Veteran baseball coach Tyner gains new perspective

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Matt Tyner still carries a fervor around the diamond.

It just shows itself in a different way.

Tyner, who began his college baseball coaching career at Butler University in Indianapolis in the early 1990’s and also guided early Indiana Bulls travel teams during the summer, is heading into his fourth season at Towson (Md.) University.

At 62 and in a year where he lost his wife, Tyner has a different perspective.

“I’m pretty intense as a competitor,” says Tyner. “As you age you don’t lose your intensity, it becomes a different kind of focus. I’m a little more cerebral. Yelling and screaming might have worked in the ‘90s. That doesn’t work now. You have to think about who you’re talking to.

“Hopefully I’ve calmed down. As you mature, you go from thinking it’s your team to how can I serve the kid? Or how can I share the information I’ve learned in my 40 years in the game?”

Tyner’s Towson coaching staff features associate head coach Miles Miller and assistants Tanner Biagini and Danny Pulfer. 

It’s a horizontal relationship. Tyner lets his assistants take their strengths and run with them. 

“I’m not ego-driven anymore,” says Tyner. “We can all learn something from each other and coaches and kids benefit.”

Coaching friends — like Tony Vittorio — are quick to point out when Tyner might lose sight of what his job is.

“I’m a father first and a coach second,” says Tyner. “I don’t have just one son, I have 38 his year. I’m older than all my coaches, so I have more even more sons.”

Tyner was a standout in Decatur, Ill., playing for Ray DeMoulin (a bird dog scout for the Cincinnati Reds who allowed Tyner to try out at 15) at MacAthur High School and Lee Handley (who played in the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers systems) as American Legion manager.

After Tyner went undrafted by Major League Baseball, a coin flip was used to decide where he would venture to play college ball. Heads meant he’d try to walk on at the University of Miami (Fla.). Tails would send him to Arizona State University.

The coin came up heads. Tyner went to Florida, made the Hurricanes roster and played on College World Series teams in 1978, 1979 and 1980, earning Baskin Robbins Player of the Year honors in that final season.

At Miami, Tyner was around coaching legends Ron Fraser and Skip Bertman. The young outfielder marveled at how the two baseball minds could anticipate what was going to happen in a game.

“How did they do that?” says Tyner. who refers to Bertman as a walking baseball encyclopedia. “I hovered closed to him. His sixth sense was incredible.”

Fraser called them the “Miami Greyhounds.”

“I felt I was on a track team,” says Tyner. “That’s how much we ran. We were in shape.”

Before the current 56-game spring limit in NCAA Division I, Miami typically played more than 100 games counting fall and spring.

Selected in the ninth round of the 1980 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Baltimore Orioles, Tyner played for the Miami Orioles in 1980. 

In 1981, he enjoyed his best offensive and worst defensive season. The parent Orioles had decided to move Cal Ripken Jr. from third base to shortstop and decided to make Tyner into a third sacker. But the hot corner proved pretty hot for him and he made 20 errors in 51 games at third for the Hagerstown Suns.

Fans down both baselines let him know about it with a group of ladies on the third base side pointing out the places where the ball struck the “human dartboard.” Hagerstown spectators donned hard hats on the first base side in case of errant Tyner throws.

His roommate on the road was pitcher Julian Gonzalez. During a game in Salem, Va., after Tyner committed his third error, Hagerstown manager Grady Little came to the mound. Gonzalez told the skipper that his roomie had to go.

There was a bus accident the first weekend of season. The vehicle landed on its side. 

“I felt something pop in my back way down low,” says Tyner. “24 hours later I couldn’t move. I missed over 30 games that summer.

At the plate, Tyner was locked in, hitting .301 with 31 home runs and 113 runs batted for the Suns in 1981.

After that, Tyner went back to the outfield where he vied with Drungo Hazewood for the unofficial title of best arm in the Orioles organization.

He would go on to belt 79 home runs in 365 games, playing for Hagerstown in 1981 and 1983 and the Charlotte O’s in 1982 and 1983. Multiple surgeries for bone chips in his right elbow put and end to Tyner’s pro career.

