Glacier first baseman Wofford kicks HR swing into gear

The first thing you might notice about Brody Wofford, the Glacier Range Riders first baseman, is the flow.

He’s had the look a long time: At LSU, at Central Florida, at Georgia Gwinnett and now, Flathead Field.

“Long hair, don’t care,” Wofford said. “But if I had one more bad week, I might have cut it.”

The other thing you should notice — that opposing Pioneer League clubs should notice — is how well the 6-foot-2 lefty has been swinging the bat of late. In his last six games has six home runs and 12 runs batted in. His little burst of .462 hitting has raised his season batting average to .274.

The “fix,” if you want to call it that, was simple.

“I was hitting with Stu Pederson,” said Wofford, referring to the Range Riders’ bench coach. “We were working on my direction, and really just working on getting a little bit higher of a leg kick, so I could read the ball as it comes in.”

He read the ball well enough for two home runs on July 28. Then came a grand slam the next day; he hit another slam at Billings on Thursday — part of his second two-homer game in seven days.

He ticked through the pitches he barreled out in July: Heater, cutter, cutter, heater. The timing mechanism has him hitting just about everything.

“That really made the difference,” Wofford said. “I was really just spinning off balls. I was going forward really early and it was making me feel like I had to swing, every time. I wasn’t reading spin good, I just wasn’t seeing pitches. I was just swinging to swing.”

“He could always hit,” Glacier manager Nick Hogan noted. “He’s hit everywhere he’s been. Stu’s been great at making minor adjustments with guys, like, ‘Hey here’s how you can do things a little better.’ And it worked, obviously.”

Wofford is 25 and in his third professional season. Following a peripatetic college career that started at Louisiana State, included a 2017 Junior College World Series title with Chipola (he homered in the final game) and a NAIA World Series appearance with Gwinnett in 2019, he landed in Lake Erie of the Frontier League. He played there in 2019 and 2021, and was headed there this year as well.

“When I called him early on, he was already signed with Lake Erie,” Hogan said. “Then in. January or December, I got a call from (Lake Erie manager) Cam Roth, who I played against – I was at Georgia State and he was at UNC-Wilmington – and we kind of put 2 and 2 together.”

Roth had another veteran first baseman coming in, and soon learned of Wofford’s contact with Hogan.

Now Wofford is one of the constants for the Range Riders, who’ve undergone many roster changes since May. Wofford, Brandt Broussard, Ben McConnell, Dean Miller and Ryan Cash are the position players who’ve suited up all season.

“The originals,” Hogan said. “Dean, Brody, Nash, Broussard, are all taking leadership in this. And when it’s not going well, they’re stepping up and being a voice, and getting it done when they need to get it done.”

Wofford took another look at Flathead Field and said very few places compare.

“A couple SEC parks, maybe,” he said. “This by far is the best yard I’ve ever played in.”

The wins have been tough to come at the picturesque park. But the Thursday win showed how good it can get: The Riders trailed 8-3 and surged back to win 12-8.

Wofford’s seven RBIs had a lot to do with it, obviously, and momentum can be a fickle thing. But comebacks look nice in the library.

“I think we can flip it on its head,” Wofford said last Sunday. “Finish the week out strong, have a good second week and just stack some wins.”