Coaches Corner for May 22nd: Nic Mishler, DMACC Baseball

with us on coaches corner KWB G going to talk some DMACC baseball today. Nick Micheler joining us as the Bears had their season come to an end at the Region 11 tournament. And last time we talked to Nick, they were just finishing up after just a tremendous comeback victory over Northeast Nebraska. And coach, I guess we could just kind of go back from where we kind of left off. And Southeastern was your next opponent. And I'll tell you what, it was a heck of a ball game. I mean, I look back at this thing. You want to talk about, I hate to say heartbreaker, because any game that you lose is always a little bit of a heartbreaker. But man, you guys in Southeastern had a heck of a game over in Carroll. Yeah. Yeah, no, we had a heartbreaker because, I mean, so you were tied there in eighth and hadn't got two outs. And then they made it wrong. And they were a very good team that I remember this year. You know, it was one of those where it was a really good baseball game between two good teams, two tough teams that just were getting after it. And unfortunately, in those games, sometimes you're not the winner of it. And now that we're a few days away from that, it still sucks. But at the same time, I think I look back and appreciate the caliber of game that that was. And obviously, you just respect and appreciate how tough of a team Southeastern was. And they were able to execute a little bit better than we were at the end of that game. But I'm very proud of our guys and we're right there. Well, I want to just give a ton of kudos because after that type of a matchup, I always have a little bit of worry about that next one. And that has nothing to do with coaching staff, because I feel like you guys have one of the best staffs. No question to me that I've seen in quite a while. But I always worry how those kids come back. What do you do? You just lose a heartbreaker against the top seed. What do you do? You come back and you route Northeast Nebraska, coach. 14 to 4, you win that game. I mean, like I said, that's a game that you could have went into. And maybe you kind of mess around a little bit. And you finally get a win by a couple of runs or whatever. But boy, I don't know if you guys were mad or what it was for that nightcap. But they looked about as sharp as they looked all season. Yeah, no, and again, I think that's one thing. When you look at this year's group, I think most of our groups, but they embodies what it meant to be a bear. And they were resilient. And they wanted to keep playing together. You get into those elimination games. And they really boiled down like who wants to keep playing baseball together the longest, right? And they dug their heels in and let it rip. And that's exactly what I expected them to do, honestly. But you're right, you get done with an emotional loss like we just had and a frustrating one. And I thought, you know, I was just very pleased and impressed. And it was honestly just a fun game for me to sit back and watch those guys go out and compete and kind of just do their thing. And they were very good. And that game 7 gave us a chance to stick a lot, stay alive in that tournament, and not have to use a bunch of pitchers. Well, and then, I mean, I realize 25 runs in a game that there's some coaches that are probably going to go, man, I love those type of games. I love us to go out there and slug it around a little bit. Some coaches are going to go, that's a heck of a lot of runs. As long as I got at least one more, Mish, I don't care what happens. And that's exactly what happened in the Kirkwood win. Yeah, no, I mean, again, another really good game against a really good opponent. You know, we played Kirkwood at the end of the year and one game one. And they played great against us. But we were most concerned with making sure, at that point, our arms were healthy for that next week. And I told the guys, like, we lost the top one in game 3 of the regular season. I told, hey, as long as we do what we want to do and everyone feels good next week, it'll be a better feeling, right? And luckily, it ended up being that. And again, another hard-fought game between two good teams. And our guys just stayed resilient, stayed in there. A lot of credit to Kirkwood. We had them down pretty big early. And they fought back and took the lead. And our guys just didn't plunge, man. They just kept going. And again, that was a good game. But we executed a little bit more at the end of the game than they did and found a way to get a win there. And Andrew Tyson was awesome at the end of the game. And Nolan Gala had a huge game. Trey Frank had a huge game. And so on and so forth. I mean, guys just kept stepping up. And PlayCrancer made some really good defensive plays and just had a great game for us. We had a great week all together. So it was a really fun game. Nick, five runs in the last two innings, though, or last three innings, I guess I should say. You want to talk about never say die. I mean, you're down to your final three. And this group wanted to play another day. That's right. Yeah, that's right. And I think, and I don't want to speak for other people. But I think one thing people would say about our program over the last few years is that we are a really tough team to get out of there. And people do get us. We've only won it once since I've been here. It is a really tough tournament. But our guys don't quit. They played till the last outs made. That's something we talk about here. It's something our guys take a lot of pride in. And even in the last game, and not to jump ahead on it. But I was central, obviously, at a really good team. They're at the World Series. And I fully expect them to make a big run and have a chance at learning that thing. They got us in that last game. But for our guys to sit around and wait for their game with something that used to make it done and all that, they followed crazy. And honestly, we hit a lot of balls hard that just were at people. And they just exited better and hit them where we weren't and hit the ball at a sense a few more times than we did that game. But I was very pleased with how our guys competed. They didn't give anything away, not even till the last out. And made them earn everything. So that's something that I know this group will hang their hat on. And it will serve them extremely well moving forward as they move on to schools. And so they're four-year schools. And the freshmen coming back all of that. I was going to say, Nick, I know that we never prepare the final game, the final out, the final, whatever you want to say, final conversation out in the outfield with our group after a tough loss like that to Iowa Central. What did the guys kind of talk about? What was that like, that last conversation? You know, that last conversation, and I told them, I actually told them out of fear, like it sucks whether it's here or in Enid at the World Series. It's obviously a little bit better when it's at the World Series because he made it there. But at some point, whether you win the last game of the year, don't yet have that conversation. And it's a tough one. And as a coach, you got to talk and share your message. The players are usually, all of us are tore up, but there's not usually a whole lot of talking outside of a lot of gratitude for each other and thanking the sophomores and all that stuff. But I tell them, if it doesn't hurt on the last game, we're not doing it right. And when you spend every day as coaches, but teammates, especially at DMACC, the way our guys all live in the same apartment complex, they're with each other every day. And when you care and you have a group of guys that are fighting for a common goal, it's hard at the end of the year when that comes to an end. And they realize, OK, this group no longer is a thing, right? Like, they always will be as they move forward in life and all that. But as far as a baseball team, that's no longer a thing. And that's tough. But it's also what's beautiful about DMACC. They all came here to leave. And I think it's a cool thing that those guys want to be here still, even though their time's up. And now the cool thing is, we get to go watch those guys play in conference tournaments and regionals. Super regionals and World Series, hopefully, like we're doing with guys currently at the D1, D2, NEI level. So I think it's a really cool thing that junior college offers guys. And just to see where guys, you know, you can kind of reflect and see where they were when they got here versus where they are now. And just the strides they've made from a baseball standpoint, but even more importantly, from a human standpoint and how much they've grown and all that stuff. So now they're a really, really good group of DMACC bears that we're very proud of. Nick, I don't know how you have enough screens to watch all these past bears and playing. I mean, you told me we're at 23 or so that we're playing, right? 23 at the D1 level. And another, I think it's like another 12 or 13 between D2 and NEI schools, yeah. How do you have enough screens? You know what, we got two in the living room, got your phone, you got your laptop. Technology these days, you can flip back and forth pretty quick. But it's hard to keep up. And luckily, my assistant Chase Brundage, he's on top of it, that he's the one that like, I mean, you can't speak anything by him, but it's pretty cool. I mean, we got a lot of guys out there, they're not just on this team, they're impacting those programs. And I'm very, very proud of all those guys. Yeah, very, very cool. Nick, we'll wrap up this season with you in a couple of weeks. Thanks for looking back at the Region 11 with us. You bet, thank you. You bet, Nick Micheler again joining us. DMACC Baseball here on Coaches Corner.