“I put my arm through a little bit of abuse,” says Tyner. “I was a quarterback and pitched in high school. Who knows what I did? It didn’t fail me for five more years. At Miami, I had a really good arm.”

Besides Little, his minor league managers were John Hart, Lance Nichols and Mark Wiley.

Little later managed the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. Hart became a successful front office man for the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves and as a TV analyst.

Tyner calls Hart the quintessential manager-type manager.

“He was a true professional guy,” says Tyner of Hart. “He’s let you do what you needed to do. Grady Little was more hands-on. They were both pretty successful in their own way.

“I got lucky. I played so some great managers and coaches.”

In spring training games with the Orioles, Tyner shared the dugout with current manager Earl Weaver and future managers Joe Altobelli and Ray Miller. 

“I’m not sure it gets much better than that,” says Tyner.

It was while coming to Indianapolis to finish his degree at Concordia University that Tyner connected with Butler head coach Steve Farley and began coaching for the Bulldogs. The first go-round, he was on Farley’s staff from 1993-97.

A relationship with the Bulls led to the press box and stands that are there to this day.

At the time, Dave Taylor was president of the organization and Craig Moore was head coach of the 17U team. Tyner started out with the 15U squad.

After coaching four years at Butler making $325 per semester, Tyner decided it was time to make money for his family — wife Laura, daughter Lindsay and son Matthew and got into communication sales and real estate. 

Lindsay Dempsey, who is worked as a Registered Nurse, is now 36, married with two children and living Switzerland. Matthew Tyner, 33, is married and a finance and operations manager in Indianapolis. 

When Matthew became a teenager, the Bulls approached his father about coaching a new 13U team with Jeremy Guler. The next year, Matt Tyner and Jeff Jamerson coached their sons Matthew and Jason on the 14U Bulls.

“We had top-shelf athletes way ahead of their time,” says Tyner of a team that featured future pros Lance Lynn (Brownsburg), Tommy Hunter (Cathedral) and J.B. Paxson (Center Grove). “It was fun to watch them play.”

Since Matthew was not at that elite level, he switched after that at played for the Indiana Mustangs based out of RoundTripper Sports Academy in Westfield, a facility run by Chris Estep. Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Dave Alexander was there to help. He covered the costs for many Mustangs activities. 

“He imparted so much baseball knowledge on these kids,” says Tyner of Alexander, who was integral current baseball fields at Purdue University as well as Indianapolis Bishop Chatard High School, where Matthew Tyner played for Trojans head coach Mike Harmon and graduated in 2005. “What a treat that was.”

A few years later, Matt Tyner got the itch to coach baseball again. This time Farley could pay him a living wage and he went back to work at Butler in August 2007. Pendleton Heights graduate Jason Jamerson was a Bulldog senior in 2009.

Farley took Tyner to his first American Baseball Coaches Association convention in 1994. There he got to meet up again with Fraser and Bertman and soaked up the baseball know-how.

“They made me feel like a king and there was one great speaker after the next for 2 1/2 days,” says Tyner. “As a coach you can’t be everything to everybody. But I’m going to use this nugget and I’m going to use that nugget.

“That’s money well-spent.”

In the summer of 2010, Tyner was offered the head coaching position at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. Knights athletic director Scott Wiegandt had been a Triple-A Louisville teammate of Tracy Woodson, a former big league third baseman, Fort Wayne Wizards manager who was then Valparaiso University head coach.

Farley, Woodson and University of Indianapolis head coach Gary Vaught gave Tyner their endorsement. 

“We made some serious strides in that program,” says Tyner, who coached then-NCAA Division II Bellarmine to 26-26 and 27-23 marks in 2011 and 2012 with a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and an appearance in the regional tournament championship game against the Grand Valley State University the second year. 

Brandon Tormoehlen, now head coach at Brownstown (Ind.) Central High School, was on Tyner’s coaching staff.

