The words a longtime Collegiate baseball coach said leading to title-winning grand slam

Since starting the Collegiate baseball program from scratch in 1990, Mike Gehrer has experienced just about everything the game can offer.

He has coached teams who struggled to record an out and he has coached teams who have won championships. He has long since retired from the head coaching spot, returning to the dugout in an assistant capacity when his son, Joe, took over, but current players still revere him and his words carry weight.

So imagine what was running through the mind of Collegiate senior Brady Hunt when Gehrer delivered a message, in a soothing tone like only he can, before Hunt stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and Collegiate trailing Columbus in the final inning of the Class 3A state championship game.

“This is something you’ve been dreaming about since you were 2 years old playing wiffle ball in your backyard,” Gehrer said, putting his hands on Hunt’s shoulder to comfort the 18-year-old. “You’re the last hitter, you hit the home run, you win the championship.”

“That’s when it really sunk in for me,” Hunt said. “That this is going to be my last at-bat in a Wichita Collegiate uniform. I think his words helped me trust in myself.”

Columbus had called for a mound visit, which spurred the conversation between Gehrer and Hunt and allowed the coach to also leave his hitter with a piece of strategy. Collegiate had been taking first pitches for the first six innings of the game, and more than three decades of coaching experience informed the longtime coach that high school pitchers almost always throw first-pitch fastballs following mound visits.

With a fairy-tale ending conjured in his mind and a green light to look for a fastball, Hunt was uniquely prepared to send a first-pitch fastball well over the 340-foot fence in left field for what became the game-winning grand slam to propel Collegiate to a 6-4 victory over Columbus and its second straight state title in May.

“It was surreal running the bases,” Hunt said. “The whole time I just kept thinking, ‘No way I just did that.’ It was probably the fastest I’ve ever run, to be honest. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that feeling. That’s something that only happens once in a lifetime. I think I gave coach Mike the biggest hug I’ve ever given anybody in my life.”

In a vacuum, a clutch home run from Hunt would not be totally unexpected. The Cloud County signee finished his senior year with a .500 batting average, five home runs and 35 RBIs.

But the senior catcher was in a serious funk during the state tournament at Tointon Stadium on Kansas State’s campus in Manhattan, which had continued with an 0-for-3 stretch before his final at-bat.

“We actually moved him down in the lineup, so he was hitting in the 4-hole for us that game instead of the 3-hole,” Joe Gehrer said. “So he was in the right spot at the right time.”

Collegiate was hardly a plucky underdog team, returning a core of talented seniors who played key roles in the 2022 championship run. Hunt, Hayden Malaise and Brett Black were once again selected as All-Metro players, while Landon Ramsey was also a first-team all-league selection and underclassmen like Brett Wetta, Carter Drumright, Jacob Chappell and Jace Campbell all played roles.

But the Spartans did have their share of adversity to overcome, namely a semifinal game at state where they blew an 8-0 lead to top-seeded Humboldt, only to score the winning run on a steal of home plate.

Joe Gehrer thought that semifinal game might have been too much of an emotional drain since Collegiate had to turn around and play the championship game later the same day. For six innings, that funk hung over the Spartans.

“For six innings, they were the better team, but give these kids credit because they never stopped fighting,” Gehrer said. “We were prepared because of who we play every day. We knew this year was going to be a fight. This group was different from last year’s group. But they found a way to get it done in the end.”

After more than three decades at Collegiate, Mike Gehrer decided to fully retire from coaching following the championship game.

It would be difficult to script a more perfect ending for him, as his fateful conversation with Hunt proved to be his final contribution to the program he built and helped Collegiate win its sixth state championship.

“It was an absolute storybook ending,” Gehrer said. “I started this program in 1990 when we couldn’t even get an out. So for the last high school game I’m ever going to coach to finish with a game-winning grand slam to win the state championship, that was pretty special.”