Behind the scenes, he’s a calm presence in the clubhouse, a menace on the mound and arguably the most crucial player to the Bradley baseball team this year. To casual fans watching, he’s the guy with the long hair.
“He” is the Braves’ graduate closer, Connor Langrell, also known as “La Flama Blanca”.
“It’s gotten me a few nicknames,” Langrell laughed, referring to his long hair, which he decided to grow out along with a previous teammate many months ago.
The nickname given to Langrell by his fellow Braves is inspired by the sitcom “Eastbound and Down.” In the show, pitcher Kenny Powers goes to Mexico in order to chase his dream of playing in Major League Baseball after his flamboyant behavior derails his initial chance at doing so. While south of the border, Powers is reborn into a new identity after he’s given a white dress shirt with “Flama Blanca”, translating to “white flame”, woven on the back collar of it with a white cowboy hat and white pants.
Langrell was given the nickname because of his similar hairstyle to Powers in the series.
In the same way – questionable behavior aside – Langrell has been a changed man on the mound and if long hair is any indicator of success, then he’s been Samson for Bradley. Standing at 6-foot-4 and donning number 37, the graduate transfer from Division II Newman University has established himself as an unstoppable force in the bullpen for Bradley’s first 24 games of the season.
Desperately needing a steadying anchor and a pitcher they can count on in the ninth inning, the Braves have found exactly what they were looking for in Langrell, who has not allowed a single run to cross the plate in his 10 appearances this year.
“Because of the transfer portal now, it’s a lot easier to say, well, ‘We need somebody that fits this role’; we don’t have to bring in a high school kid and develop them there,” Bradley head coach Elvis Dominguez said. “Trying to find it is the needle in the haystack. But if you do find it, then you definitely got something there.”
The Bradley coaching staff, specifically pitching coach Andrew Werner, broke out the magnifying glass to discover Langrell, who’s career numbers looked fairly pedestrian in his years at the Division II level. In 82 career innings with the Newman Jets, Langrell posted a 6.37 ERA and hitters were batting .305 against him but the Braves saw his talent and have not regretted their choice.
“Yeah, I’ll be honest, he’s come in and fit in right away and [has] just been carrying the load for us on the back end,” Dominguez said. “I mean, he’s seven for seven [and has] a chance to break the all-time saves record [for a season] here at Bradley.”
On the road again
Langrell had been no stranger to moving. Before he began college, he had already lived in Nevada, Nebraska and New Mexico due to his father’s job as a newspaper publisher. Langrell was a three-sport athlete as a youngster, but ultimately elected to play baseball instead of basketball or football.
“I just wasn’t as good at them and I really didn’t have as much fun as just playing baseball,” Langrell said.
Bradley’s now-closer took a road less traveled nowadays in high school. Travel baseball wasn’t a part of his equation and the only times he took the diamond were for the Clovis High School (NM) Wildcats. However, his door to the college level opened thanks to his high school battery mate.
“So when I was a senior in high school, one of my catchers actually went up to Newman and he worked out,” Langrell said. “Then they said ‘You like got anybody else that you think could possibly play?’ He told them my name then we exchanged information.”
A week later, Newman gave him an offer to play and not long afterward, Langrell committed to the school in Wichita, Kansas that has an enrollment of just over 2,000.
In his first collegiate season, Langrell played both as an infielder and a pitcher before new head coach Zach Maus took over and ultimately put Langrell on what ended up being the right path of solely being a pitcher. In late March of 2022, his pitching turned a corner by picking up five consecutive saves, all of them being scoreless innings. Little did he know that he was paving a pathway to the next level.
“Last year, we only had about six arms; we really needed somebody on the back end of our bullpen,” Dominguez said. “[Langrell] was graduating and so we kept tabs on him throughout the season.”
“I mean, it was just getting more consistent because especially with the Division II schedule, you play some midweek [games] but it’s mostly weekend series, so [you’re] kind of just getting ready for the weekend,” Langrell said about the late portion of his senior campaign. “So it was just getting used to what was working, what was not working and then just putting it all together.”