Woodson became head coach at the University of Richmond (Va.) and called Tyner to be his recruiting coordinator and hitting coach. It was a post he held for four seasons.

“We had some pretty strong offensive teams,” says Tyner of his time with the Spiders.

Then Towson reached out and hit Tyner was an offer to be the Tigers head coach. 

“The first two years at Towson was a challenge for all of us,” says Tyner, who saw his teams go 13-42 in 2018 and 14-39 in 2019. “We are process-driven and not results-driven. Took awhile for those entrenched in a different system to get it.

“Last year was their chance to shine.”

Indianapolis native Laura Anne Tyner passed away Feb. 10 in her hometown and Matt took a leave of absence at Towson. Matt and Laura were wed in 1983. She taught children with special needs and spent 20 years in real estate management.

With former Butler and Purdue University assistant Miller running the team, the 2020 Towson Tigers went 7-8 before the COVID-19 shutdown.

Tyner went down to see the team play in the opener of a weekend series in Miami. It turned out to be a pitchers’ dual. The Hurricanes held on for a 2-1 Feb. 28 victory. Freshman catcher Burke Camper just barely missed a home run in the top of the ninth inning.

“It was a game for the ages,” says Tyner. “It was unbelievable for me to watch and be a part of.”

A few days later, it was decided between Tyner and Towson athletic director Tim Leonard that the coach would come back to the program in mid-March.

“I needed baseball more than baseball needed me,” says Tyner, who got back in time to see the season prematurely halted with the campus being closed and all classes going online. He came back to Indianapolis.

When things opened back up, players were placed in summer leagues. This fall, the Tigers worked out with social distancing and other COVID precautions.

“It was the most competitive for all of us since I’ve been here,” says Tyner. “We have a chance to be pretty good (2021).”

Towson is a member of the Colonial Athletic Association. The Tigers are not fully-funded. There are 6.2 scholarships available and the NCAA Division I limit is 11.7.

“God love the AD and president of this university (Tim Leonard and Dr. Kim Schaztel),” says Tyner. “They’ve done a phenomenal job of keeping us afloat.

“They don’t come any better.”

Matt Tyner was introduced as head baseball coach at Towson (Md.) University prior to the 2018 season. (Towson University Video)

Matt Tyner, a former Butler University assistant and coach with the Indiana Bulls, is heading into his fourth season as head baseball coach at Towson (Md.) University in 2021. (Towson University Photo)

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Kleber, Trinity Lutheran Cougars are aiming high in 2019

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

First-year head coach Ben Kleber and the Trinity Lutheran High School baseball team have set their sights high for the 2019 season.

“We expect to win the sectional,” says Kleber. “We want to be the first team in school history to win a regional game. That’s our goal.”

Trinity Lutheran (enrollment around 150) is an independent school located in Seymour, Ind. The school opened in 2002 and the first baseball season was 2003.

The Cougars’ schedule features Class 4A’s Bedford North Lawrence and Seymour, 3A’s Brown County, Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Salem and Scottsburg, 2A’s Austin, Henryville and Southwestern (Hanover) and 1A’s Christian Academy of Indiana, Crothersville, Greenwood Christian Academy, Hauser, Indianapolis Lutheran, Jac-Cen-Del, Oldenburg Academy, Rising Sun, Springs Valley and West Washington. The Trinity Lutheran Invitational on April 13 includes a round robin with 2A’s Eastern (Pekin) and Switzerland County and 4A’s Jennings County.

Trinity schedules bigger schools to get ready for the IHSAA tournament series.

The Cougars are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Crothersville, Orleans and West Washington. Trinity has won five sectional championships — the last two in 2016 and 2017.

Kleber, a graduate of Seymour High School (2007) and Hanover (Ind.) College (2011), was a varsity assistant and junior varsity coach the past two seasons to head coach Brandon Tormoehlen at Brownstown Central.

“I learned a lot about hitting and catching drills from Coach T,” says Kleber of Tormoehlen. “He’s just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to offense. He definitely valued your option on things.

