Facing the prospect of losing their best three hitters after a back and forth 2021 season, Indiana baseball needed to recruit some new batters.
Unable to scout talent due to travel restrictions posed by COVID-19, recruiting coordinator Derek Simmons went back to a spot he knew well, calling David Shelton, the head coach of the baseball team at Walters State Community College.
Simmons asked if Shelton had any catchers that were ready to make the jump, and was pointed in the direction of Matthew Ellis, a redshirt-sophomore catcher.
“Alright Ellis, get ready to throw down to second,” Shelton yelled during the middle of a practice.
Shelton took a video of Ellis catching and throwing to give Simmons an idea of what he looked like unedited.
The unorthodox scouting methods were just one solution to the travel restrictions posed by COVID.
Matthew Ellis offers his perspective on the way assistant coach Derek Simmons scouted him during his time at Walters State.
Ellis’ transfer from Walter State to IU was not his first in his college baseball career. Ellis started out at the University of Tennessee, where he redshirted his freshman year. After he made the decision not to return for a second year, Shelton had a leg up.
“We had recruited Matthew out of high school before we committed to Tennessee,” Shelton said. “I thought we were really close to getting him.”
Stepping down from Division One to Community College allowed for Ellis to work on some of the issues that came up during his freshman year.
“He was a little rough around the edges entering college,” Shelton said. “He had to get a little better defensively from a catching standpoint.”
At Walters State, that platform was provided, and Ellis took full advantage.
Walters State head coach David Shelton provides insight into the improvements made by Matthew Ellis.
Ellis talks fondly about memories growing up with his dad, a former college baseball player himself at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. A homemade batting cage in a barn would be the early practice for Ellis.
“He just kind of took everything he knew and applied it to me,” Ellis said.
His dad instilled hard work, discipline, and didn’t let up in one-on-one games, even when Ellis was young.
Matthew Ellis speaks about playing sports against his dad.
Ellis came into Walters State and appeared in 22 games during his first year, hitting four home runs. It would be in his second year that he would begin to catch fire, nearly tripling his appearances with 65 games played, 17 home runs hit, and 62 runs batted in.
After his second year at Walters State, and his third year in college baseball, Ellis made his second transfer, moving back to Division I at Indiana.
In a year of inconsistent pitching for the 13-18 Hoosiers, Ellis has proven to be a bright spot on the hitting, leading the Big Ten in home runs (12) and sitting in fourth in runs batted in (36) during the young Big Ten season.
A rocky non-conference schedule makes way for a new season, and the fresh chance to compete for hardware.
“We definitely have the talent, we definitely have the team, the coaches, we have everything to win the Big Ten,” Ellis said. “It’s all right in front of us.”