Werner, a Division II pitcher during his college years at Indianapolis University, ultimately helped sell Bradley to Langrell and the rest was history.
Since coming to Peoria, Langrell has gone a perfect seven-for-seven in saves, currently good for a tie for third-most in all of Division I. However, getting to that point requires repeatedly taking on one of the mentally-taxing situations that one could be in.
Life on “the loneliest place in sports”
Lockdown closers in baseball are essential for any team to be successful. When the game is on the line or with a narrow lead in the ninth inning or later, even giving up just one run can derail hopes of a win.
“I feel like the pitching mound is basically the loneliest place in sports,” Langrell said. “No one can do anything about it but you. You kind of have to just figure it out, even when you don’t have exactly what you want that day.”
The life of a reliever means never knowing if you’re going to take the mound or not before the game. There’s also not much time to mull over the mental taxation that a blown save takes on a closer, especially at the college level where games frequently are played less than 24 hours apart from each other.
“You have to be where your feet are because you, today, could blow a save, but you have to be able to let it go,” Dominguez said. “[You need a] very short memory and you can’t get too up or too down, you have to be almost like a steady presence out there and have that presence all the time because you can blow the save today and tomorrow, you might pick up and be back in the same situation and be able to put it together. It’s just one of those where you can’t rest on your laurels a lot.”
Langrell deals with high-pressure situations well, especially after recording 10 saves as Newman’s closer last year. Recently, he’s shut the door in tense one-run games against Missouri Valley Conference foes Murray State and conference leader Southern Illinois.
“I kind of just try and keep my heart rate the same the whole time and just take it pitch by pitch,” Langrell said. “Yeah, it sounds kind of weird to think about but like, I kind of just try and focus in as much as I can but not trying to over focus myself.”
His role is simple: Bradley typically won’t call on “La Flama Blanca” unless they are ahead going into the bottom of the ninth. That also requires the pitchers in front of him doing their jobs. The Braves have found reliable help in order to help Langrell come in for save situations with fellow bullpen newcomers Noah Edders, Anthony Potthoff and Jacob Norris.
“I’ve always liked the thought of being closer and it’s honest, it’s a really fun role, but it’s also a tough role because you have to trust everyone in front of you to do their job,” Langrell said.
Langrell + Langrell = La Flama Blanca
While being a closer seems complicated, everything about Langrell seems to say otherwise. His pitching repertoire mainly consists of just a fastball and a decimating curveball, both of which have been effective at striking batters out this year. His 20 strikeouts in nearly 12 innings seem to suggest he goes for the jugular in each at-bat, but Langrell’s philosophy is to mix his heat and finesse.
“It might sound like you’re being a little bit more aggressive [getting strikeouts], but you’re kind of just picking around the corners like trying to shy away from contact,” Langrell said.
The duality of Bradley’s door-shutter doesn’t stop there. Connor Langrell when he shows up to the ballpark is vastly the opposite than Connor Langrell when he’s on the mound.
“He just has that presence about him, like, ‘Yeah, I’m here, I may pitch today, I may not pitch today. If I’m called on, I’m ready to go,’ Dominguez said. “So he’s kind of a very loose, even-keel kind of easy going guy.”
“Then he becomes this other person, and takes on this other persona, in a sense,” Dominguez added. “When the lights are on, he’s definitely changed.”
Despite the changes in residence, positions on the field and colleges, Langrell hopes that the only change in him this season is in his luscious locks, which will be chopped off in the near future when the Braves shave their heads for their annual fundraiser against cancer for St. Jude.
With the Braves sitting in the middle of the pack in the MVC as they enter the meat of their conference schedule, they should be set up well as long as Langrell’s performance does not change.
“It just takes a special human being to be able to do that, but the only way you acquire that is by being in that situation over and over and over and over and over again,” Dominguez said. “And throughout his career, he’s been there.”
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