“I like his philosophy on the game all together. He has his guys playing the game fast.”

The previous two springs before he was at Brownstown Central, Kleber was on the Trinity Lutheran varsity staff of head coach Bob Tabeling.

He spent the 2012 and 2013 campaigns coaching freshmen at Seymour with Jeremy Richey as head coach.

“Jeremy was great,” says Kleber of Richey. “I’ll be forever grateful for him giving me the start in coaching at the high school level.”

After playing at Seymour for coach Bob Bowman (the man who led the Owls to an IHSAA state championship in 1988), Kleber pitched at Hanover for Shayne Stock.

“(Bowman) was a baseball guy,” says Kleber. “He knew a lot about the game.”

Much of what Kleber uses at Trinity Lutheran — from pitching to base running to field maintenance — comes from his time at Hanover with Shayne Stock and Panthers bench coach Wayne Stock (an Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer).

“I loved playing for Coach (Shayne) Stock,” says Kleber. “He was

a hard-nosed guy who expected things done the right way. He expected the best of out you. He wanting your playing hard and playing smart.

“I learned so much from sitting and talking to (Wayne Stock).”

Kleber says he is transparent with his players and let’s them know their roles.

“They know what they need to do to get more playing time,” says Kleber. “I’m an open door. I make sure you’re ready to hear the truth and what’s expected of them and what they need to work on.

“Everybody is a piece to a puzzle. We want to be a family as much they want to be a team.”

Kleber’s desire is that his Cougars to be baseball-curious.

“I want our guys to ask questions,” says Kleber. “They have to be students of the game.

“You can’t just show up. You have to understand why.”

During the summers before his junior and senior years at Hanover, Kleber helped Todd Miller coach an Indiana Bulls travel team that included Drew Ellis (who played at Jeffersonville High School and the University of Louisville and is now in the Arizona Diamondbacks system).

Miller, a Franklin (Ind.) Community High Schoolg graduate who played baseball and football at Hanover, is now a baseball assistant at Tusculum University in Greeneville, Tenn.

The Cougars’ roster features 13 players. There is no junior varsity team this spring. Some of those are also on the track team. Four players who logged significant playing time in 2018 are back.

“We’re young,” says Kleber. “Wwe’re learning a lot of fundamentals and how to play the game the right way.

“We’re building for the sectional.”

Recent Trinity graduates who went on to college baseball are Sam Crick (Hanover) and Jacob Schult (Rose-Hulman).

Kleber is assisted by Tyler Reedy, a Seymour graduate whom Kleber coached before Reedy was in high school. Doug Nichols helps with statistics and field maintenance.

Trinity plays its home games on Alf Snyder Field, an on-campus facility built through a donation from Snyder’s family.

Two years ago, the infield went from grass with dirt cut-outs to a conventional infield.

This year, the mound was replaced and one of the batter’s boxes was re-done. There are new sponsors on the scoreboard. Sponsor banners line the outfield fence and a new batter’s eye is on the way. There is also plans to put fences in front of the dugouts.

Feeder schools from Jackson, Jennings and Bartholomew counties for Trinity Lutheran include Immanuel Lutheran (Seymour), Lutheran Central (Brownstown), St. Ambrose (Seymour), St. Bartholomew (Columbus), St. John’s Sauers (Seymour), St. Mary’s (North Vernon), St. Peter’s Lutheran (Columbus) and White Creek Lutheran (Columbus).

Kleber is a dispatcher for Rose Acre Farms, an egg producer in Seymour.

Ben and Katie Kleber were married in September 2015. They have a son — Braxton (2).

Braxton Kleber (2) is the son of Ben and Katie Kleber. Ben Kleber is head baseball coach at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour, Ind.

Katie and Ben Kleber were married in 2015. Ben Kleber is head baseball coach at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour, Ind.

 

Tormoehlen wants Brownstown Central Braves to keep priorities straight, runs coming

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Brandon Tormoehlen viewed baseball from behind the plate at Brownstown (Ind.) Central High School and Butler University.

