STARKVILLE — Jamie Shevchik saw the potential in Brent Rooker.
In the summer of 2015, Shevchik, who coaches the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League, noticed Rooker was hitting .360 and had a slugging percentage over .600 with the Plymouth Pilgrims of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, so he decided to add him to his team’s roster for the final days of the season. The move secured a spot for Rooker on the Whitecaps’ roster in 2016.
Rooker’s transformation into college baseball’s best hitter began upon his return to Brewster, Massachusetts, for a full summer with the Whitecaps.
In 36 games, Rooker hit .303 with eight doubles, three home runs, and 22 RBIs. His efforts earned him CCBL All-Star honors.
But Shevchik said he didn’t push any swing changes on Rooker. Instead, he saw Rooker use a different mental approach that helped him improve his power numbers.
“The conversations we had with him were being more aggressive early in the count. Don’t miss the pitch when you get it the first time or the second time,” Shevchik said.
Before that change, Shevchik said Rooker often was behind in counts, which was affecting his hitting. The spray charts showed Rooker skewing more to the opposite field, a sign of a hitter constantly fighting pitches off.
But with Rooker’s new approach in effect, he had nine hits, including three home runs and five extra-base hits, in the final eight games of the season.
“Hitting for power against arms like that is a learning process,” Rooker said. “It was learning how to compete mentally every day with guys that have premier stuff because that’s what you’re going up against up there.”
After a summer in Brewster and a productive fall and first part of the 2017 season with the Mississippi State baseball team, Rooker has become one of the nation’s top hitters. He leads the Southeastern Conference in batting average (.403, 14th nationally), slugging percentage (.893, first), on-base percentage (.505, 10th), hits (64, 16th), RBIs (61, second), doubles (21, second), and home runs (17, tied for third).
Rooker and No. 8 MSU (29-14, 13-5 SEC) will try to stay hot this weekend when they play host to No. 5 Auburn (30-13, 12-6) in a three-game SEC series at Dudy Noble Field. Game 1 will be at 6:30 tonight (SEC Network+). Game 2 will be at 7 p.m. Saturday (SEC Network). Game 3 will be at noon Sunday (SEC Network).
The Bulldogs have won five-straight SEC series and are 13-2 in its last 15 league games, while the Tigers have won five of their six conference series.
On Tuesday, Rooker went 2-for-4 with a double and a three-run home run in a 4-2 victory against Ole Miss at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The victory helped MSU sweep all four series meetings against Ole Miss for the first time since 1997.
Rooker has used the mental approach he adopted last summer in Massachusetts with slight alterations to his swing to become one of the nation’s most lethal hitters. The swing changes are obvious to Shevchik, even on television. After watching Rooker roughly a dozen times, Shevchik said Rooker has a shorter, more efficient stride that eliminated “almost a double tap” he had previously.
“He’s a big, strong, physical kid, and when you watch some of the things he was doing over the summer, he wasn’t, in my opinion, showcasing his ability as a big, strong, physical hitter,” Shevchik said.
Shevchik also sees a taller Rooker, which he feels is another step that has helped him showcase his natural power. Rooker credits that to another slight swing moderation, one that occurs before the stride forward. Rooker said in leaning back to load up before the new stride forward, he would store energy in his rear knee, causing a lag in the swing as he transitioned that energy to his hip for the hip turn of his swing. Now he stores that energy in his hip from the start.
“I’m able to be on plane earlier, be in the zone longer, be able to hit better pitches with power where in the past I would have to hit a fastball out, now I can hit multiple pitches in multiple zones out of the park,” he said.
Looking back, Rooker said he became a different hitter in the summer and fall of 2016. The home runs and greater power came in preseason scrimmages in January and early February when he developed a greater comfort level with his new mental approach and his new swing.
As a result, Rooker and MSU coach Andy Cannizaro set goals: 15 home runs and a .340 batting average. Rooker already has eclipsed that home run goal with 13 regular-season games left. He also is likely to shatter the batting average mark.
Cannizaro, who has called Rooker “the best player in college baseball the first half of the year,” said they had to re-visit those goals and raise them a notch.
“When (opponents) go up against Rooker, it’s really interesting to see what they’re going to do,” MSU catcher Josh Lovelady said. “Some guys attack him early because they’re confident they can get him out, and then he hammers one over the left-field fence and it’s like, ‘Well, we can’t do that.’ ”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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