A Man on a Mission

By: D. Scott Fritchen

"I want to prove I am who I am and last year wasn't a fluke," Tyson Neighbors says as he stands outside of the training room at Tointon Family Stadium on a gorgeous 65-degree afternoon in February. Neighbors, projected as the No. 69 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft by MLB.com, has just earned a spot on the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List, which honors the nation's top amateur player. Three days prior, he was named to the Preseason All-America First Team by Baseball America. One week before that, he was named to the 2024 D1Baseball Preseason All-America First Team and Preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year.

Hefty preseason accolades, for sure, but strong-shouldered 6-foot-2, 220-pound Neighbors, a junior right-hander and native of Royse City, Texas, who received All-America recognition from seven national organizations last season, isn't satisfied.

Even if he is already the top closer in college baseball.

"I don't like to set a ceiling," he says. "Yeah, it's always best to strive to be the best and to leave your mark on the program. When we do what we do, we're known here forever.

"I want to show that K-State is a national program and bring home the first national title for K-State sports."

The journey to Omaha, site of the College World Series, starts as the 24^th-ranked Wildcats open the season against California on Friday in the three-games-in-three-days MLB Desert Invitational that also features games against Boston College on Saturday and Georgetown on Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"Loyal kid," K-State head coach Pete Hughes says. "He never strays from bleeding purple. No one wants to win for this program more than Tyson, and he's driving to get better. He's a student of the game, almost to an annoying level, and he's always looking for an edge to get better."

Consider the path. Neighbors posted a 5.40 ERA with 13 strikeouts and 14 walks allowed in 8 1/3 innings as a freshman in 2022 — "Everybody in the country should've doubted me," he says — before playing in the Northwoods League and posting a 1.06 ERA with 21 strikeouts and eight walks allowed in 17 innings over the summer. He carried that newfound mental edge into last season as he mowed down batters to earn status as the nation's top reliever.

That included a gem performance when he struck out nine of 11 batters faced while throwing a total of 46 pitches over the final three innings of a 6-5 win at No. 21 Texas, ending the Longhorns' 16-game home winning streak.

Neighbors finished last season 5-1 with a 1.85 ERA, surrendering just 10 earned runs in 48 2/3 innings, to go along with 86 strikeouts and 16 walks. Neighbors led the Big 12 Conference with 11 saves and held teams scoreless in 17 of 25 appearances.

Here's how MLB.com assesses Neighbor's talent:

"Neighbors has three pitches that miss bats at exceptionally high rates. His fastball operates at 93-95 mph and reaches 99 with cutting and riding action and exceptional induced vertical break — and it might be his third-best pitch. His 81-84 mph slider features two-plane depth and high spin rates, generating a 67 percent swing-and-miss rate in 2023, while his upper-80s cutter is nearly as nasty."

Kendall Rogers, managing editor of D1Baseball calls Neighbors' inclusion on the organization's All-America team a "slam dunk."

"He's incredibly valuable, and he's a leader, and he has electric stuff, and he's hard-nosed," Rogers says. "He checks every single box. There's really nothing about his game that I have a concern about, and there are very few players in college baseball that fit that mold."

He's still hungry. He went out this offseason working to hone his edge strikes, trying to work the corner of the plate with precise accuracy. He returned home to work with his pitching coach. He came back to Manhattan and worked out some more. So disgusted was Neighbors by the Wildcats being left out of the NCAA Regionals that he — you guessed it — went out and pitched away his anger.

If there was a highlight above all highlights this offseason, it arrived when Neighbors starred in the College National Team Training Camp (five strikeouts in two scoreless innings without allowing a hit in two appearances) and earned a spot on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.

"It was a blessing to go out there and be around 60 other guys from across the country who were the best of the best," Neighbors said. "I love to ask questions, so it was awesome to learn little tips in their routine or things they do on the mound just to help myself. We learned from each other. Being able to wear the red, white and blue and represent your country is an unbelievable experience."

Watching Neighbors trot out of the bullpen to the mound, then set up shop, is well, a pretty cool experience, as well.

What happens when Neighbor takes the mound for the final innings?

"The game is over," junior starter Ty Ruhl says. "That's about it. He's our dog tied up in the bullpen. I can't wait to give him the rock if I'm on the mound. At Texas, when I saw him running out, his big meaty body, I loved it because I knew it was over. He's a stopper. He's going to come in and give you all he has for however long he's out there. We have 100% faith in him to close the game out for us."

Thing is, everybody, including Neighbors, initially believed that football — not baseball — would be his sport. Neighbors played outside linebacker, running back, safety, and quarterback. When he was 13, he began gripping the baseball at an elite level. He garnered attention when his team travelled to Alabama and Georgia one summer. It was while competing on a summer league team that Neighbors' coach recommended that he take a look at K-State. Neighbors announced his commitment to K-State on September 8, 2019, coming to K-State with a self-described "bulldog" mentality reared from the football field, along with a 355-pound bench press, and super-high energy, but he knew that he had plenty of room to grow after his freshman season with the Wildcats.

"They've bought into me since day one," Neighbors says. "I had an atrocious freshman season to be honest. I know a lot of times in this world that baseball is easy to cut somebody and let them walk away that struggles, especially as a freshman, and it was like a complete buy-in that we're going to figure out how to help you succeed. I wanted to succeed just as bad as everyone else wanted me to.

"The culture at K-State is unmatched. Just hearing stories from around the country at other programs, there's guys that barely have conversations with their head coach. I feel like we know each other on the deepest of levels. Just feeling comfortable here and knowing also we're the underdog, we love that mentality."

It's Neighbors' winning mentality along with an insatiable desire to improve that perhaps most impresses Hughes.

"You keep making adjustments, take the criticism and use it to benefit you," Hughes says. "You're able to look at yourself and look at where you need to get better. Then you need to adjust because people are going to adjust to him, but he's always ahead of the curve right now. He went from being a one-pitch guy to a two-pitch guy to a five-pitch guy. People ask, 'Why don't you start Tyson?' I tell them, 'Because I like to see Tyson pitch three times a week.'"

The question is whether Neighbors prefers to pitch four innings, three innings, two innings or one inning.

"I really don't care," he says. "As long as Coach Hughes is willing to give me that ball, I'll get 27 outs, or I'll get one out. As soon as I get that ball, I'm a man on a mission and I'm going to shut out the game."

Which, coupled with his gaudy statistics, has landed him on multiple All-America teams. Neighbors has earned Preseason All-America First Team honors from Baseball America, the National College Baseball Writers Association, D1Baseball and Perfect Game to become the third K-State player in school history to earn four preseason All-America honors in the same season alongside right-hander Jordan Wicks (2021) and infielder Ross Kivett (2014).

"It's definitely an honor and a blessing to be named with all the accolades, but it is a preseason honor," he says. "It's just from stuff that's happened before. I take it with appreciation."

He pauses.

"At the same time," he adds, "I know I have to prove it."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Tyson Neighbors

Ty Ruhl

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