It’s no dream as Thomas named BWC’s top freshman pitcher

With poetic justice, University of Hawaii pitcher Dylan Thomas woke up to a dream.

Thomas was awakened from Wednesday’s nap to learn he had been named the Big West Conference’s freshman pitcher of the year.

“It’s a huge honor to wake up to that,” said Thomas, who was 9-for-9 in save opportunities this baseball season. “It feels great, honestly. I have no words to express it except ‘thankfulness.’ Everyone has been huge in my life to get me to where I am right now.”

UH starting pitcher Brendan Hornung and third baseman Josh Rojas were named to the All-Big West second team. Thomas, set-up reliever Casey Ryan, center fielder Dylan Vchulek and outfielder/first baseman Adam Fogel received honorable mention.

“I was hoping a couple guys would be on the first team, but I’m happy for all our guys,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “All the guys deserve all the credit.”

It was a remarkable ascent for Thomas, who redshirted in 2016 after struggling to command pitches during scrimmages and practices.

“He just wasn’t ready to go (in 2016),” Trapasso said.

Through high school, Thomas complemented a fastball with a forkball. But despite manual exercises — he would try to grip a water bottle with his right index and middle fingers during UH classes — the forkball proved to be too fickle. He spent his redshirt year perfecting a slider, his new out pitch, and operating the scoreboard during Sunday games at Les Murakami Stadium.

Despite periodic back issues that required frequent treatments, Thomas emerged as a reliable closer for the ’Bows. He had a 2.01 earned-run average.

“His command issue (in 2016) was one of the reasons we redshirted him last year,” Trapasso said. “To go from one extreme to the other was pretty impressive.”

Thomas conceded his approach in 2016 “was not the same as it is this year. I was a little softer. If people got hits off of me (in 2016) I would almost cave and get flustered. I would throw balls and walk guys. I wasn’t this dominant when I was on the mound, which I tried to work on this year because I knew I needed it at this level.”

Thomas, who was raised in small town outside of Los Angeles, loved to hunt and fish until baseball became his passion in middle school. His father built a mound on the front lawn, and served as catcher until suffering a broken thumb from a Thomas fastball. Thomas seized every opportunity to throw. “My favorite was the dunk tanks (at fairs),” he said. “I could always get it the first try.”

Also automatic was the first-day-of-school reminders that he shared the same name as a famed Welsh poet.

“Growing up, every single English teacher I had, the first day of roll call: ‘Dylan Thomas? Oh, do you know you were named after the famous poet?’” Thomas recalled. “I have a couple of his books. I haven’t read too much of it. It’s a little dark and deep for me.”

His first name is derived from the Welsh phrase “hero of the tide.”

“Yep,” Thomas said, “I guess it’s only fitting I ended up in Hawaii.”