Indiana 10-0 at The Bart; Purdue’s Toetz HR count 8

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

Home may be ever so humble and where the heart is, but it’s also were the victories lie for some teams early in the 2023 college baseball season.
With a three-game sweep of Morehead State NCAA Division I Indiana is 10-0 so far at Bart Kauffman Field. The Hoosiers are to host Indiana at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 21.
After besting Purdue twice at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium, Evansville 8-1 at home.
A three-game sweep of Toledo at Ball Diamond at First Merchants Ballpark Complex makes Ball State 5-1 at home.
NCAA Division II Indianapolis is 11-2 in games played at Greyhound Park/Bill Bright Field and 0-2 at Grand Park in Westfield. UIndy’s first road game is scheduled for Friday, March 24 at Illinois-Springfield.
NAIA Indiana Wesleyan is 4-0 at Wildcat Field.
Bethel is 2-0 at Dick Patterson Field at Jenkins Stadium and 2-0 in a designated home game at Championship Park in Kokomo.
Indiana Tech is 4-0 at Warrior Field.
Oakland City is 12-1 at Gil Hodges Field in Princeton and 3-5 at League Stadium in Huntingburg.
Huntington is 10-2 at Forest Glen Park.
Taylor is 9-2 at Winterholter Field.
While we’re talking about home, how about home runs? Here is a list of mashers so far in 2023 (three bombs or more through March 19 of games posted):
Paul Toetz (Purdue) 8
Jacob Daftari (Indiana Tech) 7
Satchell Wilson (Huntington) 7
Luke Barnes (IU-Kokomo) 6
T.J. Bass (Taylor) 6
Braedon Blackford (Purdue Fort Wayne) 6
Lucas Goodin (Indiana Wesleyan) 6
Ryan Peltier (Ball State) 6
Kade Vander Molen (Taylor) 6
Xander Willis (Oakland City) 6
Alex Christie (Hanover) 5
Chase Hug (Evansville) 5
Brayden Manning (Taylor) 5
Sam Pesa (Saint Francis) 5
A.J. Reid (Wabash) 5
Eric Roberts (Evansville) 5
Jenner Rodammer (Goshen) 5
Parker Bates (Indiana Tech) 4
Blake Bevis (Ball State) 4
Mason David (Taylor) 4
Tucker Ebest (Southern Indiana ) 4
Kip Fougerousse (Evansville) 4
Langston Ginder (Huntington) 4
Jake Jarvis (Purdue) 4
Ben Kalbaugh (Taylor) 4
Treven Madden (Oakland City) 4
Jordan Malott (Huntington) 4
Christian Mojica (Indiana Tech) 4
Jeff Morton (Indiana Wesleyan) 4
Sam Newkirk (Grace) 4
Luke Picchiotti (Taylor) 4
Matthew Rivera (Ball State) 4
Kyle Schmack (Valparaiso) 4
Mike Sears (Indiana State) 4
Sean Sullivan (Franklin) 4
Joey Urban (Butler) 4
Nick Wiley (Indiana Wesleyan) 4
Brenden Bell (IU South Bend) 3
Jared Bujdos (Indianapolis) 3
Trevor Campbell (IU Southeast) 3
Garrett Causey (Oakland City) 3
Gabe Cortez (IU South Bend) 3
Hunter Dobbins (Ball State) 3
Colton Evans (Vincennes) 3
Kaleb Farnham (IU South Bend) 3
Ben Fricke (IUPU-Columbus) 3
Sam Gladd (Taylor) 3
Danny Glimco (DePauw) 3
Trevor Goodwin (IU Southeast) 3
Grant Hartley (Grace) 3
Ray Hilbrich (Purdue Northwest) 3
Brendan Hord (Evansville) 3
Hunter Jessee (Indiana) 3
John Joyce (Grace) 3
Kaleb Kolpein (Taylor) 3
Josh Ledgard (Marian’s Ancilla) 3
David Miller (Saint Francis) 3
Jeff Pawlik (Grace) 3
Jack Penney (Notre Dame) 3
Sam Pinckert (Oakland City) 3
Adam Pottinger (Indiana State) 3
Carter Putz (Notre Dame) 3
Evan Salmon (Indiana Wesleyan) 3
Brett Sikorski (IU South Bend) 3
Tyler Smitherman (Anderson) 3
Tyler Stahl (Indiana Tech) 3
Aidan Stevens (Manchester) 3
Alex Stout (Bethel) 3
Brice Stultz (Indiana Tech) 3
Devin Taylor (Indiana) 3
Nolan Tucker (Valparaiso) 3
Brady Ware (Indianapolis) 3
Matt Wolff (Huntington) 3
Hanover’s Christie has three circuit clouts in the last three games.
On the pitching side, here are the strikeout leaders:
Tyler Papenbrock (Huntington) 51
Frank Plesac (Bethel) 48
Damien Wallace (Marian) 44
Lucas Letsinger (IU-Kokomo) 43
Seth Spencer (Indianapolis) 42
Drue Young (Indiana Wesleyan) 42
Graham Kollen (Huntington) 39
Luke Sinnard (Indiana) 39
Gehrig Tenhumberg (Oakland City) 38

