The postseason awards and accolades are going to start pouring in for Conner Crumbliss. On Thursday, for instance, he was named the MIAA player of the year.
But to truly quantify how impressive Crumbliss’ career has been at Emporia State, consider that ESU coach Bob Fornelli has been a head coach on the collegiate level for 13 years — seven years at Fort Hays State and the last six at ESU. And in those 13 seasons, Crumbliss is the first player ever to be a four-year starter under Fornelli.
“Offensively, he was a great leadoff hitter from the time he stepped in here,” Fornelli said.
It would have been tough for Fornelli to guess that Crumbliss was going to be the first of anything but maybe the first to get a team-issued swirly when he stepped on campus.
Crumbliss weighed 130 pounds, and his teammates called him Squeak. Fornelli had a junior college player that he assumed was going to be the starter, but he couldn’t keep Crumbliss off the field.
“Throughout the fall, he didn’t say a whole lot,” Fornelli said. “He probably said five words all fall, but he competed and got better and I don’t know that he started the very first game, but it wasn’t very long after he pretty much played every game his freshman year at second base.”
Last weekend, Crumbliss showed how far he’s come. It started with the final game of the regular season against Southwest Baptist. Crumbliss went 3-for-3 with a double, triple and he scored five runs. That wasn’t really any different from what he’s always been doing. Crumbliss could always hit. He hit .317 his freshman season. Of course, the type of hits were different.
Crumbliss showed on Saturday against Baptist his strength hitting to the gaps. He lined one hit off the center field wall. He weighs 170 pounds these days, and after hitting zero homers his first two seasons, he hit 12 last year and has four this year.
“Now he’s gotten a lot bigger, a lot stronger, a lot more power,” said ESU pitching coach John Martin, who was a senior catcher Crumbliss’ freshman season. “Before he used to just hit the ball over the shortstop’s head and get on and steal second. Now, he can do a lot more things and he’s a lot bigger threat than he was before.”
Later Saturday night, Crumbliss showed that he’s made more changes than just packing on the pounds. At the team’s banquet on Saturday, Crumbliss — the same guy who said five words his freshman season — stood up and talked about his four years at Emporia State and thanked Fornelli for bringing him in.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Martin said, “because before when he was a freshman, he might have pissed his leg just shaking. There he acted like he was normal, and I was like, ‘Wow, why didn’t he talk like that to the team more often?’ That just shows that he’s grown up and how much more comfortable he feels and how much he trusts himself as a person and playing.”
The Hornets have just as much trust in Crumbliss to be their leader.
“We all kind of gravitate towards him,” third baseman Kevin Wempe says.
They also follow him. Fornelli believe that as Crumbliss goes, so goes his team. If Crumbliss hits, the whole team will hit.
“That’s not putting pressure on Conner,” Fornelli said. “Conner knows that. Conner’s known that for awhile, but you look at his stats, he’s scored 79 runs in 52 games. If he scores runs, we’re going to win baseball games.”
Emporia State has won a lot of baseball games during Crumbliss’ career. He was a part of the 35-game winning streak last year. But the Hornets have not been to the World Series since Crumbliss’ freshman year, and he would like to take them back.
“I was a 19-year old kid,” Crumbliss said. “I thought that’s just what you did every year. I didn’t know that was such a big deal. Sophomore year we struggled a little bit and I got a big dose of reality. I appreciate how much work it takes now to find a way to get there.”
If the Hornets are going to get there, as Fornelli says, Crumbliss is going to have to lead them there.
“If he doesn’t play good, we ain’t gonna win,” Fornelli said.
The postseason starts tonight with the MIAA tournament and with a good showing, the Hornets could host the South Central Regional, which would be a big advantage to help them get back to the World Series.
The good news is Crumbliss is starting to get his bat going. He’s gone 11-for-17 in his last six games to bump his average up to .413 from .391.
“I’m starting to see it a lot better,” he said. “My head’s not bouncing so much and the ball is staying a lot more still when I’m hitting. I feel good and hopefully it continues through the postseason.”
Other than a mini-slump in the middle of the season, Crumbliss has hit all year, his best season statistically in his four years. He leads the MIAA with 83 hits, is second in stolen bases (29), runs scored (79), doubles (25) and total bases (130).
Crumbliss is still the smallest and lightest guy on the ESU team — at least according to the team’s media guide, which puts him in a tie with shortstop Andy Cotton. Still, the smallest guy demands the most respect.
There’s only one guy left in Emporia who still calls him Squeak, and he knows how far the little guy has come.
“Total role change,” Martin said. “He was the guy that followed all of us before, and now he’s having to help try to lead this team somewhere. He’s really grown up a lot and made himself a lot better in the summers, falls, and hopefully he can go out doing really good.”