Chesterton alum Peterson shining at UConn; others making D-I impact outside Indiana

BY STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Friday night starter Austin Peterson has been sitting batters down at a consistent pace so far in 2022.
The 6-foot-6 senior right-handed pitcher has made four starts for the University of Connecticut and was 2-0 with 44 strikeouts and five walks in 24 2/3 innings heading into the Week of March 14-20.
A 2018 Chesterton (Ind.) High School graduate, Peterson played at Purdue and Wabash Valley College before winding up at UConn.
Peterson is more than one of 120 players from Indiana high schools (or hometowns) on NCAA Division I rosters outside the state. Many are key contributors.
Freshman right-hander Casey Sorg (Floyd Central) sported a 1.59 ERA in five mound appearances for Bellarmine, a squad with nine Indiana products on a team led by Jeffersonville alum Larry Owens.
Sophomore outfielder Carson Husmann (South Central of Union Mills) was hitting .318 with two home runs and 11 runs batted in for Bradley.
Senior outfielder Damon Lux (Shelbyville) had driven in 12 runs for Duke.
Redshirt junior right-hander Blake Malatestnic (Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter) was 3-0 with a 2.82 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings for Eastern Illinois.
Sophomore second baseman Tim Borden II (Providence) was hitting .316 with four homers and 11 RBIs for Georgia Tech.
Freshman outfielder Jared Comia (Hanover Central) was hitting .283 with two homers and eight RBIs for Illinois.
Redshirt senior catcher/first baseman Nolan Metcalf (Penn) was hitting .306 with nine RBIs for Kansas.
Senior right-hander Jack Myers (Indianapolis Cathedral) had 16 strikeouts in 19 innings for Kennesaw State.
Sophomore left-hander Michael Dunkelberger (South Bend Saint Joseph) was 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA for Lipscomb.
Senior right-hander Jared Poland (Indianapolis Cathedral) was 1-1 with 1.38 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 13 innings for Louisville.
Redshirt sophomore J.J. Woolwine (Fishers) was hitting .439 with one homer and eight RBIs and freshman right-hander Luke Leverton (Seton Catholic) was 1-0 with 1.00 ERA and nine strikeouts in innings for Miami (Ohio).
Senior shortstop Riley Bertram (ZIonsville Community) was hitting .293 with one homer and 11 RBIs for Michigan.
Sophomore outfielder Roman Kuntz (New Prairie) was hitting .370 with three homers and 10 RBIs for Morehead State.
Freshman right-hander Landon Kruer (Providence) was 1-0 with 1.59 ERA for Navy.
Redshirt junior outfielder Trevyn Moss (Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran) was hitting .274 with one homer, one triple and 14 RBIs for Northern Kentucky.
Redshirt junior shortstop Xavier Haendiges (Salem) was hitting .353 for Ohio.
Junior right-hander Bayden Root (Kokomo) was 1.0 with a 2.61 ERA in six appearances for Oklahoma State.
Senior right-hander Cameron Pferrer (Carmel) was 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings for Saint Louis.
Freshman Nick Mitchell (Carmel) was hitting .357 with eight RBIs for Western Illinois.
Junior infielder/outfielder Matthew Meyer (Westfield) was hitting .260 with one homer and 11 RBIs for Western Kentucky.
Senior outfielder Ryan Missal (Lowell) was hitting .257 with four homers and 11 RBIs for Western Michigan.
Sophomore first baseman Julian Greenwell (Columbus East) was hitting .310 with one homer and nine RBIs.
There’s several more coaches with Indiana prep roots — head coach Billy Gernon (New Albany) and associate head coach Adam Piotrowicz (John Glenn) at Western Michigan, head coach Eric Wedge (Fort Wayne Northrop) at Wichita State and assistants Jared Broughton (Indianapolis Lutheran) at Clemson, Nick McIntyre (McCutcheon) at Toledo, Justin Parker (Fort Wayne Wayne) at South Carolina, Matt Reida (Western) at Alabama and Bobby Rinard (Mishwawaka Marian) at Dixie State.

INDIANA D-I PLAYERS OUTSIDE STATE
2022
Alabama
So. IF Bryce Eblin (Center Grove)
Volunteer Assistant Coach Matt Reida (Western)

Alabama State
Fr. RHP/IF Kyler McIntosh (Columbus North)

Bellarmine
Jr. RHP/IF Drew Buhr (Austin)
Sr. RHP Jon Cato (Floyd Central)
Sr. RHP/DH Ethan English (Jeffersonville)
So. RHP Cody Medley (New Albany)
Fr. RHP/IF Casey Sorg (Floyd Central)
Jr. RHP Adam Spalding (Floyd Central)
Jr.. LHP Steven Thom (New Albany)
Redshirt Fr. 3B Webster Walls (Clarksville)
Jr. RHP Joe Wilkinson (Providence)
Head Coach Larry Owens (Jeffersonville)