Alec Holcomb (Taylor) 37
Cory Bosecker (Butler) 36
Ryan Brown (Ball State) 35
Evan Fry (Indiana Wesleyan) 35
Nick Smith (Evansville) 35
Evan Etchison (Grace) 32
Trevor O’Donnell (Ball State) 32
Eric Pettipiece (Goshen) 32
Luke Schafer (IU Southeast) 31
Landen Southern (Anderson) 29
Matt Jachec (Indiana State) 28
Gabel Pentecost (Taylor) 28
Andrew Davenport (Calumet of St. Joseph) 27
Tommy Johnson (Oakland City) 27
Jonathan Blackwell (Purdue) 26
Matt Dutkowski (Taylor) 26
Marcus Goodpaster (Hanover) 26
Ben Harris (IU-Kokomo) 26
Josh Hoogewerf (Trine) 26
Donovan Schultz (Evansville) 26
Ben Simmons (Oakland City) 26
Jake Stuteville (Vincennes) 26
Zach Zaborowski (Indiana Tech) 26
Jack Findlay (Notre Dame) 25
Matthew Johnson (Franklin) 25
Blaine McRae (Saint Francis) 25
Jared Spencer (Indiana State) 25

Below are season records, weekly results and links to web pages, schedules and statistics for all of Indiana’s 39 collegiate programs.

INDIANA COLLEGE BASEBALL
Records Through March 19
NCAA D-I
Ball State 13-6 (5-1 MAC)
Indiana 13-7 (0-0 Big Ten)
Evansville 12-7 (0-0 MVC)
Notre Dame 9-8 (2-4 ACC)
Purdue 9-9 (0-0 Big Ten)
Indiana State 8-10 (0-0 MVC)
Valparaiso 7-6 (0-0 MVC)
Southern Indiana 7-13 (0-0 OVC)
Purdue Fort Wayne 4-16 (1-2 Horizon)
Butler 2-15 (0-0 Big East)

Schedule Links
Ball State
Butler
Evansville
Indiana
Indiana State
Notre Dame
Purdue
Purdue Fort Wayne
Southern Indiana
Valparaiso

Stat Links
Ball State
Butler
Evansville
Indiana
Indiana State
Notre Dame
Purdue
Purdue Fort Wayne
Southern Indiana
Valparaiso

NCAA D-II
Indianapolis 11-4 (0-4 GLVC)
Purdue Northwest 4-10 (0-0 GLIAC)

Schedule Links
Indianapolis
Purdue Northwest

Stat Links
Indianapolis
Purdue Northwest

NCAA D-III
Wabash 11-6 (0-0 NCAC)
Anderson 8-5 (0-0 HCAC)
Manchester 8-3 (0-0 HCAC)
Earlham 8-5 (0-0 HCAC)
Franklin 7-5 (0-0 HCAC)
Rose-Hulman 7-5 (0-0 HCAC)
Trine 6-6 (0-0 MIAA)
Hanover 6-7 (0-0 HCAC)
DePauw 4-7 (0-0 NCAC)

Schedule Links
Anderson
DePauw
Earlham
Franklin
Hanover
Manchester
Rose-Hulman
Trine
Wabash

Stat Links
Anderson
DePauw
Earlham
Franklin
Hanover
Manchester
Rose-Hulman
Trine
Wabash

