Coaches Corner for June 5th: Nic Mishler, DMACC Baseball

With us on coaches corner KWBG, get a chance to put a wrap on the DMACC baseball season. Bears with another very successful year, 33 and 25, finished up the season, 18 and 9 in conference. And I know I always joke with Nick about this off air, so I'm going to do it on air now. Coach, you go after some of the toughest schedules I've ever seen. And I know that's by design because it gets you ready for the Region XI tournament. Do you have to remind the guys or do they kind of know coming to DMACC? That's just what we're going to do. No, they know that's part of it. And I've mentioned it on here before. But for all of our guys, they come to DMACC to leave, right? And so preparing ourselves for winning time at the end of the year is extremely important. But the most important thing for me is our job here at DMACC to prepare these guys for when they move on to the four-year level, not just in baseball but in life and all those things. But I think in order to do that, we have to go play really good teams so that they're preparing themselves to face high-level Division I pitching or four-year college pitching that's going to have a bunch of older guys. And so it's important for us that we go play a tough schedule. We played the eighth toughest schedule in the country based on the ratings. And it's something I think our guys are proud of. It's something that they embrace and that they want. And they know that's part of their development. Their development while they're here is playing good teams. And I felt like by the end of the year, we were playing our best brand of baseball. And I don't know that that happens if we don't play as tough a schedule as we did. And of course, early on, we had some injuries, too. That made those tough games even tougher. But I think you could definitely see by the end of the year we were seeing that that was battle-tested like normal. Well, Nick, you guys battled through a bunch of one-run games, too. And I know it's probably tough to remember way back in February. But that's why you got me here to help you out with that, Mish. But what I'm saying is you guys had a bunch of one-run games that I feel like even though they didn't always kind of end up in D-Max's favor, if there's a reason you guys went on the streak you did in April, I kind of feel like February had something to do with it. Yeah, no, I agree completely. And I think that's something, too, as you work through the season. And I'm telling the guys, like, hey, we do need to learn how to finish these games and win these games. I mean, there was really not many games that we weren't in to the last inning. And a lot of times, and listen, you're the way team on all those trips down south. And a lot of times in that last inning, we had to go ahead or tie and run or whatever to the dish or in on deck, whatever it was. So I love that about this year's group. And quite honestly, that's all the groups we have. I mean, there's just no fight we're going to play until the last outs made. I think that's just part of being a D-Max bear. And I'm very proud of our guys this year. And the guys that we've had previously that have kind of set that standard and tradition of, like, hey, we're the gritty bears. Like, we're going to play hard all the time. And we're going to finish games. And to beat us, you're going to have to do it for all seven innings or all nine innings. And I thought this group resembled that as well. Nick, I know this is going to be captain obvious, but I always like to get coach's takes on this. What's it like walking to a ballpark in the middle of an 11 game winning streak? What's that feeling like? Tell me what it's like. I mean, is that the easiest to put on the uniform every single day that you've ever had? Well, you know, probably not going to give you the answer you think. I mean, obviously it feels good, but at the same time, like, I've done this long enough now to know that the 11 game winning streak can turn into losing streak pretty fast if you let your guard down, right? And it's like, for me, I don't want to say I'm ever comfortable. Partially, I just know I'm not my best when I'm comfortable. But in college baseball, things can flip on their head pretty fast. So obviously it feels good, definitely better than the 11 game losing streak. But we try not to get too high or too low and just truly be present on the game game at hand. That's something we talk about with our guys all the time. And it's a sprint in college baseball. You play that many games in a short amount of time. And it seems like you blink your eyes and the season's over. You're exhausted by the end of it. But I think if you start worrying about what you've done in the past, you're setting yourself up to really struggle in the future. And so truly, my assistants tell me all the time, records and these things. And I truly don't know, because I'm just trying to be really present on what's going on today. Doesn't shock me. This doesn't shock me, Nick, that you would say. That's not even a little bit. Hey, sophomore class, I know this was a group that you were so excited about as they were freshmen last year and they were getting ready to be sophomores. How are you going to remember this group, do you think? Yeah, I mean, again, it was another phenomenal group. I'm really excited to watch them move on and go do really great things at the next school they're going to. But I'll remember this group as another group of bears that helped move the program forward and left the program in a better spot than they found it. And they jumped in and bought into what we're doing. Honestly, to a guy from day one as freshmen and were great leaders for our team this year as sophomores. So super thankful for all of them. And we fell short of our goal, obviously, as a group. But they were a really good team. And like I said, very proud of how hard they fought and what they did accomplish as a group. Freshman group now is the next man in. I mean, I just feel like, especially at Juco, it's always next man up. Here we go. What are you going to do in the off season? What are you going to do to get better by the time I see you guys again in July and August? What about this freshman group? What's the ceiling here as you look at them? Yeah, I mean, quite honestly, I mean, as far as freshmen and freshman groups go, I mean, this might be one of the most impressive freshmen groups we've had now, looking back at statistically, both on the mound and offensively. I mean, we had some guys put up numbers as freshmen that I don't think we really had in a while, since Reed Stallman and Austin Merr and a couple other guys mixed in there. But to have some of the freshmen seeds that we had this year are exciting. And obviously, the message to them, just like it is, every year you don't make it to the World Series is like, hey, we had a good team this year, but this team didn't accomplish what we wanted to. And so, you know, I know they're motivated, they're hungry to come back and to get back to work. And so, you know, it's cool when you go through your exit meetings and you have guys that have just played 56 games and they're saying like, hey, like, I wish we could just get back to work today. You know, I mean, that was a pretty common thing for most of those guys. And so, I'm excited and really excited about them, you know, returning and like I said, I think we're gonna have really good depth from a returning class on the mound and positionally. And then I really like the guys that we have coming in and, you know, the freshmen class and the transfer here and there. So, I'm very excited about next year and the, you know, the talent in junior college baseball is the best that's been in a long time, just because of how backed up things are at the division one level. And, you know, I'm excited. I think we have a really good class of returners and some really talented freshmen and transfers coming in and, you know, you know, me, I've been ready, you know, itching to get back out of here. And we're two weeks, three weeks since the season's been over and I'm ready to go. So, now we've got some recruiting to do and, you know, we've been able to watch a lot of former Bears. We had eight former Bears and regionals last week and we got four and super regionals this weekend. So, those guys are keeping me busy, I guess, watching them. So, that's a good thing too. You love it though. You love watching TV, a tablet, your phone, pull up an old laptop, whatever you can do if you have to watch. I know you love that. There's been a lot of, you know, sitting at high school games with my AirPods and listening to, you know, Cressor or Reed or whoever and name XYZ of those eight guys playing in regionals this last week, listening and trying to follow along there while high school games are going on. So, it's been good. I don't know how your battery works, but I'm impressed. It's not much life left. I guarantee it. Nick, thank you so much for a fun spring. It's always fun talking baseball with you. I feel like we always talk about other things too when it comes to DMACC, but it's such a blast. And so, we're gonna give you a little bit of time off from this and we'll check back in with you coming up next spring. Awesome, sounds good. Thank you. You bet. Nick Micheler again joining us. DMACC Baseball here on Coaches Corner.