the lineup card: vol 9
In the aftermath of a losing season in 2022 and back-to-back years of missing the NCAA Tournament, freshman pitchers Brayden Risedorph and Connor Foley arrived at the Indiana University campus with differing expectations of how much they could impact the Hoosiers right away. Risedorph came in with the mindset that he could compete with anyone, despite being a late bloomer in high school. Foley, on the other hand, did not envision much of a role for himself in the beginning.
“To be honest, I kind of went into it thinking I was good, but not as good,” Foley said over the phone. “Freshman mentality is almost that you’re not gonna be able to pitch to these guys that were higher recruits than you, and I wasn’t necessarily a high recruit.”
At first, trying to adjust to the Divison I level can feel as uncomfortable as swimming in deep water with no land in sight. Many freshman athletes approach their first competitive experiences with more fear than confidence, including Foley.
The wake up call rang immediately. During Foley’s first live at-bat on the mound in practice, sophomore catcher Austin Bode went yard, which as he put it, was very humbling. Risedorph missed out on most of those live experiences in the fall due to elbow soreness. The issue stemmed from a lack of strength in his shoulder and back, so Risedorph worked on rebuilding those muscles and threw bullpens on the side until he was cleared for full activity.
Before they were Hoosiers
Risedorph, 19, grew up in the small rural town of Kendallville, Indiana with his parents and three older brothers. The area is surrounded by lots of corn, Risedorph described, so there is not a ton to do other than go to school, play sports and go fishing with friends. Before a future on the mound opened up, the 6-foot-3 right-hander considered pursuing another passion of his.
“There was a while where I wanted to go to college and try to become a collegiate bass fisherman,” Risedorph said. He looked into some schools that offered it as a club and even nearby Adrian College, which is ranked No. 1 in the nation for bass fishing. “I ended up doing pretty well at baseball and it just kind of took over. Once it started looking like there was a chance I could play some college baseball, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Towards the end of his sophomore year at East Noble High School, a couple smaller offers began rolling in from junior colleges, which made Risedorph plan on going the JUCO route. He initially committed to play for Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois before his performance took off as a junior. That season, he averaged 15.4 strikeouts per nine innings and opposing hitters had a .173 batting average against him, according to MaxPreps. Risedorph credited his work in the weight room during the COVID-19 pandemic for his growth on the field.
“When everything was shut down, I was kinda bored,” Risedorph explained. “I was always a bigger kid…kinda chubby, so I didn’t want to be the fat kid anymore. I just started lifting, trying to get a little more in shape and fell in love with it from there.”
Division I schools took notice and began making offers of their own, which made Risedorph reopen his recruitment. Once Indiana got involved, the laid-back right-hander knew he could not pass up the opportunity to play ball in his home state.
Foley, who turned 20 on Friday, grew up a Hoosiers fan in Jasper, Indiana, which is located an hour south from Bloomington. He described Jasper as the perfect place to grow up as a three-sport athlete. Foley has a sister and four “super supportive” parental figures in his life, since his mom and dad are divorced and found different significant others. Plus, the support from his coaches, teammates and the community was everything he could have asked for.
Much like Risedorph, Foley was a bit of a late bloomer on the diamond. The now 6-foot-5 righty did not attend many showcases or play travel ball until the last couple years of his high school experience. His father repeatedly encouraged him to try it earlier, but Foley figured that college programs would simply see him at high school games instead.
“I didn’t really know how travel worked, like was it really that necessary? Turned out it definitely was,” Foley realized. “If I had to do it all over again, I would have started earlier…do a few more camps and stuff to get my name out there because that really is the only way.”
Foley recalled accidentally going to his first-ever showcase during his junior summer on the same day as his Indiana Bulls tryout, which he completely forgot about. The Bulls called him when there was only 30 minutes left of practice, so Foley still went despite being two hours late. He ended up making the team anyway.
It was always Foley’s dream to become a professional baseball player. Bridging the gap between high school and the pros by playing college baseball was not something he thought of much growing up, but it was not difficult to decide on attending his dream school once Indiana made an offer. A few college football programs even showed interest in him as a tight end.
“The biggest factor in my jump in my freshman year was the focus on one sport,” Foley confidently said, adding that he never had time to throw every day growing up. “I did get some looks for football, but that never really was my passion. I had the choice to either do one or both, I chose the one and I couldn’t have made a better decision.”
Freshman year
In a fall doubleheader against Eastern Illinois, Indiana scheduled 14 different pitchers to throw 14 innings. Foley was not one of them.
“I was kinda the ‘oh crap’ guy in case somebody got in trouble and couldn’t finish the inning, if that tells you where I was,” Foley said. Around the third or fourth inning of the first game, he got his chance. “I came in really pumped up with adrenaline wanting to prove something…throwing 93 mph and I topped at like 97 mph, which was out of nowhere. I kinda put myself on the map and I’m like, ‘OK, well maybe I can pitch this year. Maybe I can play college baseball at a high level.’”