NAIA
Oakland City 19-8 (3-5 RSC)
Taylor 17-9 (10-2 CL)
Huntington 16-7 (10-2 CL)
IU-Kokomo 14-9 (6-2 RSC)
Indiana Wesleyan 12-9-1 (6-2 CL)
Bethel 12-10 (5-5 CL)
Indiana Tech 11-3 (0-0 WHAC)
Marian 11-11 (5-5 CL)
Grace 9-10 (1-7 CL)
Calumet of St. Joseph 9-16 (1-3 CCAC)
IU Southeast 8-13 (5-4 RSC)
Saint Francis 8-14 (3-8 CL)
IU South Bend 6-14 (2-1 CCAC)
Goshen 6-15 (2-7 CL)
IUPU-Columbus 1-24

Schedule Links
Bethel
Calumet of St. Joseph
Goshen
Grace
Huntington
IU-Kokomo
IUPU-Columbus
IU South Bend
IU Southeast
Indiana Tech
Indiana Wesleyan
Marian
Oakland City
Saint Francis
Taylor

Stat Links
Bethel
Calumet of St. Joseph
Goshen
Grace
Huntington
IU-Kokomo
IUPU-Columbus
IU South Bend
IU Southeast
Indiana Tech
Indiana Wesleyan
Marian
Oakland City
Saint Francis
Taylor

Junior College
Vincennes 10-11 (0-0 MWAC)
Ivy Tech Northeast 7-9
Marian’s Ancilla 1-17 (0-0 MCCAA)

Schedule Links
Ivy Tech Northeast
Marian’s Ancilla
Vincennes

Stat Links
Ivy Tech Northeast
Marian’s Ancilla
Vincennes

Through March 19
NCAA D-I
Tuesday, March 14
Kentucky 12, Indiana 2 (7 inn.)
Notre Dame 6, Saint Joseph’s 3
Southern Indiana 10, Saint Louis 2

Wednesday, March 15
Evansville 14, Bellarmine 2
Indiana 6, Morehead State 5 (10 inn.)
Indiana State 7, Illinois 3
Notre Dame 10, Saint Joseph’s 9
Purdue 14, Northern Illinois 5
Southern Illinois 16, Southern Indiana 9

Thursday, March 16
Indiana 23, Morehead State 5

Friday, March 17
Ball State 14, Toledo 2
Evansville 5, Purdue 2
Indiana 5, Morehead State 4
Purdue Fort Wayne 12, Wright State 10
Wright State 6, Purdue Fort Wayne 2
Murray State 15, Southern Indiana 1

Saturday, March 18
Wake Forest 4, Notre Dame 1
Wake Forest 12, Notre Dame 3
Murray State 11, Southern Indiana 4

Sunday, March 19
Ball State 19, Toledo 16 (13 inn.)
Ball State 7, Toledo 4
Northwestern 5, Butler 1
Evansville 6, Purdue 4
Michigan State 8, Indiana State 2
Michigan State 10, Indiana State 7
Notre Dame 3, Wake Forest 1
Wright State 13, Purdue Fort Wayne 4
Murray State 13, Southern 3

NCAA D-II
Tuesday, March 14
Saint Leo 8, Purdue Northwest 3
Eckerd 4, Purdue Northwest 3

Wednesday, March 15
Purdue Northwest 9, Embry-Riddle 8 (7 inn.)
Embry-Riddle 9, Purdue Northwest 1 (7 inn.)

Friday, March 17
Maryville 12, Indianapolis 6
Maryville 5, Indianapolis 3

Sunday, March 19
Maryville 12, Indianapolis 1
Maryville 13, Indianapolis 3

NCAA D-III
Tuesday, March 14
Anderson 15, Stockton 4

Wednesday, March 15
Anderson 10, Ramapo 0
Earlham 11, Mount Saint Vincent 0
Wilmington 14, Franklin 11

Thursday, March 16
Anderson 8, Greenville 5
Earlham 17, Franciscan 9
Franciscan 8, Earlham 0

Saturday, March 18
Hanover 9, Wabash 6

Sunday, March 19
Franklin 7, Trine 6
Hanover 7, Wabash 6
Wabash 5, Hanover 4
Wisconsin-Osh Kosh 4, Rose-Hulman 0
Wisconsin-Osh Kosh 12, Rose-Hulman 0

NAIA
Monday, March 13
Oakland City 14, Baptist Bible 13

Tuesday, March 14
Thomas More 14, IUPU-Columbus 3
Indiana Tech 7, Mid-America Christian 5