This perspective has helped him as a coach.

“Being a catcher, you had to know what everybody else was doing in different situations,” says Tormoehlen, who was honorable mention all-state and a participant in the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series in 2002 and how heads into his second season as Brownstown Central head coach in 2019.

Tormoehlein teaches engineering and math classes during the day, serves part-time with the Indiana National Guard and tries to get his Braves to amass numbers on the scoreboard at baseball game time.

“We try to eliminate reasons for losing,” says Tormoehlen. “We try to be solid in all aspects of the game. We don’t take a big emphasis on batting average or strikeouts. We try to get as many runs as we can.”

BC figures out the best way to attack on a particular days — stealing, bunting or hitting away — and then does it.

Brownstown Central (enrollment 573) is a member of the Mid-Southern Conference (with Austin, Charlestown, Clarksville, Corydon Central, Eastern of Pekin, North Harrison, Salem, Scottsburg and Silver Creek).

“It’s a pretty good baseball league,” says Tormoehlen. The MSC champion is determined by nine regular-season games. Each teams plays the others once on Mondays and Thursdays.

The Braves are part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping with Charlestown, Corydon Central, North Harrison, Providence, Salem, Scottsburg and Silver Creek. Brownstown Central has won two sectionals — the last in 2016.

Tormoehlen came back to Brownstown after two seasons as head coach at Scottsburg.

Before that, he was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., for two seasons on the staff of Matt Tyner.

“He was a great player’s coach,” says Tormoehlen of Tyner, who is now head coach at Towson University in Baltimore. “He had great relationships with all our players and recruits.”

As an NCAA Division II school, Bellarmine would sometimes see players come back to them if things didn’t work out at the D-I level.

Tyner also gave his assistants the freedom to develop their own coaching styles.

“I was running practices from the defensive standpoint and pitchers exactly the way I wanted to do them.”

Before Bellarmine, Tormoehlen served two seasons as an assistant working with catchers and hitters at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. Ed Servais was head coach of the Bluejays.

“He was a defensive genius,” says Tormoehlen of Servais. “The scouting we did was very, very in-depth.”

Play-by-plays were printed off by Tormoehlen. From those, Servais and his staff were able to get spray charts and read the tendencies of opposing coaches.

That kind of data is not available at the high school level and the sample size is much smaller.

Tormoehlen also saw Servais run practices a high speed.

“They were very intense and very fast-paced,” says Tormoehlen. “It’s something I’ve done ever since.

“The goal is to get in as many reps as you can in a 2- or 2 1/2-hour time frame. As far as developing players, I’ve not seen a better model.”

Tormoehlen spent one season as an assistant guiding catchers, hitters and outfielders at Indiana Tech on the staff of Kip McWilliams.

With varsity and junior varsity squads, the Warriors carried 52 players.

“That took practice organization to manage those type of numbers,” says Tormoehlen. “(McWilliams) was a great organizer as well.”

Prior to that, Tormoehlen was junior varsity coach for a season at Noblesville (Ind.) High School, a program led by Justin Keever.

“I was 23 at the time, but he let me coach,” says Tormoehlen of Keever. “He didn’t micro-manage at all. He said, ‘you’ve got the JV team and they’re yours.’

“I let my coaches coach (Brownstown Central),” says Tormoehlen. “They’re there for a reason. Give them their duties and let them go with it.”

The 2019 BC staff features Shannon Barger, Fred Perry and Paul Borden with the varsity plus Cole Borden and Jase Hunnicutt with the junior varsity. Cole Borden played at Saint Joseph’s College.

Steve Farley was head coach at Butler when Tormoehlen played for the Bulldogs (2003-05, 2007). A medical redshirt for the 2006 season due to shoulder surgery, the catcher played his last collegiate season while also taking graduate classes.

“Coach Farley is just a great human being,” says Tormoehlen. “He lived his life the right way as far as priorities. He was a great role model and made sure as a college athlete, we were doing that same. There was faith, family, education then your baseball career.

