Kansas State University Athletics
‘He’s Mature Beyond His Years’
Apr 20, 2023 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Eighty-six minutes before first pitch between Kansas State and Wichita State on a terrific Tuesday evening at Tointon Family Stadium, captivating and electrifying sophomore Kaelen Culpepper stood in his white helmet, purple t-shirt and white pants with purple pinstripes, white batting gloves and a purple sleeve down his lower left arm, staring down a practice pitcher like he owed him some money.
Swing one: Home run over the left-centerfield wall.
Swing two: Home run over the centerfield wall.
Swing three: Home run over the leftfield wall.
Culpepper took six pitches, four went yard. His teammates in the outfield didn't chase the balls. They watched them sail over their heads — "There's Halley's Comet, and ain't she a beaut!" — and over the wall, one baseball clinking off the side of the new volleyball arena behind left-center. Satisfied, Culpepper stepped out of the batting cage, lowering the bat as if turning off a lightsaber. Head coach Pete Hughes met him, grinned, whispered something, and patted the top of his helmet.
"I have confidence in you," Hughes said.
About two hours later, in the bottom of the third inning, at 7:09 p.m., Culpepper made it count in live action, when facing a 2-1 pitch, he unfurled a two-run blast over the 390-foot marker in centerfield. The ball climbed and climbed some more, and the stadium lights flickered and flashed in celebration, and the fans cheered and music pumped through the speakers, and Culpepper began his trot around the bases, taking off his helmet after crossing home plate. He high-fived Brady Day, who waited for him after scoring from first base. Teammates swarmed Culpepper as he made his way into the dugout.
It was his third home run in 12 innings.
"An amazing feeling," Culpepper says. "I've learned to stay composed under pressure. One of my biggest flaws coming into college was sometimes I'd let the moment get too big. Now I slow the game down, take a couple deep breaths, and just think about what I need to do."
Culpepper is slashing .295/.400/.577 with four doubles, six home runs and 27 RBI this season. He went 2-for-4 with two home runs and a career-high six RBI in the Wildcats' 21-18 win at Kansas on Sunday, the best game of his career. He didn't receive the game ball — that went to All-American candidate closer Tyson Neighbors, who was lights out on the mound. But Culpepper didn't mind. The Wildcats had swept Kansas in Lawrence for the first time since 2013. The celebration was on.
"Anytime you hit a home run against your rival, it's a great feeling," he says. "Glad we got the sweep."
It was his 13th game back after missing 19 contests due to a hand injury suffered against LSU on February 24. That was the darkest day of Culpepper's standout college career. While batting in the ninth inning, Culpepper felt a pop on his backswing. His left hand went numb. Pain shot up his arm. He couldn't grip the bat. Doctors determined it to be a broken hamate bone — one of eight carpal bones that forms part of the wrist joint. The hamate bone had broken off. Surgery. Five-week recovery. The longest he can remember being without baseball.
"When the injury happened, I knew something was terribly wrong," he says. "I got scared and nervous. It was just me out there. Everybody had their eyes on me. I felt alone. I don't know, it was just a bad place to be."
Now all eyes are on him again. And it's a good place to be.
He's one of the hardest hitters in the Big 12 Conference and athleticism at third base makes him one of the most feared infielders in league as well. He backhands balls off the bounce and throws to first base with such velocity that you can hear the ball pop in Roberto Pena's glove from the press box.
"He's great and he's not even feeling 100% yet with his timing," Hughes says. "He's a game changer with the glove and he's a game changer with the bat. He's mature beyond his years."
Ryan Knott first met Culpepper when the 14-year-old Memphis native was an eager freshman at St. Benedict at Auburndale High School in Cordova, Tennessee. Months before Culpepper would be named to the state all-tournament team for the first time, Knott, the Eagles' hitting coach, knew this: Culpepper was used to playing against the older kids. He grew up playing above his age level, which gave Culpepper comfort playing as a freshman on a team typically dominated by upperclassmen.
"My biggest takeaway?" Knott says, "How hard he worked, even when he was younger."
