part of that tradition.

“It’s like — you can’t describe it,” Walz said. “Just being invited was an honor, and then it’s like all your hard work has paid off. You’ve got to go out and represent, not just on the field, but off it as well.”

Sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson was also invited to tryouts — he participated in the full two weeks of practices — but didn’t make it past the June 24 cuts. Before being cut, Thompson addressed the possibility and said that he was honored just to be given a chance to represent the country, whether or not he made it.

Walz said he had been hoping his college teammate would be able to join him on the American side.

“I mean, I almost felt guilty,” Walz said. “I got out there for one day and he went through the whole tryouts. It would have been great if he made it, though.”

Kansas was one of few schools to have multiple players invited to the tryouts. Walz said it could only mean good things for the University as it moved forward.

“I think it says something about our program that we have the quality guys to go out there and compete at the national level,” Walz said. “It’s definitely exciting for next year.”

— — Edited by Hannah DeClerk

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