Baseball: Lyons’ Wyatt Waters is the Longmont Times-Call baseball player of the year

Wyatt Waters doesn’t rely on a devastating fastball on the mound. Frankly, because he doesn’t have one.

The Lyons grad knows as more skilled hitters await him in college ball, it’ll be important to give a jump to a fastball currently peaking in the low 80s. It’s just not everything.

In the spring of 2024, Waters was more Greg Maddux-pacing than Nolan Ryan’s heat, as he buckled knees and tossed even the most disciplined hitters out of whack. His 130 strikeouts were tied for the most in the state, while his sub-3 ERA across 80 innings helped lead the Lions to the final weekend in Class 2A baseball.

Next, he dreams what could be with a little more juice to that right arm.

“I think my biggest strength is that I go up there and attack batters. I throw strikes,” the Longmont Times-Call baseball player of the year said while on vacation in Canada this week. “If I could be throwing harder, I think I’d be extremely dominant in college as well.”

Waters said he’s continued to get stronger throughout high school, putting on 20-25 pounds since August, now just a few months ahead of his debut at the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, Missouri.

But arm strength is not what’s got him here.

“I watch a ton of baseball,” Waters said. Old videos of pitchers, noting their sequences, he also studies each of his next opponents and their batting metrics. “I’m obsessed with it.”

Waters’ coach at Lyons, Kale Olson, raves about it, explaining how it led the Lions to what he believed to be their second 2A baseball Final Four in school history.

“He has all these different pitches and is just very studious. He calls his own pitches and he’ll make minor adjustments to those mechanics and all that stuff,” said Olson, who then chuckles. “It’s just so fun to see somebody who’s more nerdy about baseball than I am.”

Maybe the best moment in Waters’ career also happened to be the most surprising performance in the 2A playoffs this season. He shut down then-undefeated, top-ranked Limon on the first weekend of the double elimination tournament. Tossing 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball against an offense averaging 12 runs through its first 25 games of the year, the Lions won, 5-1.

Limon did get the better of Lyons and Waters the second time, eventually knocking them out a week later and a game before the finals.

Even so, Waters’ stellar postseason — which included eight hits and 10 RBIs across two regional games and four more in the tourney —  capped off the Lions’ fourth straight winning season and perhaps their most successful four-year tenure in program history (at least in recent memory).

“Basically, the whole program is built on his shoulders, his leadership,” Olson said. “I mean, it’s been since his freshman year, really. He wasn’t necessarily a vocal leader then, but he lives and breathes baseball, and understands what it takes to be successful at a high level. He sets the tone.”

Waters finished high school with 15 wins and 334 strikeouts to punctuate a 3.34 career ERA on the mound. At the plate, he hit over .350 in each of his last three seasons and had a team-most 27 RBIs in 2024.

At year’s end, he was named to 2A’s first team by the Colorado High School Activities Association.