“Every time he gets on the mound, he gives us a chance to win”: ETBU’s Sayers Collins and his path to becoming one of DIII’s top starting pitchers
MARSHALL, Texas–Sayers Collins has been on a level of his own throughout the spring.
His overall performance has been unparalleled by virtually every pitcher in Division III baseball, and that’s not an exaggeration. Perfect Game was the most recent organization to laude his accomplishments on the mound, naming him their 2024 DIII Pitcher of the Year just last week. And that is along with a third-straight ASC Pitcher of the Year honor earned a few weeks ago.
Collins has helped spearhead ETBU’s second-straight run to the Super Regionals, as the win total has accumulated, and the Tigers aim at back-to-back appearances in the DIII World Series. Incredibly, his earned run average (ERA) of 0.99 ranks No. 1 amongst all NCAA pitchers this season, regardless of division. In 82.0 innings pitched, the Frisco native has surrendered just nine earned runs, which has led to a near-flawless 12-1 record. Collins’ 4.72 hits allowed per game is the second-best mark in D-III, and his WHIP of .80 is No. 5 amongst D-III pitchers this season.
“The biggest thing for me as a head coach is to see the way he’s evolved as a player,” ETBU’s Jared Hood said. “He always had really good stuff. Sometimes the pitchability factors, especially when he was younger, were not there. He’s only really been pitching full-time since he got into college, so he’s had to evolve as a player and a pitcher.
“I believe his mindset as far as a competitor, has really set him apart. When you talk about consistency, that’s where it starts. It starts with a consistent mindset on what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s because of that, every time he gets on the mound he gives us a chance to win.”
Collins’ first attention-gaining moment at ETBU came during a prospect camp while he was still a high school recruit. Both Hood and pitching coach Tanner Matthews still remember that day vividly, as the Legacy Christian Academy product first turned a few heads when he belted a home run during an intrasquad scrimmage. But he really drew strong looks from the Tiger coaching staff when he stepped on the mound, despite having spent more time behind the plate at catcher during his high school career than he did on the mound.
“He hit a home run at our field as a position player in the live part of the scrimmage,” Matthews recalls. “But then later in the game, he pitched, and when he got on the mound we knew immediately he was a guy that could help us pitch. And that he was going to get a lot better.”
That prognostication has proven to be correct in a significant way, as Collins continually made strides year-after-year upon arrival in Marshall. He initially entered his freshman season with the intent to be a two-way player and utilize both his bat and his arm. But pitching eventually won out and became his sole focus, something that proved to be a win-win for Collins and the ETBU coaching staff.
“We found out in talking with him that being a position player was important to him, when we knew in the back of our minds that we wanted him to pitch,” Matthews remembers. “So we told him, ‘Absolutely, man. You can do both.’ Once he got on campus, he realized how hard it is to do both, and I think he finally realized what his potential could be on the mound.”
That potential has been realized, seeing things from the vantage point of the present day. But in the moment, as a hard-throwing freshman right-hander, Collins’ path to nationwide stardom came in small steps, rather than giant leaps.
Initially, he appeared in just two contests in his first year, as the Covid pandemic canceled the 2020 season 17 games in. Then came 2021, as Collins saw action in 15 contests as a reliever, coming out of the bullpen for 40.2 innings. And in that span, he struck out 68 batters, a stat that garnered attention from those in the West Region. “He was arguably one of our best arms,” Matthews added.
In the middle of that season came a pivotal turning point in Collins’ collegiate career, one that would eventually give him a chance in the starting rotation. In a key conference home series against Louisiana College, who boasted a 15-0 record in league play entering the weekend, Matthews instructed Collins to get his arm loose in time for first pitch. Collins wasn’t going to start, but in the event that starter Blaine Parker needed to exit early due to recurring back trouble, the sophomore needed to be ready.
“[Early on], I’d have an outing here and there,” Collins said. “Then we went on the road to Hardin-Simmons and I didn’t pitch at all. I got into it a little bit with Coach Matthews, and told him that I felt like I was one of the better pitchers coming out of the bullpen and wanted to be used more.
“He told me, ‘I’ll give you an opportunity, but you have to show it.’ So going into the weekend against Louisiana College, Blaine was having some back issues. Matthews told me, ‘I want you to be ready to go as early as the first inning if he can’t go.’”
As it turned out, Parker tossed four innings that afternoon. But Collins' number was then called upon in the fifth, as the Tigers remained deadlocked with the Wildcats, 3-3.
“I remember sitting in the bullpen thinking, ‘This is my moment. This is my time.’ I wasn’t going out there thinking I was going to be amazing. I just wanted to go out there, do my job, and show my coaches, myself, and my teammates that I was capable of being valuable to this team.”
He did that…and a little bit more. Timely hitting in the seventh and eighth innings lifted ETBU to a 5-3 victory, as Collins shut down the Wildcat lineup with five scoreless innings, striking out 11 batters along the way. He then turned around and delivered 2.2 scoreless innings in a second-straight win over LC the following afternoon.
Those two outings, along with six more in the final three weeks of the 2021 season gave Collins the confidence to approach the coaching staff about moving into a starting role entering his junior year. He had proven he could handle five and six-inning outings. So why not throw six innings out of the gate, as opposed to doing it out of the bullpen?
“He was such a high-leverage guy for us out of the bullpen who could come in and throw really hard with a good slider for a couple innings,” Matthews noted. “We weren’t real confident initially he’d be able to go five or six innings every outing, but kudos to Collins. It was something that was important to him. He had made up his mind that he wanted to start and all fall we got to see him. He definitely earned it.”
