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Drury's Waters Feels Mission Not Quite Accomplished
Few teams in the history of sports, college or pro, have experienced a debut season like the Drury baseball Panthers did in 2007.
Picked for last in the 14-team Great Lakes Valley Conference preseason poll of the league’s coaches – and rightfully so, given that DU was reviving its baseball program for the first time in more than three decades – all coach Mark Stratton’s Panthers did that spring was win 33 games, capture the GLVC championship and make a trip to the NCAA-II Regional in Akron, Ohio, where they also won a game to boot.
It was a young and feisty Panthers squad, one bolstered by 19 freshmen who, quite frankly, didn’t know any better. All coming from successful high school programs, mostly from the Ozarks, they had no idea they weren’t supposed to have that kind of college success, together, so soon.
But it also created a bit of a dilemma for those young Panthers: Where do we go from here?
Three years later, Harrison Waters is one of 13 Panthers from that originally freshman class. And now, as seniors, their college baseball clock is most definitely ticking away, with the thought firmly etched in their minds that they must, as the team slogan says, “Finish What They Started.”
The past two seasons have produced winning seasons, but near-misses in terms of getting back into the six-team GLVC Tournament field and the NCAA meet as well. That has proceeded to both motivate and frustrate these Panthers as they take the field with one last shot in 2010.
“I don’t know if pressure is the right word … that first year just showed us what we’re capable of,” says Waters, a former Republic High School standout. “When you know you’re capable of that as a freshman, and you don’t do it the next two years, it’s a let down. We’ve had the same team every year, with one or two exceptions, so you wonder, if we can do that our freshman year, why not our sophomore and junior?”
“We’re expecting big things this year. Here we are and now’s our final chance.”
The GLVC sees it that way as well, as the Panthers were picked for second in the league’s West Division behind only perennial NCAA-II World Series hopeful Southern Indiana. This much is certain: Whatever the Panthers accomplish this spring, Waters will be heavily involved.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound lefty has pulled double-duty for DU in all four years as both the team’s starting center-fielder and typically, their final-game starter of big weekend series as a pitcher. No Drury fan will ever forget Waters’ dramatic, walk-off solo homer in the 10th inning to beat Bellarmine 1-0 in the GLVC Tournament his freshman campaign for Drury’s first-ever post-season victory.
And, well, no one involved with DU Baseball will ever forget Waters, period, thanks to his engaging personality and an All-America level sense of humor. No one has been better known for keeping things loose in the Panthers’ dugout than Waters, a trait he picked up from his father, Frank.
“My Dad can be friends with someone he just met within five minutes, it seems like,” the Panther affectionately known as “Harry” says of the personality genes he inherited from Frank and mother Sherry, which ought to serve Waters well down the road when he puts his Marketing degree from Drury to good use.
“In high school, I think I was always that ‘social butterfly’ guy.”
“Harry definitely has that gift,” Stratton says. “He’s been just as valuable to us off the field as he has been on it, just with his ability to bring the team together when we most need it.”
Waters says he’s been trying to fully embrace that leadership role since, as a freshman, he saw the impact that then-senior Tony Lewis had on the team in the dugout. The fiery Lewis, a transfer from Missouri State, spoke volumes with his bat – earning First Team All-GLVC honors – but also spoke volumes, period, and wasn’t afraid to monitor his choice of words in doing so if he felt like the team or a teammate needed a good chewing.
Waters has not reached that level, but says he’s attempting to put to use several of the traits he learned in that regard from Lewis and the likes of former DU standout and ’08 graduate Justin Skinner.
“What Tony did as a leader was amazing,” Waters said. “I always try to assume that role when the opportunity comes up, to step up and motivate people and keep their heads in the game. I think it’s just my personality to lead.”
“That first season, though, was all about team chemistry. We all hung out together, did everything together and played well as a team as a result. That chemistry and bonding is vital to the success of this team, too.”
So, too, will be the work of the likes of Waters, three-time All-GLVC senior shortstop Joe Rohlfing, senior first baseman (and former Glendale product) Tyler Goss, pitchers Stephen Bloss and Chris Marston and all of the key seniors from this experienced DU squad.
Waters is already off to a fast start on the mound, including a Feb. 28 start against Wayne State in which he pitched seven shutout innings – his best effort since his freshman season. Waters says his pitching improvement this spring has everything to do with the fact that he wants to play more baseball after college.
“I’ve been working a lot more with (pitching) Coach (Byron) Hagler to smooth everything out,” Waters says. “I want to continue to play after college, and I realized that, even playing well in the outfield, I don’t think the pros are going to need me as much in that regard as they do a left-handed pitcher.”
Waters has a fastball that consistently sits in the mid-80s range on the radar gun, but his bread and butter pitch is a deadly changeup he developed years ago while playing with Randy Merriman at both Republic High and with the Midwest Nationals.
Once more often regarded as an outfielder who happened to pitch – the opportunity to play both positions was what led him to Stratton and Drury, with NCAA Division I programs telling Waters he’d have to pick one or the other – Waters now has achieved standout status in both locales on the diamond, leading the Panthers’ in pitching victories for his career entering this season with 14, including six mound triumphs as a freshman and five last season. He’s also second on the DU career charts entering this campaign in doubles (29) and homers (10) and is third in RBIs (93).
But Waters – and his fellow seniors, including a pair of two-year members of that class (transfers Kendall Findley and Aaron Quick) - would trade all the numbers, when it’s all said and done, for another opportunity to open eyes around the GLVC and the NCAA-II ranks with a strong finish by the Panthers … something that, say, could at least rival their amazing beginning four years ago.
“That season was totally a dream … I had people approach me who told us that we’d have had a successful year if we’d have won 15 games with a new team, a new league, all the young guys …,” Waters says. “When that happened, we didn’t know at the time that it’s not an easy feat to accomplish.
“Coach Stratton has brought up several times about how next season is going to be a totally different team without all of us. We just don’t want every memory of this class to be of what we did our freshman year.”
Drury's Waters Feels Mission Not Quite Accomplished
Article from March/April 2010 Issue
 Few teams in the history of sports, college or pro, have experienced a debut season like the Drury baseball Panthers did in 2007.
Picked for last in the 14-team Great Lakes Valley Conference preseason poll of the league’s coaches – and rightfully so, given that DU was reviving its baseball program for the first time in more than three decades – all coach Mark Stratton’s Panthers did that spring was win 33 games, capture the GLVC championship and make a trip to the NCAA-II Regional in Akron, Ohio, where they also won a game to boot.
It was a young and feisty Panthers squad, one bolstered by 19 freshmen who, quite frankly, didn’t know any better. All coming from successful high school programs, mostly from the Ozarks, they had no idea they weren’t supposed to have that kind of college success, together, so soon.
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