Former Hampshire pitcher Shane Ennis.
Review Files
MORGANTOWN — Hampshire’s Shane Ennis is starting out his 2nd season as a Mountaineer by taking the baseball field at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick for an exhibition game against the Major League Baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Salt River Fields is the new spring training home of the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies which seats 11,000, a far larger crowd than the 3,000 the WVU sophomore currently pitches in front of and light-years away from his largest crowd of 450 he pitched in front of during his days as a Trojan at Hampshire High School.
Ennis and his WVU Mountaineer teammates are scheduled to take the field on Feb. 29 and face a MLB team for what is believed to be the first time in WVU’s program history. The Diamondback roster is not set and might not be made up entirely of major league players. The Diamondbacks will be using the exhibition game for players who are in Scottsdale for spring training.
Growing up a fan of Cal Ripken Jr. and Andrew McCutchen, Ennis recalls his first major league game and watching as McCutchen hit a homerun.
“Everyone is excited to play against the Diamondbacks and to be able to talk to the players,” said Ennis. “These guys have made it and I want to get their insight.”
As a pitcher at WVU, Ennis will be taking the opportunity to learn from the Diamondback pitchers and compare his technique to that of the major league pitchers.
“I will be watching their pitchers’ mechanics and how they warm up to compare myself to them,” he said.
With the excitement of taking the field against MLB baseball players approaching, there is one thing that might outweigh the competition he experiences on the field. That one thing would be the chance to talk to a player that has made it to there and gaining insight on how they did it.
“I would like to hear how they deal with their lives outside of baseball and how they deal with their fans and opposing fans,” Ennis wondered.
Ennis has faced many challenges in his young college career, and keeping up with his homework while meeting the grueling workout and game schedule my may be the hardest, but with the challenges come the pleasant surprises.
“The most pleasant surprise I get is seeing all the Mountaineer fans when we travel away to play,” he said.
Of course, there is one more question an athlete at the college wants to know, how do I stack up against the pros? This is a question Ennis has asked himself, but he always comes back to what his high school Coach Chad VanMeter told him.
“Always stay humble and do your best and always remember to stay relaxed because you always have another chance.”
VanMeter always told his players that if they threw a bad pitch or made a mistake in the field, to pick ourselves up on the next play and get it right the next time.
Ennis admits that he will be nervous to get the call from the bullpen and though he recalls some nerves the first time he took the mound in a Mountaineer uniform, he will go out to do what he has done so many times.
“I will just go out and try to throw strikes, get outs and help the team win,” he said. “I think I’ll be nervous at first, but I will be excited to see who I’ll pitch against.”
Ennis has always loved the game of baseball and admits that he always has to keep improving and making adjustments to make it to the next level.
“The game’s faster the higher you go,” he said. “In the Big 12, everyone’s good.”
Ennis ended his freshman season at 1-3 with a 6.15 ERA and he has put in a lot of work during the offseason to get ready for this year.
“I have been working on my mechanics and location with all my pitches,” Ennis said, adding that he is a goal setter. “My No. 1 goal is to keep my ERA below or around 3.0.”
The Mountaineers season opener is Feb. 19 at Charleston Southern for a three-game series.