By Lori Lyons
Pitcher Connor Spencer is going places. And he’s already been to a few. But it looks like he’s going to end up where he wanted to be all along.
Right now, Spencer is touring western Louisiana and eastern Texas with his fellow Rougarou teammates as they come to the homestretch of the first half of the Texas Collegiate League season. Spencer, a right-handed pitcher, is the team’s closer with a 2.70 earned run average and 24 strikeouts to his credit. He’s given up three hits.
At first he wasn’t too sure about playing on the team with such a grueling schedule, for a guy who calls himself “Rooster,” but all doubts were erased on the first day.
“My first day on the team I got to pitch and I was part of a combined no-hitter,” Spencer said. He and three other pitchers combined to no-hit the Victoria Generals and win, 12-0. He has impressed coach Jeff “Rooster” Southall ever since.
“Connor very likely has the brightest future of any pitcher I’ve seen in the TCL this far,” Southall said. “He has the ability to play baseball at the highest level, if he can harness the emotional side of this role and continue to hone his craft. He’s a good young man and knows he has a lot of work to put in to become the pitcher he wants to become. He’s a student of the game and wears each outing as it comes and wants to continue improving. As a closer, he knows he’ll experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows emotionally with his results. The last three outs are the toughest to get in baseball and he relishes that role.”
Spencer came to Baton Rouge from Southeastern Louisiana University, where he played last season. But first, he took a mini-tour of Mississippi, from his home in Hernando in the northern part of the state, south to Gulf Coast Community College, then back up north to Northwest Mississippi Community College.
And on Tuesday the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Spencer announced his commitment to his “dream school,” the University of Mississippi.
He’s a student of the game and wears each outing as it comes and wants to continue improving. As a closer, he knows he’ll experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows emotionally with his results. The last three outs are the toughest to get in baseball and he relishes that role.”
Coach Jeff “Rooster” Southall on Pitcher Connor Spencer
It’s been quite a journey.
Spencer was a pretty good athlete at Hernando High School, a starter finishing with a 1.43 ERA with 90 strikeouts and being named the team’s Most Valuable Pitcher - but he couldn’t tell you if he won any other accolades.
“I know I wasn’t invited to the state games,” he said. “It was high school and I enjoyed playing it, but travel ball is where I got the opportunity to go play college ball.”
He actually was spotted at a tournament at Tulane University.
“I hit a triple off the wall and I got recruited right after that game,” he said. “They handed me an offer right after the game.”
He signed with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community college, but most of his freshman season was wiped out by COVID. He only pitched in one game, recording one strikeout for one save. He also hit .306 with three home runs and nine RBIs.
While working out in the fall to prep for the 2021 season, Spencer tore his ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing arm and underwent Tommy John surgery in February. He decided to go home, transferring to Northwest Mississippi Community College, which is only about 20 minutes from his hometown.
“I wanted to rehab closer to home to be around my family,” he said. “I felt like that was really good for me, to be around my family during that time instead of being four and a half hours away.”
Healed and ready to return to the mound, Spencer was in his third year of college with two extra years of eligibility before he ever got to play.
“My third year of college was my first year of baseball,” he said. “It stinks because I’m 22 years old and I’m technically a sophomore on the field, but it is what it is. More baseball for me.”
As a redshirt sophomore at Northwest Mississippi CC he appeared in 18 games, all in relief, earning six saves, striking out 48 with a 2.60 ERA to earn All-Conference honors. Through his coach, Southeastern alum Domenick Carlini, Spencer found a pipeline to Southeastern Louisiana University, where he made 14 appearances, finishing with three saves, a 5.65 ERA and striking out 23.
While his season was “OK,” Spencer said he loved the Division I atmosphere – and even gets to say he pitched against the National Champion LSU Tigers (and gave up a home run to Tommy White).
“Playing at junior college, I think the biggest fan base we have is when everybody’s parents came to the game,” he said. “Going from that to having 2,000 people in the stands and having little kids run up to you after games and asking for autographs, stuff like that, it’s a huge change. It’s awesome. I feel like I have an impact, not only on the baseball field, but whenever I come off the field I know that I can make a little kid’s day and hopefully inspire him to work a little harder to play the game more just because I walk up to him a give him a little fist bump. It’s something I’ll never forget and I’m super duper eager to continue to do. I love feeling like I have that positive impact on somebody.”
When coach Matt Riser was released from SLU, Spencer decided he wanted to see what his options were. He put his name in the transfer portal just to see what would happen.
“I honestly had no idea I was going to get any kind of traction,” he said. “I started getting calls from these schools and it was like – you couldn’t have told me six months ago that I would be talking to all these SEC schools and all these different schools. I would have laughed in your face. I started to realize I could really be on this kind of stage next year.”
After much thought and a lot of back and forth, Spencer decided to change his hat to that of a Rebel at Ole Miss, the school he and his stepdad used to root for together.
“I feel like I did a good job of removing my emotions from the decision,” he said. “I tried to look at it as factual as possible. I looked at all my options and made sure everything was right and I wasn’t making just an emotional decision. I wanted to make sure I was going somewhere where I would get better, get the right kind of chance that I need. At the end of the day, that turned out to be Ole Miss and I’m extremely happy.”
But first he’s got to finish his Rougarou season.
“I’ve never really played on a team like this before,” Spencer said. “It’s a team where, it’s not all about me. It’s about the guy next to me and looking for ways to win as a team. It feels really good.”