Belmont
Graduate Student RHP Dusty Baird (Perry Meridian)
So. IF Brodey Heaton (Castle)

Bradley
So. OF Carson Husmann (South Central of Union Mills)

Campbell
Redshirt So. UT Jack Ellis (Jeffersonville)

Cincinnati
So. RHP Max Bergmann (Hometown — Georgetown, Ind. — St. Xavier, Ky HS)
So. RHP Aiden Bradbury (Carmel)
So. RHP Jose Guzman (Ben Davis)
Fr. RHP Garrett Harker (Lebanon)
Redshirt Fr. IF Kerrington Cross (Brownsburg)
Fr. RHP Blake Lemmon (Chesterton)
So. LHP Conner Linn (Western)
Fr. LHP Andrew Neff (Mooresville)
Fr. LHP Tommy O’Connor (Mooresville)

Clemson
Redshirt Fr. OF/C Patrick Farrissee (South Bend Saint Joseph)
Volunteer Assistant Coach Jared Broughton (Indianapolis Lutheran)

Connecticut
Sr. RHP Austin Peterson (Chesterton)

Dallas Baptist
So. RHP Jacob Young (Bloomington South)

Dartmouth
So. RHP Shane Bauer (Brebeuf Jesuit)

Dayton
So. RHP Parker Bard (Westfield)
Redshirt Fr. IF Nick Lukac (Fishers)
So. OF Anthony Steinhardt (Lawrence Central)

Dixie State
Assistant Coach Bobby Rinard (Mishawaka Marian)

Duke
Sr. OF Damon Lux (Shelbyville)

East Tennessee State
So. RHP Cade Carlson (University)
Sr. C Kyle Richardson (Zionsville Community)

Eastern Illinois
Redshirt So. LHP Jalen Cardinal (Vincennes Lincoln)
So. LHP Aaron Chao (Angola)
Jr. OF Bryce Hayman (Michigan City)
So. C Grant Lashure (Fort Wayne Bishop Luers)
Redshirt Jr. C/1B Tarron Lawson (Danville Community)
Redshirt Jr. RHP Blake Malatestnic (Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter)
Jr. RHP Jesse Wainscott (Perry Meridian)

Eastern Kentucky
Redshirt So. C Rutger Poiry (Hamilton Southeastern)

Eastern Michigan
Fr. RHP Dom Anderson (Hagerstown)
So. IF Cory Taylor (Shelbyville)

Georgia Tech
So. IF Tim Borden II (Providence)

Illinois
Fr. OF Jared Comia (Hanover Central)
Jr./Sr. C Ryan Hampe (Hometown — Crown Point, Ind. — Sandburg HS)
Fr. RHP Calvin Shepherd (Lawrence North)

Illinois State
Redshirt Fr. OF Jonathan Sabotnik (Crown Point)

Illinois-Chicago
Jr. RHP Chris Torres (Chesterton)

Jacksonville State
So. IF Kody Putnam (Evansville Central)

Kansas
Redshirt Sr. C/1B Nolan Metcalf (Penn)

Kennesaw State
Sr. RHP Jack Myers (Indianapolis Cathedral)

Lipscomb
So. LHP Michael Dunkelberger (South Bend Saint Joseph)

Louisville
Fr. C Austin Bode (Columbus North)
Sr. LHP Carter Lohman (Louisville)
Sr. RHP Jared Poland (Indianapolis Cathedral)

Miami (Ohio)
So. C Dalton Back (Columbus East
Fr. LHP Tyler Galyean (University)
So. IF Easton Good (Lewis Cass)
Fr. RHP Luke Leverton (Seton Catholic)
Redshirt Fr. RHP/IF Aaron Massie (Evansville Reitz)
Redshirt Fr. RHP Patrick Mastrian IV (Indianapolis Bishop Chatard)
Fr. C/IF David Novak (Zionsville Community)
Redshirt So. OF J.J. Woolwine (Fishers)

Michigan
Sr. IF Riley Bertram (Zionsville Community)
Fr. MIF Camden Gasser (Southridge)
Sr. IF Jack Van Remortel (Carmel)

Michigan State
Jr. RHP/IF Conner Tomasic (Lake Central)
Redshirt Fr. C Christian Williams (Carmel)

Middle Tennessee State
So. RHP Dustin Sprong (Indian Creek)
So. C Mason McLeod (Greensburg)

Mississippi
Jr. RHP Matt Parenteau (Guerin Catholic)

Morehead State
Jr. RHP Luke Helton (Whiteland)
So. RHP Grant Herron (Center Grove)
So. OF Roman Kuntz (New Prairie)
Jr. RHP Joe Rotkis (South Bend Saint Joseph)