The work ethic? Part of that came naturally, and part of it came from Kenneth Culpepper, Kaelen's father, who Kaelen credits as the biggest influence in his life.
"That's the man, right there," Culpepper says. "He has all the confidence in me. He believes in me in anything I do. He's always my biggest confidence booster. He's my biggest critic. He's the best dad ever. It's hard to explain, but he does everything for me. He listens to me and talks to me. He has so much love for me and patience, and he understands me the most out of anybody. Definitely my role model."
To be better, to be the best, to be a 10-year veteran in Major League Baseball – which is what Culpepper aspires to be – he stayed after practice. Every. Single. Day. Starting his freshman year, as a 14-year-old, he'd turn on the stadium lights and run, throw, and do drills for three hours. More than once, the stadium lights went off with Culpepper still on the field. It'd be 9 p.m. and the security guard wanted to go home. Often, Culpepper brought along a teammate or two, because they loved baseball that much. Other times, it was Knott and Culpepper alone on the field, quietness interrupted only by the smack of a baseball, and then another one — "It was more than a couple hundred balls," Culpepper says, chuckling — while cleats crunched on the dirt between second and third base. Knott would do whatever he could do in order to help Culpepper flourish as a ball player.
"I'd hit ground balls to him until my hands were bleeding," Knott says. "Literally, I'd have blood stains all over the bat."
Although wonderfully talented — sometimes St. Benedict tossed him in to pitch and he showcased his 90-mile-per-hour fastball — Culpepper was humble and quiet and didn't boast about his achievements. That's something else that Knott noticed. Culpepper was never satisfied — "He wasn't one of those guys," Knott says — and instead chased his potential, his thirst to unlock the next level hungrier than a boy playing Super Mario on Christmas morning. But Culpepper knew what everyone else knew: He could play with anybody.
A four-year letterwinner and four-time state all-tournament team selection, Culpepper batted .394 with six home runs, 30 RBI and 13 stolen bases en route to first-team All-State honors by The Tennessean. He emerged as the No. 2-rated shortstop in the state of Tennessee.
"I've seen him hit home runs that high school kids shouldn't hit from both sides of the plate," Knott says. "Once, he hit a home run that knocked a team out of the regional tournament. You just don't see high school kids with his arm and power."
Which are precisely the first and second aspects of Culpepper's toolbox that K-State assistant coach Austin Wates spotted that summer day in Florida in 2019 — arm and power. Wates had journeyed down to Florida to watch two premier travel teams compete in a tournament, unaware that a 140-pound boy with a rocket arm and lightning right-handed swing would captivate him for the next few hours. Culpepper was a switch-hitter but much stronger with his right. Playing second base, he ran up on grounders and fired them to first. Culpepper wasn't yet a junior at St. Benedict, and Wates knew he could smooth out any rough edges to Culpepper's game. He waited afterward to speak with Culpepper's coach. Few, if any, Division I teams had shown interest — "Luck of the draw," Wates says. Wates' eyes lit up in realizing that K-State had found Culpepper on the ground floor.
"Low profile, really skinny, like maybe 140 pounds, he just hadn't filled out or matured yet," Wates says, adding, "We made sure we spoke every other week or so and did everything via Zoom because of COVID. We just built that relationship over those next two years."
When other schools jumped on Culpepper as he matured as a player, he was already set to be a Wildcat. And he made his presence known in Manhattan as one of the few freshmen to play as a primary starter. He played in 51 games with 48 starts at third base. He slashed .283/.356/.428 with nine doubles, five home runs and 22 RBI. He put together 13 multi-hit games while driving in multiple runs three times. He recorded a hit in each of his last five games, four of which came at the Big 12 Championship. All of this culminated into great things: A spot on the Big 12's All-Freshman Team and All-Big 12 Honorable Mention accolades in 2022. He did what so many freshmen are unable to do each year. He slowed the game down. He let his skills play. He recognized pitches. He had a knack for hitting balls with very little at-bats under his belt. It wasn't necessarily the hitting that most impressed K-State coaches, either.
"The level of defense he was able to play, and show that he could play right away," Wates says, "is just not something you get very often at this level."
