Summer team helps land Wulfers at Missouri

The Notre Dame graduate caught the eyes of several colleges while playing for Midwest Prospects.

By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian

Playing with the Midwest Prospects, a select summer baseball team based out of St. Louis, has paid major dividends for recent Notre Dame High School graduate Matt Wulfers.

Wulfers, who was lightly recruited following a standout career with the Bulldogs, has opened plenty of eyes through his play with the Midwest Prospects -- and earlier this week he signed a letter of intent with the University of Missouri.

"I'm very excited," Wulfers said. "When I got invited to play for this team it was a big honor, and I really hoped it would help open some doors for me as far as playing Division I baseball.

"It's been all I imagined and more. I couldn't have imagined it working out like this. After my high school season this year, the most I got was an offer from Jefferson College. This has really helped me get a lot of opportunities."

Wulfers also received interest from several other Division I programs -- including perennial national power LSU -- but he said he felt most comfortable with Missouri, which has received NCAA regional bids the past two seasons.

"I just felt like the whole time that was the place I should go," said Wulfers, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound outfielder. "It's a top notch baseball school and a great academic school. It's the whole deal."

Wulfers, also an academic standout who said he might want to become an orthopedic surgeon -- his father is a family physician in Cape Girardeau -- is batting .351 as the starting right fielder for a Midwest Prospects team that plays a national-type schedule against some of the top players in the country.

The Midwest Prospects -- which last year featured Sikeston's Blake DeWitt, who was a first-round selection in last month's amateur draft -- are 29-7 as they finish up their regular season this week with a tournament in Wichita, Kan. Next week they'll compete in the United State Super Series Nationals in Nashville, Tenn.

"There are so many great players on this team. Three are headed to Missouri and three have signed with Arkansas," Wulfers said. "And we face so many great players. During a tournament in Memphis, we played against Doug Drabek's son, who will be junior in high school. Not one of his fastballs was below 91 miles per hour and he topped out at 96."

Drabek is a former major league pitcher.

Wulfers, who batted .479 for Notre Dame during his senior season this year, is already looking forward to his freshman campaign at Missouri.

"I'm just going to go in there and play as hard as I can, and hopefully I can get some playing time right away," he said. "I'm just really excited."