Both Risedorph and Foley considered themselves more as throwers than pitchers before working with Indiana pitching coach Dustin Glant. The former Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre coach helped unlock their breaking pitches and preached attacking opposing hitters in the zone, with an added emphasis on throwing first-pitch strikes and winning 1-1 counts. They frequently practiced slide steps and holding runners on base, which is one of the bigger adjustments from high school competition to the collegiate game.
Another major difference was the development of arm care routines, which included rolling out soft tissue before and after throwing. Over time, both players picked up new techniques and lifts from trainers, coaches and teammates, which made a monumental difference in the way their upper body recovered after outings – something they never learned or experienced as high schoolers.
When the season began, Risedorph did not pitch at all during the opening series at Auburn but debuted against Miami (Ohio) on Feb. 21 in relief. It took until early April for him to realize he would become an important part of their pitching staff.
“There was a while where I would just shove in the midweeks and then suck as soon as we played a Big Ten team, and you don’t want to be that guy,” Risedorph said with a laugh. In a closely contested conference game against Iowa on April 9, the coaching staff gave him the ball for the final two innings. “Ended up closing it out. It was a pretty cool feeling to be out there trying to compete, especially against a team as good as they were.”
Off the field, one of Risedorph’s biggest challenges was keeping up with his classwork once the team made road trips, traveling as far as Texas for games. The exercise science major admitted that it took him a couple weeks to lock in but once he got settled in to the routine, it was not too bad.
Risedorph wound up throwing 52.1 total innings this past season, posting a 4.47 ERA while making five starts and recording six saves in 25 appearances. He found a bulk of his success throwing the sinker, which generated a high ground ball rate, in addition to his slider and changeup. The fireballer called the decision to rely on his sinker the best change he has ever made due to its late movement making it so difficult for hitters to barrel up. He became the second freshman in school history to reach the 60-strikeout milestone in a season, earning freshman All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
Foley debuted in the same game as Risedorph but did not feel like he performed well until the halfway point. Exactly two months into the season, Foley entered the top of the ninth with no outs, a 9-8 lead and the tying run in scoring position for Ohio.
“This is my chance,” Foley remembers telling himself, knowing a save could earn the trust of his coaches. He struck out the first batter, plunked the second guy, struck out the third and got the fourth batter to popout with the bases loaded. “I just kind of grew up and that’s what all my coaches said too. That was the turning point in my season when I started becoming a reliable reliever/closer.”
Foley finished the season with 20 relief appearances, pitching to a 3.72 ERA while collecting four wins, three saves and 42 strikeouts in 29 innings of work. Both freshman arms appeared in high stakes NCAA Regional games against Kentucky. Foley threw 2.2 scoreless innings during their dramatic 5-3 victory on June 3, while Risedorph threw 2.1 scoreless frames during their 4-2 loss in the season finale.
Preparing for 2024
While the season did not end the way the 43-20 Indiana Hoosiers had hoped, both Risedorph and Foley are confident that their young core can take a step forward in 2024. Each of the soon-to-be sophomores brushed off any talk of potentially being selected next year’s MLB Draft, ensuring that their sole focus right now is finding ways to improve and help their team win.
Risedorph and the Indiana coaching staff mutually agreed to shut him down from throwing in any collegiate summer leagues since he had such a hefty workload as a freshman. In June, Foley had a brief stint in Tennessee with the Johnson City Doughboys of the Appalachian League. He struck out 16 batters and walked 10, posting a 0.84 ERA in 10.2 innings before his coaches decided that was all they needed to see. After throwing his dominant fastball roughly 95% of the time in the spring, Foley wanted to use this experience to develop his secondary pitches.
“I really lived at the top of the zone, which is pretty hard to hit,” Foley said. Opposing batters knew what was coming most of the time despite hitting .163 against him, but that may not be the case next spring. “Getting comfortable with the changeup and slider, throwing it in all counts for strikes…it’s really big for my development. Really excited to get to be a three-pitch guy next year instead of a one-pitch guy.”
While they wait for the fall, the two teammates both plan on going fishing quite often. Even though they have become close friends, they have yet to go together, which Foley said is due to him never having his stuff with him. However, both pitchers did recently work together at head coach Jeff Mercer’s youth baseball camp.
Unlike when they first stepped on campus, there is no doubt in either Risedorph’s or Foley’s mind that they can confidently attack hitters and impact their team moving forward. Their personal goals include lowering their ERA and commanding the strike zone, but more importantly, they want to apply the lessons learned from this past season toward a deeper tournament run in the future.
“We’re gonna be a good team next year,” Risedorph assured. “Shoot…I mean, I think we can go out and win a regional. I don’t see why we wouldn’t even host as long as we do our work.”