By now we know that Culpepper is uncommon. It becomes apparent with each passing day. It certainly grew evident one fall day when Wates left Bill Snyder Family Stadium at halftime to check in at his office in Tointon Family Stadium, less than 200 yards away. Wates could hear the Piiing! … Piiing! … Piiing! of a single bat whacking balls. Instead of attending the football game with teammates, Culpepper played his own game, and with his own music blaring, he was absolutely going off on baseballs inside the batting cage.
"Kind of funny," Culpepper says. "Whenever there's a football game, I always hit balls before and after the game. Sometimes I'll be by myself, listening to music, just getting in my zone. Sometimes coach Wates will stop by and see me in there and we'll talk."
Sometimes they talk about baseball. Sometimes they talk about life. Sometimes they talk about dreams. Golfers say that hitting golf balls is therapeutic. In search of refining his game at the plate, Culpepper also uses the batting cage as his preferred personal form of therapy. Culpepper says that he has "a lot on my plate" and "things out of my control" and hitting balls is his happy place. Often he'll hit balls, with the music blaring, until midnight or 1 a.m.
Baseball therapy continues to pay dividends for Culpepper, who has big plans for K-State, which is 24-15 overall and 9-6 in the Big 12. The Wildcats have reached nine league wins the fastest of any team in program history and are currently in second place in the league with series against No. 21 Texas Tech, at No. 18 Oklahoma State and against No. 25 TCU remaining in the Big 12 season.
"Honestly, I'm just trying to win a lot of games, win the Big 12 Championship, make a regional and make it to Omaha. That's a big goal," Culpepper says. "I just want to perform well for my team so we can get as far as possible in the postseason."
For now, Culpepper prepares for a four-game road trip — three games at UC Irvine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and one game at UC Riverside on Tuesday. He wants the hot weather. He wants the sun. But above all, he wants to win. But he also hopes that a couple more of his blasts fly high into the clear blue sky, the silence filling another opposing ballpark, another personal victory since the surgery, and another product of the hard work that began long, long ago.
Eighty-six minutes before first pitch between Kansas State and Wichita State on a terrific Tuesday evening at Tointon Family Stadium, captivating and electrifying sophomore Kaelen Culpepper stood in his white helmet, purple t-shirt and white pants with purple pinstripes, white batting gloves and a purple sleeve down his lower left arm, staring down a practice pitcher like he owed him some money.
Swing one: Home run over the left-centerfield wall.
Swing two: Home run over the centerfield wall.
Swing three: Home run over the leftfield wall.
Culpepper took six pitches, four went yard. His teammates in the outfield didn't chase the balls. They watched them sail over their heads — "There's Halley's Comet, and ain't she a beaut!" — and over the wall, one baseball clinking off the side of the new volleyball arena behind left-center. Satisfied, Culpepper stepped out of the batting cage, lowering the bat as if turning off a lightsaber. Head coach Pete Hughes met him, grinned, whispered something, and patted the top of his helmet.
"I have confidence in you," Hughes said.
About two hours later, in the bottom of the third inning, at 7:09 p.m., Culpepper made it count in live action, when facing a 2-1 pitch, he unfurled a two-run blast over the 390-foot marker in centerfield. The ball climbed and climbed some more, and the stadium lights flickered and flashed in celebration, and the fans cheered and music pumped through the speakers, and Culpepper began his trot around the bases, taking off his helmet after crossing home plate. He high-fived Brady Day, who waited for him after scoring from first base. Teammates swarmed Culpepper as he made his way into the dugout.
It was his third home run in 12 innings.
"An amazing feeling," Culpepper says. "I've learned to stay composed under pressure. One of my biggest flaws coming into college was sometimes I'd let the moment get too big. Now I slow the game down, take a couple deep breaths, and just think about what I need to do."