Wednesday, March 15
Calumet of St. Joseph 1, Trinity Christian 0
Trinity Christian 5, Calumet of St. Joseph 4
Grace 4, Taylor 1
Taylor 6, Grace 0
Mount Vernon Nazarene 7, Huntington 6
Huntington 9, Mount Vernon Nazarene 2
Indiana Wesleyan 16, IUPU-Columbus 5
IU-South Bend 9, Judson 5 (7 inn.)
Judson 10, IU-South Bend 5
Baptist Bible 13, Oakland City 11

Thursday, March 16
Saint Francis 5, Bethel 4
Saint Francis 10, Bethel 3 (7 inn.)
Indiana Wesleyan 14, Goshen 4 (8 inn.)
Taylor 27, Grace 5
Taylor 13, Grace 0
Huntington 14, Mount Vernon Nazarene 13
Huntington 11, Mount Vernon Nazarene 0
IU-Kokomo 17, Alice Lloyd 5
IU-Kokomo 11, Alice Lloyd 0
Ohio Christian 7, IU Southeast 6
IU Southeast 4, Ohio Christian 2
Marian 8, Spring Arbor 7
Spring Arbor 11, Marian 8

Friday, March 17
IU Southeast 25, Ohio Christian 1

Sunday, March 19
Olivet Nazarene 16, Calumet of St. Joseph 6
Olivet Nazarene 9, Calumet of St. Joseph 5
Miami-Hamilton 5, IUPU-Columbus 4
Miami-Hamilton 19, IUPU-Columbus 4
IU-South Bend 5, Saint Xavier 1
Oakland City 9, Rio Grande 5
Oakland City 7, Rio Grando 1

Junior College
Wednesday, March 15
Ivy Tech Northeast 15, Glen Oaks 9

Thursday, March 16
Kellogg 8, Ivy Tech Northeast 7

Sunday, March 19
Morton 17, Marian’s Ancilla 1
Morton 22, Marian’s Ancilla 0

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Gorman experiences many moving parts as tournament director

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

About 4,000 teams are expected to play in Bullpen Tournaments events across the spring, summer and fall seasons at Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Ind., and other diamonds.
His part of that will keep Chris Gorman hopping.
As Bullpen’s Director of High School Tournaments, he handles registration, scheduling and operations and also helps with staffing of interns and hourly workers and assists with youth tournaments when needed.
Most of the 15U to 18U tourneys held in June and July and coordinated by Gorman are staged at Grand Park and Championship Park in Kokomo.
Other local, high-quality off-site fields like Kokomo Municipal Stadium are also used.
The majority of teams are from Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan, but there are those from outside.
Gorman counts Director of Operations Cam Eveland and Vice President of Operations Michael Tucker as his direct supervisors.
Born in Fort Wayne and raised in Auburn in Indiana, Gorman is a graduate of DeKalb High School in Waterloo, Ind. (2015) — where he played basketball — and Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. (2019) — where he was Sport Administration major and Marketing minor.
Gorman has also served Bullpen Tournaments as an hourly Quad Manager, making sure games ran smoothly and on schedule.
“This role helped me understand the operations and the standard that was needed to be met for all our events,” says Gorman. 
From there he was promoted to Assistant Director of Operations at Creekside Baseball Park in Parkville, Mo., a Prep Baseball Report facility just outside of Kansas City. The job allowed him to implement to apply the same standards set by Bullpen at Grand Park.
“This role required me to have my hands in many different areas of our business and helped me understand the entire company as a whole rather than just from an operations standpoint,” says Gorman.
Why did he choose this as a profession?
“I knew I always wanted to have some sort of career in the sports world,” says Gorman. “I was always curious about how things worked behind the scenes, so when I started out as an hourly worker for Bullpen, I was able to get hands on experience of the behind-the-scenes work involved in running high quality events.
“I learned to love the jobs I was asked to do so pursuing a sport operations role was something that interested me very strongly.”
Gorman’s resume also includes Security Assistant for the Chicago Cubs, Tournament Director for PBR, Tournament Site Director for World Baseball Academy in Fort Wayne and Ticket Sales Representative for the Fort Wayne TinCaps.

