Santoro: Pitcher Kade Morris strikes blow for Stepping Stone U.

Sports Fodder:

The University of Nevada is a place where athletic dreams can indeed come true. Stepping Stone University actually can lead directly to the promised land. Just ask Nevada Wolf Pack pitcher Kade Morris. Morris, though, tried to leave the Wolf Pack last summer through the transfer portal, like so many football, basketball and baseball players in recent years. Morris even announced on Twitter that he had committed to Texas Christian. It was an easy jump for Morris since his Pack head coach (T.J. Bruce) had just joined the Horned Frogs after the 2022 season as an assistant. But Morris quickly changed his mind, stayed at Nevada and is now exactly where he wants to be as a third-round draft pick of the New York Mets. Morris will earn roughly $666,000 in bonus money from the Mets, according to mlb.com. That’s a nice reward for a college junior who might have vanished off the baseball scouts’ radar at TCU this past season. Morris, the Pack should hope, serves as a shining example of what the University of Nevada can do for an athlete. The Mets taking Morris in the third round just might be the best thing to happen to the Stepping Stone Wolf Pack all year. Morris, after all, is living proof that you don’t have to leave Nevada to strike it rich.

•••

College baseball, though, is a bit different than college football or basketball. You don’t have to be all that successful in college to get drafted in baseball. Morris was just 15-14 in three years at Nevada with a career earned average of 5.33. He struck out 153 in 173.2 innings, so he wasn’t all that overpowering, and also allowed 200 hits, 46 doubles, seven triples and 17 home runs. He wasn’t even a full-time starter until this past season when he went 4-7 in 14 starts. The Pack, with Morris serving as their No. 1 starter, finished just 20-33 this year. Morris tossed 10 wild pitches and hit 10 hitters and won just four of his 14 starts. But in baseball, the numbers mean nothing. Potential is the key. Morris’ potential made him the 101st player taken in this week’s draft. The Mets drafted him based on what Morris can be in three or four years and because he is now 6-foot-3, a lanky 190 pounds and owns a fastball that can touch 97 mph. He is also an elite competitor, just like another Pittman High product out of Turlock, Calif., named Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick, the former Wolf Pack quarterback, was a standout pitcher at Pittman but he never threw a pitch in college. But the Chicago Cubs picked him in the 43rd round in 2009 just the same because of his potential.

•••

The most intriguing player on this year’s Wolf Pack football roster just might be running back Sean Dollars. Dollars, a 5-foot-10, 195-pound transfer from Oregon, the Wolf Pack’s feeder program, might give the Pack an instant offense. Dollars, who has two seasons of eligibility left, could be the biggest factor in coach Ken Wilson’s ability to get a second contract. Dollars rushed for 188 yards last year at Oregon and also caught 16 passes. He ran for 33 yards and caught three passes against Georgia. If he can do that in a limited appearance against the best team in college football, imagine what he can do full-time against UNLV, San Jose State and New Mexico. Dollars also ran for 52 yards on just seven carries in the Pac-12 championship game in 2020. He might have more yards than that by halftime against USC this Sept. 2. He certainly better have more carries than seven. Dollars’ development at Oregon was stunted after that USC game in 2020 by an injury that caused him to miss all of the 2021 season. Oregon, it seems, never gave him much of an opportunity after that. Wilson, a former Oregon assistant coach, knows what Dollars can do.

•••

Dollars might become the first Wolf Pack player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since James Butler (1,336 in 2016). This is the same university that once had three 1,000-yard rushers (Vai Taua, Luke Lippincott, Kaepernick) in the same season (2009). Running for 1,000 yards in a season doesn’t mean you are a great back. All it really means is that your team gave you the ball and your offensive line could block someone once in a while. Those two things have not happened at Nevada on a consistent basis since Butler’s 2016 season. Those things should happen at Nevada this year with an offense that doesn’t have an established quarterback and a defense that usually does its best work while on the sidelines. Dollars (the perfect name for this new NIL era in college sports, by the way) has the ability to pile up 3,000 or more yards before his two-year Pack career is over. That last guy to do that in back-to-back seasons at Nevada? Frank Hawkins, who had 1,683 yards in 1979 and 1,719 in 1980.