Culpepper is slashing .295/.400/.577 with four doubles, six home runs and 27 RBI this season. He went 2-for-4 with two home runs and a career-high six RBI in the Wildcats' 21-18 win at Kansas on Sunday, the best game of his career. He didn't receive the game ball — that went to All-American candidate closer Tyson Neighbors, who was lights out on the mound. But Culpepper didn't mind. The Wildcats had swept Kansas in Lawrence for the first time since 2013. The celebration was on.
"Anytime you hit a home run against your rival, it's a great feeling," he says. "Glad we got the sweep."
It was his 13th game back after missing 19 contests due to a hand injury suffered against LSU on February 24. That was the darkest day of Culpepper's standout college career. While batting in the ninth inning, Culpepper felt a pop on his backswing. His left hand went numb. Pain shot up his arm. He couldn't grip the bat. Doctors determined it to be a broken hamate bone — one of eight carpal bones that forms part of the wrist joint. The hamate bone had broken off. Surgery. Five-week recovery. The longest he can remember being without baseball.
"When the injury happened, I knew something was terribly wrong," he says. "I got scared and nervous. It was just me out there. Everybody had their eyes on me. I felt alone. I don't know, it was just a bad place to be."
Now all eyes are on him again. And it's a good place to be.
He's one of the hardest hitters in the Big 12 Conference and athleticism at third base makes him one of the most feared infielders in league as well. He backhands balls off the bounce and throws to first base with such velocity that you can hear the ball pop in Roberto Pena's glove from the press box.
"He's great and he's not even feeling 100% yet with his timing," Hughes says. "He's a game changer with the glove and he's a game changer with the bat. He's mature beyond his years."
Ryan Knott first met Culpepper when the 14-year-old Memphis native was an eager freshman at St. Benedict at Auburndale High School in Cordova, Tennessee. Months before Culpepper would be named to the state all-tournament team for the first time, Knott, the Eagles' hitting coach, knew this: Culpepper was used to playing against the older kids. He grew up playing above his age level, which gave Culpepper comfort playing as a freshman on a team typically dominated by upperclassmen.
"My biggest takeaway?" Knott says, "How hard he worked, even when he was younger."
The work ethic? Part of that came naturally, and part of it came from Kenneth Culpepper, Kaelen's father, who Kaelen credits as the biggest influence in his life.
"That's the man, right there," Culpepper says. "He has all the confidence in me. He believes in me in anything I do. He's always my biggest confidence booster. He's my biggest critic. He's the best dad ever. It's hard to explain, but he does everything for me. He listens to me and talks to me. He has so much love for me and patience, and he understands me the most out of anybody. Definitely my role model."
To be better, to be the best, to be a 10-year veteran in Major League Baseball – which is what Culpepper aspires to be – he stayed after practice. Every. Single. Day. Starting his freshman year, as a 14-year-old, he'd turn on the stadium lights and run, throw, and do drills for three hours. More than once, the stadium lights went off with Culpepper still on the field. It'd be 9 p.m. and the security guard wanted to go home. Often, Culpepper brought along a teammate or two, because they loved baseball that much. Other times, it was Knott and Culpepper alone on the field, quietness interrupted only by the smack of a baseball, and then another one — "It was more than a couple hundred balls," Culpepper says, chuckling — while cleats crunched on the dirt between second and third base. Knott would do whatever he could do in order to help Culpepper flourish as a ball player.
"I'd hit ground balls to him until my hands were bleeding," Knott says. "Literally, I'd have blood stains all over the bat."
Although wonderfully talented — sometimes St. Benedict tossed him in to pitch and he showcased his 90-mile-per-hour fastball — Culpepper was humble and quiet and didn't boast about his achievements. That's something else that Knott noticed. Culpepper was never satisfied — "He wasn't one of those guys," Knott says — and instead chased his potential, his thirst to unlock the next level hungrier than a boy playing Super Mario on Christmas morning. But Culpepper knew what everyone else knew: He could play with anybody.
A four-year letterwinner and four-time state all-tournament team selection, Culpepper batted .394 with six home runs, 30 RBI and 13 stolen bases en route to first-team All-State honors by The Tennessean. He emerged as the No. 2-rated shortstop in the state of Tennessee.