“It’s something I stress with my guys.”

Recent BC graduate Ian Martin is at Vincennes University. Current Braves senior Seth Borden (son of Paul and brother of Cole) has been receiving interest from college baseball teams.

Steve Schrink was head coach at Brownstown Central when Tormoehlen was a player.

“He was a great people person and a player’s coach,” says Tormoehlen. “He always had a really good relationship with his players.”

Tormoehlen tends to keep 24 to 26 players in the program. These players get to use and care for a facility that just keeps getting better.

Located in a valley behind the school, the field recently had a brick backstop cut into the hill with big poles inserted for backstop netting. New dugouts have been added.

By next year, the Braves plan to have a building that houses a new press box, concession stand and restrooms. Plans are call for the installation of 130 to 140 stadium seats.

This fall, the field received a turf insert around the home plate area. The field was also leveled to send drainage outside the foul lines. The plate area had been the lowest part of the field and that’s where water collected when it rained.

“Many teams in our area are doing it,” says Tormoehlen of the insert. “Cost-wise, it pays for itself after a few years. You save money on clay, Turface and time.”

Feeding the high school is a middle school club program — Brownstown Braves Baseball. It includes seventh and eighth grade teams taking players from Brownstown Central Community School Corporation as well as Lutheran Central School in Brownstown and St. John’s Sauers Lutheran School in Seymour. BBB plays 18 to 22 games in the spring.

Players also play travel baseball in the summer for teams based in Brownstown as well as Bloomington, Louisville and elsewhere.

John and Brenda Tormoehlen’s have four children. All are married. Brooke Cahill is the oldest, followed by Brandon. His wife, Mallory, graduated from Greenfield-Central High School in 2005 and Indiana Tech in 2009. She played softball for the Warriors.

The two youngest girls are Jaclyn Jackson and Whitney Fritz.

The center field view of the baseball field at Brownstown (Ind.) Central High School.

Brownstown (Ind.) Central High School put a turf insert around the home plate area of its baseball field. This saves cost and time.

Mallory and Brandon Tormoehlen share a moment at Brandon’s Indiana National Guard boot camp graduation. Brandon Tormoehlen is a teacher and head baseball coach at Brownstown (Ind.) Central High School.

 

Things continue to look up for Bayes, Austin Eagles

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Matt Bayes played on the team that made the deepest postseason run in school history.

Less than a decade later, he found himself as the head baseball coach of the Austin High School Eagles.

With Jeff Barrett as head coach, Austin (located in southeastern Indiana) earned its second-ever sectional crown in Bayes’ sophomore year (2006).

In his senior season, Bayes was part of the 2008 Austin squad that went 30-3 and won the school’s lone IHSAA Class 2A regional title to date and made its first semistate appearance.

The Eagles’ two regular-season losses came against 4A schools (Floyd Central and Seymour). The run ended with a 9-6 loss in 10 innings against Elwood. Austin was down 6-1 in the seventh inning before forging a tie and forcing extra frames.

“A lot of good memories were made,” says Bayes. “I’m going to get together with that group of guys over the holidays to celebrate 10-year anniversary of that (2008) team.”

A left-handed pitcher, Bayes spent one season at NCAA Division I Indiana State University in Terre Haute before transferring to NCAA Division II Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky.

Austin is located 35 miles north of Louisville.

Lindsay Meggs was the head coach at ISU during Bayes’ stay while he played two seasons for Deron Spink and one for Matt Tyner at Bellarmine.

Meggs (who is now head coach at the University of Washington) helped Bayes see the game at an in-depth level. Bunt defenses and the way of holding runners was more advanced as was the sign systems.

That has come in handy at Austin.

“We like to challenge our guys to have that high baseball I.Q.,” says Bayes, who also picked up more strategy from Spink while also observing his leadership style. “(Spink) was hard-nosed. He recruited the right kind of guys that wanted to play hard for him and for one another.”

Bayes appreciated the intensity that Tyner (now head coach at Townson University) and pitching coach Brandon Tormoehlen (now head coach at alma mater Brownstown Central High School) brought to the Bellarmine Knights.