Matthews gave him the opportunity and Collins ran with it, going 11-2 in 13 starts with a 2.55 ERA. He struck out 121 batters, and solidified himself in the starting rotation, another step towards forming the top-tier starter seen on the mound this season. But that didn’t make the transition easy. In fact, there was quite a bit Collins had to change to put himself in the best position as a starter.
“This is something I tell all the young pitchers; starting is a different beast. [Starting and relieving] both have their advantages and difficulties, but starting I had to change almost everything about my process in my warmups, in my weekly routines, and how I took care of myself physically as well. It was definitely a challenge the whole season. I think I had to take a week break midway through, because I was so worn out. It’s been a long journey to get from going in as a freshman thinking, ‘I just really want to make the travel roster’ to realizing I can actually pitch and do well on the team to ‘Okay I can actually be in the rotation and benefit the team’ to where I am now, taking more of a mentor role to the other guys and hopefully instill that mindset to them, when it comes to pitching in general.”
Mindset has been a critical part of Collins’ success, Matthews says. The line between being good and great is thin in many cases, and it seems a strong mentality entering each start plays a pivotal role in the consistency seen from the right-hander week-in and week-out. And that is something that could be said for the entire Tiger pitching staff, who ranks No. 9 in D-III in team ERA at 3.56.
“I don’t want to sit here and say mindset is all of it, but our guys really do believe that when they get on the mound, they’re going to have a really good shot to be successful. We tell our guys all the time that we have a chance to face a really good lineup in intersquads every week, so we have an opportunity every week to get better.And if we can learn against those guys who see us every week and get them out, we’re going to be able to get outs against somebody we will see once on the weekend.”
This weekend’s Super Regional against Pomona-Pitzer will be a full circle moment for the Tigers, considering it was against the Sagehens that their 2024 season began. The three-game series in early February in Marshall saw ETBU take Game 1, before Pomona-Pitzer headed back to the West Coast with two wins of its own. The Tigers are seeking a different result this time around, needing two victories to clinch a spot in next week’s DIII World Series in Eastlake, Ohio.
There will be one difference, however, in the season-opening series as compared to this Best-of-3 Super Regional: Collins will be on the mound. He did not pitch in that first weekend against Pomona-Pitzer, so this will be the first time he goes up against the Sagehen hitters.
It will also mark the final home series of his five-year ETBU career at Woods Field. The hitter-friendly park may not be favorable for pitchers (still, only one of the three home runs he allowed this season came at home), but it was one of the aspects that caught Collins’ attention as a recruit and drew him to the idea of playing for the Tigers.
“I grew up going to games at Dallas Baptist, and the campus was kind of the same, and the field was kind of the same,” Collins said. “The stadium and field [at ETBU] is totally different now, but when I went for camp, they had brand-new turf infield and brand-new grass outfield, which I thought was really cool.”
And it is on that same field that Collins has accomplished so much, from program strikeout records to memorable victories. The coaching staff helped him realize his potential as a pitcher upon arrival, and he will leave as one of the best ETBU arms has ever had.
“You can tell they love baseball,” Collins said. “It’s not their job. They get to come out here every day and be at the baseball field with us. They’re not distant when they coach, like some coaching staffs are. You can tell Coach Hood and Coach Matthews are experiencing the wins and losses with you. I don’t know if you saw the walk-off against Claremont but you see Coach Hood sprinting down the third base line as the run scores. You can tell they have that natural joy and love for the game and that really rubs off on us.”
He didn’t have an abundance of college interest coming out of high school, playing on a team with a stacked roster that included Division I and Division II commits. But for Collins, it was less about the quantity of offers and more about quality. ETBU followed him throughout his senior season, maintaining a strong interest in what he could bring to the program. That made an impact, and through prayer, Collins and his family knew ETBU was the right fit. It has turned out to be exactly that.
“[Through prayer], it came down to us feeling like ETBU would be the best for me, not just baseball-wise, but life in general,” he said. “I met my fiance here. I found a great church. I’ve fallen in love with not just the coaches and the school, but the community as well. It’s been fantastic.”
Interestingly, there are plenty of college football ties in Collins’ family, with his grandfather having played at Baylor, an uncle having taken the field for Alabama, and a cousin who played at VMI. Collins himself is a passionate Alabama football fan.
“My mom’s side of the family is the Alabama in me. My dad’s side is Illinois. So I had to choose—tough decision, haha—between the Fighting Illini and Alabama football. Growing up, my grandma really instilled that Alabama football culture into me. I thank her for that.”
And while Collins showed success early on in football, baseball had his heart. Much like his memories from his time at ETBU, the competitive aspect was part of what drew him to the sport. But it was everything else that the sport meant to him, and has continued to mean, as his career has advanced.
“Baseball was definitely my first love. Going to Rangers games with my family, I have so many memories at the old ballpark. And I love playing baseball, because I had a friend who passed away from cancer, and he and I grew up playing together. In the pictures [of me pitching], I have a green wristband on. That’s for him.
“There’s a lot of cool memories for me with baseball that mean a lot to me, not just the winning aspect of it, but just being out on the field. My grandma passed away too, and she loved Alabama football, but she also loved Texas Ranger baseball. There’s a lot of memories with baseball wrapped up in that, and a lot of people who I wish were still here to come watch me play. But there’s still a lot of people that I love in my life who are able to come see me play, and that’s really who I go out there for.”
ETBU’s Super Regional against Pomona-Pitzer begins Friday at noon. Game 2 will follow on Saturday at 11 a.m. followed by a 2:30 p.m. game on Saturday, if necessary. All of the action will be broadcasted live on goetbutigers.com.
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