By MIKE KAYS
The list, with hardware, would need an empty wall at home to fit it all, and that doesn’t include newspaper clippings.
All-District to All-Region, All-State to All-American. 90-mph Clubs. District championships to regional championships to National Championships. Even some top academic honors.
It was almost all there was to win for Fort Gibson lefty Weston Rouse. Armed with an ERA each year under 1, Rouse helped lead Fort Gibson’s Tigers to three state tournaments.
Perhaps, if only COVID hadn’t kept Rouse and this year’s seniors who’ve started every year from not getting a chance to make it as freshmen. Perhaps if instant replay had been in play their sophomore year when a bases-loaded double play to end the game was nullified, ultimately costing the Tigers a semifinal win against Verdigris.
Rouse put it all in perspective.
“We had a really good year and completed all our goals,” he said. “Once you make it to the state tournament anything can happen. That one loss doesn’t define our season.”
It ended his high school career with a season that saw him go 8-1, with an 0.46 ERA over 61 innings with 21 walks and 136 strikeouts while hitting .490 in 100 at-bats, 16 extra-base hits and 41 RBIs.
And of course there’s that long list of experiences over four years of baseball, even with the COVID season in high school that was wiped out in March of 2020.
Looking back, Rouse singled out the Midwest Scouting Association’s Select 50, where the Philadelphia Phillies invited him to pitch. Then there were the Area Code games, playing for the Chicago White Sox’s squad of representatives.
“The Select 50 was the most fun,” he said. “Being in the bullpen with the guys in Royals Stadium was a great experience. I’m most proud of Area Code. That was a really big deal to me to compete with the top high school players in the nation.”
And then there was the best advice he received at one of these functions prior to his senior season. Two words — get stronger.
“I was on the verge, I mean, I felt like my stuff was good. But you always benefit from throwing a little harder,” he said. “I’ve done work in the weight room, but when he told me that, I went to weight training that was specific to body explosiveness.
“When you move faster, you throw harder.”
And Rouse is just getting started.
It’s on to Oklahoma State where next season he’ll join the Cowboys corps of arms in the final year of the Big 12 as it’s been known — with Texas and Bedlam rival Oklahoma leaving for the SEC next summer, after BYU, Central Florida, Houston and Cincinnati coming in.
“It will be weird not playing Oklahoma and Texas, but we still have to compete every weekend and win ball games and just do us and not worry about anything else,” he said.
Having graduated as one of Fort Gibson’s top scholars as well, he has a summer between home and Stillwater.
“As of right now, I’m still trying to decide what I’m going to do for the summer,” he said. “I’m training every day and working with a pitching coach.”
And there is some “me” time. Fishing, and lots of golf, with much of that being with his girlfriend and fellow Tiger, 2022 Class 4A golf champion Layne Ailshie.
“I haven’t beat her yet,” he said just before heading to the state tournament. “But I can strike her out.”
