Hittin’ it big

Sophomore+Trek+Stemp+at+bat+during+a+home+game+against+Texas+State%2C+Friday%2C+March+7.

Sophomore Trek Stemp at bat during a home game against Texas State, Friday, March 7.

Born with the shortness gene, Trek Stemp came into this world with a gene for something else as well. 

Head Coach Donnie Marbut wasn’t the first to notice it, but his explanation for Stemp’s ability was as hard-hitting as the Cougar center fielder himself. 

“Trek is just a flat-out great hitter,” Marbut said. “He’s not your prototypical leadoff hitter because a lot of leadoff guys will work the count and are really selective. He’s not. He’s up there swinging. He’s been a hitter since birth. He’s got that hitting gene.”

Stemp has had plenty of practice hitting the baseball since he was just a little boy. He grew up with three older brothers who all played baseball. His brothers, Cory, Chase and Catlin, used to play in the batting cage and Stemp always wanted to play with them. 

He said he remembers stepping into that batting cage, wearing just his underwear and a helmet, and trying to hit against a pitching machine that hurled baseballs at 75 miles per hour. Stemp’s dad tried to tell the boys to slow it down, but Trek’s brothers said that if their little sibling wanted to play with them, he would have to do what they were doing. 

“They would still play really hard, and I’d have to just hold my own against them, so I think that helped me a lot growing up playing sports,” Stemp said. “It kind of toughened me up, I guess.”

Stemp said he never played t-ball, but worked his way through little league and middle school baseball before reaching the high school level. He attended Kennewick High School and played all four years on the varsity squad.

The Cougar center fielder played little league with Matt Mendenhall, who also plays for WSU now. Mendenhall said Stemp was an exceptional hitter, even in little league. Now that they are playing together again, Mendenhall credited Stemp as being one of the best leadoff hitters in the Pac-12. 

Stemp said his high school coach pushed him harder during his freshman and sophomore year and, by the time he was a junior, Stemp was approaching the team captain role. He was always smaller than everyone else, but Stemp quietly went about his business, leading by example. 

“He’s not really a loud guy,” Mendenhall said. “He’s kind of a quiet guy but he leads by his play.”

His smaller size never provoked anyone to pick on him as he was growing up, even in high school. Stemp said he first started to hear serious jabs about his size when he got to college and would go on road trips with the Cougars. 

Stemp said he recalls times when he would stand in the on-deck circle, waiting to hit, and he would hear fans asking him how old he was. They told him he looked 12 years old, and guessed that he weighed only 120 pounds. 

Although Stemp, measuring at 5 foot 10, admitted he began his freshman year at WSU feeling slightly intimidated because he actually weighed only about 145 pounds, he began to realize that his skills could still speak for themselves. He was even able to find humor in the insults he heard from fans in opposing ballparks. 

“I never really let it get to me,” Stemp said. “I just kind of laughed it off and almost used it as motivation because I felt like people coming to watch would see the little guy be successful and realize that you don’t have to be six foot to be a player in baseball.”

Stemp said pitchers will sometimes underestimate him because of his size, and will throw him a fastball to get him out. That doesn’t bother Stemp at all. He said he simply swings at that first pitch if it is a fastball, which is only fitting because he has seen fastballs ever since he first stepped into the batting cage with his brothers. 

 “Trek could hit coming out of the womb. He’s never not hit, and he’s never not had success,” Marbut said. “He’s a great baseball player and I think people sometimes get surprised by that because of his size but he’s strong, he’s got great hand-eye coordination, and he’s fast. He’s just a great little baseball player.”