Ware in a groove
NORMAN—Sometime in the first inning or two of Thursday’s Bedlam series opener at Tulsa’s ONEOK Field, Oklahoma designated hitter Brylie Ware will step to the plate for his first plate appearance in conference play against Oklahoma State.
Whether the publicaddress system plays it or it doesn’t, Ware will have a song going through his head.
“I don’t want to be
anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately.”
“All I have to do is think of me and I have peace of mind.”
The Gavin DeGraw song “I Don’t Want To Be” is Ware’s walk-up tune. It was the same last season when he was a freshman at Neosho County Community College in his home state of Kansas.
Ware has been fighting against just being the “next” whoever and becoming his own person— becoming Brylie Ware.
That’s working out pretty well for him right now.
Ware cranked up the power over the last few weeks as the Sooners have heated up, hitting three of his five home runs this season in last weekend’s series win over TCU.
When Ware arrived at Neosho from Sedgwick, Kan., he was supposed to be the replacement for the most recent high-powered hitter who’d come through and moved on.
He wanted to be sure that he was his own person, so Ware chose the song mainly as a reminder to himself to keep being him.
When he was recruited to Oklahoma, Pete Hughes and his coaching staff saw Ware as the replacement for Sheldon Neuse’s production after Neuse was a second-round draft pick last season.
Ware’s eye-popping junior college triple crown line made the expectation no unrealistic. Ware hit .589 with 29 home runs and 122 RBIs last season to earn the first NJCAA Triple Crown since 1985 and earn player of the year honors.
While hitting for average hasn’t been an issue for Ware, the power didn’t.
Heading into the April 30 series finale at West Virginia, Ware was without a home run.
That first one proved a big one, a solo shot in the middle innings in a game that the Sooners eventually needed 10 innings to win.
Each of Ware’s five home runs now—including two in Sunday’s series-clinching win over TCU—came in tight Oklahoma wins.
Ware’s power is making a big difference at a critical time for the Sooners.
“He’s finally comfortable and relaxed,” Sooners hitting coach Mike Anderson said. “You could see him getting to that point even before the home runs. He was starting to hit line drives to the gaps and starting to go to the opposite field with power.”
Ware said he started feeling the power surge come on in the weeks before that West Virginia game, even if not many hits were falling for him and balls weren’t leaving the park.
When Ware would head back to the dugout after a futile at-bat that ended on a ball that was hit square on the barrel, Ware would job back to the dugout to be met by teammate Kyle Mendenhall.
“Barrels aren’t good,” the teammates would say to each other, shaking their heads at the luck.”
“Just little stuff like that to just calm us down and relax us,” Ware said.
Ware, a lifelong OU fan whose father went to the school, is finding barrels now that are turning out just fine for the Sooners.
“He’s starting to feel it now,” Hughes said. “He’s starting to hit breaking balls over; he’s starting to hit fastballs in out.
“I’m very happy with him.”