Murray State
Redshirt So. RHP Ryan Fender (Crown Point)
Fr. IF Kyle LaVanchy (North Posey)
Redshirt Jr. LHP Hayden Wynja (Heritage Christian)

Navy
Jr. C/IF Kiel Brenczewski (Fishers)
Fr. RHP Landon Kruer (Providence)

Northern Illinois
Jr. RHP Drew Hasson (Columbus East)

Northern Kentucky
Redshirt Jr. OF Trevyn Moss (Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran)
Jr. RHP Drew Switzer (Hamilton Southeastern)

Northwestern
First-Yr. RHP Grant Comstock (Valparaiso)

Ohio
Redshirt Jr. IF Xavier Haendiges (Salem)
Fr. RHP Brady Linkel (South Ripley)

Oklahoma State
Jr. RHP Bayden Root (Kokomo)

Quinnipiac
Graduate Student RHP Carter Poiry (Hamilton Southeastern)
Jr. OF Sean Swenson (Brebeuf Jesuit)

Radford
Jr. RHP Johnny Maynard (Griffith)

Saint Louis
So. C Nolan Bowser (Mt. Vernon)
Jr. LHP Grant Fremion (Guerin Catholic)
Sr. RHP Cameron Pferrer (Carmel)

South Carolina
Assistant Coach Justin Parker (Fort Wayne Wayne)

South Carolina-Upstate
Fifth-Yr. C Damon Maynard (Greenwood Community)

Southeastern Louisiana
Sr. OF/IF Tyler Finke (Columbus North)

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville
Jr. RHP Alex Scherer (Indianapolis Cathedral)

Texas A&M
Assistant Coach Michael Earley (Anderson)

Toledo
So. RHP Camryn Szynski (Penn)
Assistant Coach Nick McIntyre (McCutcheon)

Towson
Sr. IF Nolan Young (Mississinewa)
Head Coach Matt Tyner (Coached at Butler)

Vanderbilt
Jr. RHP Michael Doolin (Andrean)
Fr. OF J.D. Rogers (Carmel)

Virginia
Graduate Student LHP Brian Gursky (Granger, Ind. — IMG Academy, Bradenton, Fla.)

Virginia Military Institute
Fr. IF Nathan Bingman (Brebeuf Jesuit)

Virginia Tech
Sr. RHP Ryan Metz (Fishers)

Western Illinois
Fr. OF Nick Mitchell (Carmel)
Fr. IF/OF C.J. Richmond (Park Tudor)

Western Kentucky
Jr. IF/OF Matthew Meyer (Westfield)

Western Michigan
So. RHP Hayden Berg (Penn)
Redshirt So. IF/LHP Bobby Dearing (Lafayette Harrison)
Sr. OF Ryan Missal (Lowell)
So. RHP Ryan Watt (Mishawaka)
Head Coach Billy Gernon (New Albany)
Assistant Coach Adam Piotrowicz (John Glenn)

Wichita State
Head Coach Eric Wedge (Fort Wayne Northrop)

Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Redshirt So. IF Tommy Benson (Chesterton)

Wright State
Sr. RHP Aaron Ernst (Carmel)
Fr. RHP Chris Gallagher (Indianapolis Cathedral)
So. LHP/OF Julian Greenwell (Columbus East)
Fr. IF Parker Harrison (Columbus East)
Jr. RHP Riley Perlich (Fort Wayne Carroll)
So. OF Jake Shirk (Fort Wayne Carroll)

Xavier
Jr. RHP Cooper Williams (Heritage Christian)

Advertisement

Mishawaka Marian grad Rinard adding to his coaching responsibilities for Dixie State baseball

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Exciting things are happening in Bobby Rinard’s baseball world.

Entering his fifth season as an assistant coach at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, Rinard is now a full-time coach and has added recruiting coordinator to his job description.

Dixie State is an NCAA Division II program and has nine fully-funded scholarships. Rinard is learning how to disperse scholarship money on a roster of about 35, taking into consideration things like the needs of the team and Title IV and other NCAA rules compliance.

At present, 47 percent is the most any one player is getting in terms of a full scholarship.

“There is really no such thing as a full-ride scholarship for a baseball player,” says Rinard. “We carry a fall roster of about 40, which matches our male-to-female student ratio.

“Some guys will be walk-ons and some will have the grades that won’t count toward the nine scholarships.

“The tricky part is that you don’t get a clean slate after each year.”

What the program has to work with is based on who leaves and who returns.

Rinard, a South Bend, Ind., native and 2007 Mishawaka (Ind.) Marian High School graduate whose father Jeff Rinard ran the Chasing A Dream training facility in Lakeville, Ind., says excitement is also in the air around St. George because Dixie State is exploring moving up to NCAA Division I with its athletic programs.