•••

Circle the weekend of Sept. 1-3 on your calendar. That is the 72-hour or so stretch when we will find out if the Mountain West has finally grown up as a conference or is still just a meaningless mid-major willing to play doormat in exchange for easy paydays. All dozen Mountain West football programs will be in action over those three days with nine of them playing Power Five teams. Hawaii will host Stanford on Sept. 1. The following day Fresno State is at Purdue, Utah State is at Iowa, Boise State goes to Washington, the Pack is at USC, Colorado State hosts Washington State, Wyoming welcomes Texas Tech to Laramie and New Mexico goes to Texas A&M. The three-day Mountain West bake sale (all proceeds will help pay the bloated, overpaid Mountain West coaching staffs) will conclude with a Sunday afternoon affair in San Jose when the Spartans meet Oregon State. The following Saturday (Sept. 9) UNLV goes to Michigan and San Diego State hosts UCLA. How many victories should the Mountain West expect from those 11 Power Five matchups? How about five? The five wins could come from San Diego State (against UCLA), Colorado State (against Washington State), Fresno State (Purdue), Hawaii (Stanford), Boise State (Washington), San Jose State (Oregon State), Wyoming (Texas Tech) and Utah State (Iowa).

•••

Yes, we’re drinking the Mountain West Kool-Aid. It’s still just July, after all, and it is hot outside. The heat might be clouding our judgment a bit, thinking the Mountain West could win five and have a legitimate chance in eight of 11 games against Power Five teams from Sept. 1-3. But we didn’t list Nevada against USC, UNLV against Michigan and New Mexico against Texas A&M as possible Mountain West wins that weekend. It’s not that hot outside. Those are just bake sale games for the MW teams. The team gets a nice tour of a historic college stadium, maybe a free lunch and gets kicked in the teeth by a Power 5 bully while the athletic director gets a nice check. Everybody wins. Even the dentists.

•••

Wolf Pack baseball fans, though they probably didn’t know it at the time, were witness to the best college and high school baseball player in the country this year for a few games in 2021 and 2022. LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, the No. 1 pick in this week’s draft, played for Air Force against the Wolf Pack in 2021 and 2022. And he didn’t disappoint. Skenes, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound righthander with a fastball that flirts with 100 mph, played in 12 games against the Wolf Pack those two years, pitching in four of them. He was 16-for-40 (.400) against the Pack at the plate with five RBI, seven runs scored and two home runs. He was 4-for-4 with a double and a home run with two RBI in one game and 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in another. He pitched 15 innings against the Pack over two relief appearance and two starts, allowing 13 hits, five earned runs (3.00 ERA), striking out eight and walking four. He had two saves and a victory. Wolf Pack pitcher Kade Morris, who was drafted exactly 100 spots after Skenes this week, made five appearances against Air Force in 2021 and 2022 combined and faced Skenes four times. Skenes was 1-for-3 against Morris with a double, strikeout and a walk.

•••

Skenes was one of the best freshmen in Mountain West history in 2021, earning the conference’s Freshman of the Year award. He set Mountain West records (for conference games) for freshman with seven saves on the mound as well as 18 doubles, 106 total bases and a .791 slugging percentage at the plate. His .410 batting average that year is also Mountain West freshman record for all games. In 2022 Skenes was turned into a starting pitcher and was the league’s Pitcher of the Year as Air Force won the conference tournament and went to the NCAA regionals. He was 10-3 in 2022 with 96 strikeouts and a 2.73 ERA. Former Pack coach Jay Johnson then grabbed Skenes out of the transfer portal after the 2022 season for LSU. Skenes was 12-2 this past year with 209 strikeouts in just 122.2 innings and a 1.69 ERA as LSU won the College World Series. He’s likely to sign for a bonus of $9.7 million with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the coming weeks.