“They had a lot of fire and passion,” says Bayes of Tyner and Tormoehlen. “For me, I like that side of it.”

Besides those traits, Bayes learned about the use of scouting reports.

Bayes joined the Barrett-led Austin coaching staff in 2012-13 and spent two campaigns as an assistant.

“I was very fortunate to inherit the program,” says Bayes. “(Barrett) laid a very solid foundation for Austin baseball. I can’t say enough of what he did for Austin.”

Since 2002, the Eagles have produced four Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series players — Shawn Barrett (2002), Matt Bayes (2008), Hunter Spencer (2014) and Tanner Craig (2017). At least one Austin player has signed or committed to play college baseball since 2014, including Craig with the University of Evansville.

“That’s pretty good for a 2A school,” says Bayes. “If guys want to play in college we want to help them get there.”

Austin (current enrollment just under 400) is a member of the Mid-South Conference (along with Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Clarksville, Corydon Central, Eastern of Pekin, North Harrison, Salem, Scottsburg and Silver Creek).

Each of the 10 teams in the MSC play one another once with conference games on Mondays and Thursdays.

Bayes says there is a plan when plotting non-conference opponents.

“We’re lucky that our administration is very in-tune with what we want to do from a scheduling standpoint,” says Bayes. “We want to be a challenged, but we want to be competitive, too. We have to consider our pitching.”

The 2017 season marked the first with new IHSAA pitching rules (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days).

“It definitely makes you develop a staff throughout the season,” says Bayes of the rule.

With postseason games coming so close together, Bayes says coaches must make some hard decisions when their pitchers get close to threshold.

On their way to a 2017 Austin Sectional title, right-hander Drew Buhr pitched an eight-inning perfect game in the Eagles’ tournament-opening 1-0 win against North Decatur. In so doing, he went over the 100-pitch mark and was not available the rest of the sectional.

Buhr (17 innings in 2017) is expected back for his junior season in 2018.

“We lost quite a bit from last year,” says Bayes, who had five or six seniors in the starting lineup much of the time last spring. “I like our group of guys this year. I’m confident they can have a good spring.”

Bayes is figuring out who will join him on the coaching staff. Last year was are in that Austin got to play a full junior varsity schedule.

The Eagles play on-campus on a field that includes a brick backstop with netting. A scoreboard was added a few years ago and the program has a indoor building with locker rooms, coach’s office and a concession stand. The efforts of the parents and booster club have made it possible.

“We’re pretty proud of our facility here,” says Bayes. “For a 2A school, we’re blessed with outstanding facilities.

“In our part of the state, a lot of schools have really started making an investment in their baseball facility. A lot of kids are interested in baseball.”

The baseball backers include Bayes’ family — father Gordon, mother Kathy and sister Mandy (who is married to Austin girls basketball coach Jared Petersen).

“My parents are huge supporters of me and Austin baseball,” says Bayes. “I have a vision of what I want to do and my dad makes it happen.”

Matt Bayes teaches computers to sixth, seventh and eighth graders and helps in the athletic department at Austin Junior High.

While not affiliated with the school, one of the feeder systems for Austin Eagles baseball is a program for kids in the junior high grades.

“It’s big for us to get kids playing and allowed us at the high school to see those kids,” says Bayes, who typically gets to help with development through kids camps in the summer and fall.

Junior high-aged players had been playing at Austin High School. Bayer said they may get to move to renovated city park in the spring.

Players are also involved in Scott County Little League or with various travel baseball organizations. There are more of those now than when Bayes was growing up.

He did play for the Hoosier South Eagles (based out of Seymour) and Tri-County Titans (based out of Henryville) before hooking on for two seasons each with the Indiana Bulls and USAthletic (both headquartered in the Indianapolis area) and then the Evansville Razorbacks.

Matt Bayes is the head baseball coach at Austin High School. Bayes was a senior on the Eagles team that went 30-3 and played in the semistate in 2008.