A series to share #smiles across our community through the achievements of our local youth, brought to you by Olsen Orthodontics.
Written by Randy Tucker
Surrounded by Lander football players and Riverton baseball players, Lander Valley High School Senior Brayden Baker signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Originally a prime candidate to play catcher at the collegiate level, a knee injury at Torrington last fall in football changed the course of Baker’s future on the diamond.
Baker is 80 to 85% back after surgery and follow-up physical therapy at Elevate in Lander. Still, his recruiting process was a bit different; there were no tryouts, jugs, gun speed tests on his fastball, or stopwatches measuring his time from home plate to first base.
“I wasn’t able to do much of anything with them, because of my knee,” Baker said.
A finalist in the Class 3-A 100 meters last spring at the state track meet, there will be no track this spring.
Baker had offers from Iowa Lakes CC, Miles City CC, and Everett CC in Washington. He chose Eastern Nebraska.
“It’s a nice school with nice facilities,” Baker said. “I connected well with the coach; they have a solid program there. It was a good fit, it felt like somewhere I’d be comfortable.”
He should be just about finished with rehab when the Riverton Raiders baseball season starts in April.
“No catching at Eastern, I might catch some this legion season,” Baker said. “Pitching and outfield in college.
Baker will major in business management.
“It’s something I can go multiple directions with other colleges if that comes up,” he said.
“I have no clue on long term plans. I’m going to try and play baseball as long as possible. That’s my long-term goal right now.”
Baker played football, hockey, and ran track during the school year and has played baseball since T-ball as an elementary student. Focusing on one sport from now on will be a little different.
“Just being able to focus on one and see how much improvement I actually have when I just focus on that sport,” Baker said. “Just mechanics and fine-tune some stuff and learn as much as possible.”
Many college baseball players from warmer climates play on the diamond year-round. That’s not an option in Wyoming.
“I have it pretty rough just being from Wyoming and doing four sports as well,” Baker said. “Just getting that improvement and focusing on one thing instead of the other should help me out a lot.”
At this point, it’s a two-front attack for Brayden Baker. He’ll focus exclusively on baseball, but he has to get his knee back to normal and overall strength to return to where it was before his injury.
It’s been four months since his injury. Physical therapy has become a routine in his senior year; he’d just finished a PT session before signing.
“I’m running at 75 percent, and testing at 90 percent on jump metrics,” Baker said. “I expect to be 95% by the first games with my target to return in April.”
Baker is an outdoorsman from an outdoor family. He loves to hunt and fish in the mountains. The change to the rolling plains of Nebraska will be a challenge.
“I’ll miss the mountains, probably. Yeah, for sure,” Baker said. “Definitely just the teammates that I’ve grown up with, all my buddies that I’ve done sports with since third or fourth grade.”
He carries a 3.6 grade point average and is in line for additional academic scholarships at Eastern. He was an all-state selection in both football and basketball.
He is grateful for the people who helped him.
“Just my family, teammates, and coaches getting me along through this journey and all the people that helped me along the way,” Baker said.
He is the son of Eric and Nikki Baker.