"I've seen him hit home runs that high school kids shouldn't hit from both sides of the plate," Knott says. "Once, he hit a home run that knocked a team out of the regional tournament. You just don't see high school kids with his arm and power."
Which are precisely the first and second aspects of Culpepper's toolbox that K-State assistant coach Austin Wates spotted that summer day in Florida in 2019 — arm and power. Wates had journeyed down to Florida to watch two premier travel teams compete in a tournament, unaware that a 140-pound boy with a rocket arm and lightning right-handed swing would captivate him for the next few hours. Culpepper was a switch-hitter but much stronger with his right. Playing second base, he ran up on grounders and fired them to first. Culpepper wasn't yet a junior at St. Benedict, and Wates knew he could smooth out any rough edges to Culpepper's game. He waited afterward to speak with Culpepper's coach. Few, if any, Division I teams had shown interest — "Luck of the draw," Wates says. Wates' eyes lit up in realizing that K-State had found Culpepper on the ground floor.
"Low profile, really skinny, like maybe 140 pounds, he just hadn't filled out or matured yet," Wates says, adding, "We made sure we spoke every other week or so and did everything via Zoom because of COVID. We just built that relationship over those next two years."
When other schools jumped on Culpepper as he matured as a player, he was already set to be a Wildcat. And he made his presence known in Manhattan as one of the few freshmen to play as a primary starter. He played in 51 games with 48 starts at third base. He slashed .283/.356/.428 with nine doubles, five home runs and 22 RBI. He put together 13 multi-hit games while driving in multiple runs three times. He recorded a hit in each of his last five games, four of which came at the Big 12 Championship. All of this culminated into great things: A spot on the Big 12's All-Freshman Team and All-Big 12 Honorable Mention accolades in 2022. He did what so many freshmen are unable to do each year. He slowed the game down. He let his skills play. He recognized pitches. He had a knack for hitting balls with very little at-bats under his belt. It wasn't necessarily the hitting that most impressed K-State coaches, either.
"The level of defense he was able to play, and show that he could play right away," Wates says, "is just not something you get very often at this level."
By now we know that Culpepper is uncommon. It becomes apparent with each passing day. It certainly grew evident one fall day when Wates left Bill Snyder Family Stadium at halftime to check in at his office in Tointon Family Stadium, less than 200 yards away. Wates could hear the Piiing! … Piiing! … Piiing! of a single bat whacking balls. Instead of attending the football game with teammates, Culpepper played his own game, and with his own music blaring, he was absolutely going off on baseballs inside the batting cage.
"Kind of funny," Culpepper says. "Whenever there's a football game, I always hit balls before and after the game. Sometimes I'll be by myself, listening to music, just getting in my zone. Sometimes coach Wates will stop by and see me in there and we'll talk."
Sometimes they talk about baseball. Sometimes they talk about life. Sometimes they talk about dreams. Golfers say that hitting golf balls is therapeutic. In search of refining his game at the plate, Culpepper also uses the batting cage as his preferred personal form of therapy. Culpepper says that he has "a lot on my plate" and "things out of my control" and hitting balls is his happy place. Often he'll hit balls, with the music blaring, until midnight or 1 a.m.
Baseball therapy continues to pay dividends for Culpepper, who has big plans for K-State, which is 24-15 overall and 9-6 in the Big 12. The Wildcats have reached nine league wins the fastest of any team in program history and are currently in second place in the league with series against No. 21 Texas Tech, at No. 18 Oklahoma State and against No. 25 TCU remaining in the Big 12 season.
"Honestly, I'm just trying to win a lot of games, win the Big 12 Championship, make a regional and make it to Omaha. That's a big goal," Culpepper says. "I just want to perform well for my team so we can get as far as possible in the postseason."
For now, Culpepper prepares for a four-game road trip — three games at UC Irvine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and one game at UC Riverside on Tuesday. He wants the hot weather. He wants the sun. But above all, he wants to win. But he also hopes that a couple more of his blasts fly high into the clear blue sky, the silence filling another opposing ballpark, another personal victory since the surgery, and another product of the hard work that began long, long ago.
Players Mentioned
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