Information is being gathered through town hall meetings and consultants and a vote to decide is expected at the end of November.

“I hope we do go Division I,” says Rinard, who turned 30 on Nov. 9. “But it could go either way.”

NCAA Division I baseball can give 11.7 fully-funded scholarships and hire two full-time assistant coaches. There is a push to get a third full-timer.

At the D-II level, with a limited recruiting budget, Dixie State keeps to the southwest region and looks for players that fit their style of play.

Trailblazers head coach Chris Pfatenhauer, who has worked at the junior college and D-I levels, favors what Rinard calls the “West Coast” style of baseball. There is an emphasis on speed and athleticism. Batters are expected to be able to lay down a sacrifice or squeeze bunt in a crucial situation.

“We’ll put pressure on the defense,” says Rinard. “But we’re not all runts.”

There are also a few players on the roster with some power.

“We don’t talk about launch angle at all,” says Rinard. “Knowing exit velocity can help guys understand what kind of swing they should be taking to the baseball.

“We want to develop a head-high line drive swing. If you can build a repetitive swing like that, your exit velocity is going to be very good.”

Two major recruiting events that the staff ends are the Arizona Fall Classic in Peoria, Ariz., and Baseball Northwest events in Washington. It’s about a six-hour drive from St. George to the Phoenix area.

“We’re really, really selective with what events we go to,” says Rinard, noting that Las Vegas, Nevada, area is full of talent and is about a two-hour drive from St. George.

Dixie State baseball will be competing in a new conference in the spring of 2019. The Trailblazers were in the Pacific West Conference.

Besides Dixie State, the Pac West had eight baseball-playing schools in California (Academy of Art, Azusa Pacific, Biola, California Baptist, Concordia Irvine, Fresno Pacific, Holy Names and Point Loma Nazarene) and two in Hawaii (Hawaii Hilo and Hawaii Pacific) in 2018.

The Blazers were 25-25 overall and 21-19 in the Pac West.

Following the lead of the DSU football program, baseball is now in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

In addition to Dixie State, RMAC baseball features eight institutions in Colorado (Adams State, Colorado Christian, Colorado Mesa, Colorado State-Pueblo, Colorado School of Mines, Metropolitan State, Regis and Colorado Colorado Springs) and one in New Mexico (New Mexico Highlands).

Pfatenhauer saw the change coming, he wasted no time in purchasing heavy jackets. Adams State in Alamosa, Colo., is 7,543 feet above sea level.

Does the altitude effect pitching? Colorado Mesa had the best team earned run average in the RMAC in 2018 at 4.83. Adams State was last at 9.59.

Dixie State’s staff carried a 6.29 while competing in the Pac West and at 2,500-seat Bruce Hurst Field (former big league pitcher Bruce Hurst is a St. George native and a benefactor), where the fences are 12 feet high from the foul poles to the batter’s eye in center, which extends to 20 feet high. Dimensions are 330 down the lines and 390 to center.

St. George has an elevation of 2,860. Located in the southwestern part of Utah. At one time it was a cotton-growing region (thus the name of the school).

Rinard says the high desert climate is typical of Las Vegas, Nevada. The day-time highs this week (Nov. 11-17) have been in the high 50’s and low 60’s.

“I really don’t remember what it’s like to be cold,” says Rinard, who played two seasons as a righty-swinging outfielder at Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz. (2008 and 2009) and two at the University of Arizona (2010 and 2011) before a stint in professional baseball and a season as an undergraduate assistant at Arizona in 2014.

Rinard was selected in the 43rd round of the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the New York Mets, but did not sign.

After his two seasons in NCAA Division I baseball with Arizona, he signed with the New York Yankees as a minor league free agent in 2011 and played one season a rookie-level Staten Island.

His independent ball stops came with the Frontier League’s Normal (Ill.) Cornbelters in in 2012 and United League’s Edinburg (Texas) Roadrunners in 2013.

Rinard also works with the Trailblazers’ outfielders and hitters and helps coordinate camps.

“I’m helping with everything,” says Rinard, who plans to join the staff Jan. 3-6 for the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in Dallas.

Immediate plans call for Rinard to come back to northern Indiana this weekend to be in the wedding of former Bethel College player and Concord High School baseball coach Walter Lehmann. Rinard and Lehmann played together in high school.

Bobby Rinard (right) is an assistant baseball coach at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. Going into his fifth season with the Trailblazers in 2019, he added recruiting coordinator to his job description last summer. (Dixie State University Photo)

Bobby Rinard, a Mishawaka (Ind.) Marian High School graduate who played at Yavapai College and the University of Arizona, is heading into his fifth season as an assistant baseball coach at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, in 2019. (Dixie State University Photo)