Chris Gorman. (Bullpen Tournaments Photo)

Western, Kokomo Post 6 has super supporter in Rutherford

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

Bob Rutherford has been a supporter of youth sports for the majority of his 84 years.
One can find him at all sorts of events involving athletes from Western High School in Russiaville, Ind.
One of eight in the 1957 WHS graduating class and a 10-letterwinner (track, basketball and baseball), Rutherford carries a shiny lifetime pass that allows him to cheer on the Panthers at home contests.
At baseball games he can be found behind home plate between the scoreboard and the backstop. He also has his favorite locations to view basketball, football and more.
What is now Russiaville Youth Baseball League purchased land from Rutherford and expanded while he and wife Anna Mae moved to New London — which is two miles due north of Russiaville and 10 miles southwest of Kokomo.
There is a baseball diamond in the back yard and batting cages in his garage at New London.
“The minor league team needed a place to practice and we had 2.75 acres so we just built us a ball diamond out back,” says Rutherford, who was a volunteer Little League umpire for 14 years.
Bob and Anna Mae have been married 56 years. They had three daughters (one died at 42).
Rutherford goes all over the region — Championship Park (Kokomo), Kokomo Municipal Stadium, Grand Park (Westfield) and more — and is a fixture at Kokomo Post 6 games.
When Post 6 is at home as it is this weekend for the regional tournament against Lafayette Post 11, he can be found in his favorite spot high in the third base side bleachers at CFD Investment Stadium at Highland Park.
“I attend as many as I can,” says Rutherford. “I don’t miss any home games.”
To say he is a loyal customer is an understatement.
“I love the game,” says Rutherford. “I played it and I love it.”
Though he never played at Highland Park, he did attend a tryout there for the Kokomo Dodgers following high school. He recalls seeing future Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda when he was the the minor league team.
“That’s where he used to hit his home runs,” says Rutherford while pointing to a house beyond the Highland Park fence.
After the Dodgers, the Kokomo Highlanders attracted baseball fans — including Rutherford — to Highland Park.
Purdue standout Dennis Brady and Del Harris (who went on to coach in the NBA and go into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame) was were Highlanders in the late 1960’s.
Rutherford played in front of large crowds during his fast pitch softball days at Foster Park. He worked at Delco in Kokomo.
He served in the U.S. Navy from 1958-62 and belong to Kokomo Post 6, which is celebrating its centennial in 2022.
Harold Rutherford — one of Bob’s four siblings — was the president of the first class at Western (a consolation of the New London Quakers, Russiaville Cossacks and West Middleton Broncos).
In 1985, Rutherford helped start the Russiaville American Legion Post 412 Cubs. The team traveled far and wide and made some noise in a tournament in Pueblo, Colo.
“They wanted to know where Russiaville, Ind., was,” says Rutherford of a team that drew players from Western, Northwestern and Clinton Central high schools. “Eventually they started coming up here and play ball. We’d roast a hog. They really enjoyed it.”
Russiaville hosted wooden bat classic every year in July with teams coming from places like Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota and Ontario.
“The kids really enjoyed what we tried to build out there,” says Rutherford. “You get to see them expand. That’s why I like Legion ball.
“These kids are developing to the next step.”

Bob Rutherford (Steve Krah Photo)

Bob Rutherford’s lifetime pass to Western High School sports.

Arsenal making its mark on Indiana travel baseball

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

Arsenal Indiana is expanding for the 2021-22 travel baseball season.
The affiliate of Arsenal USA Baseball is to go with 12U, 13U, 14U and 15U squads in its third season.
“Within two or three years I want to have teams from 12U through 17U,” says Arsenal Indiana director Jeff Cleckner. “I want to have one team at each age group and be very competitive.
“I don’t want to water down the brand with seven 15U teams.”
Cleckner, a graduate of Fremont (Ind.) High School (1989) and Purdue University living in Fishers, Ind., says the focus is on skill development at the younger levels and that the older ones grow their mental approach to the game as they prepare for college baseball.
But first the current campaign where Arsenal is fielding a 17U team with Cleckner as head coach and Arsenal Indiana director and a 14U squad guided by Steve Smitherman. In 2020, 16U and 13U teams took the field for the organization.
Playing six weekends of seven — starting with the first one in June — the 17U team has competed or will take part in events sponsored by Prep Baseball Report, Perfect Game and Bullpen Tournaments.
The team placed second during the holiday weekend at the PBR Indiana State Games at Championship Park in Kokomo. The 17U’s were 22-9-1 through 30 games.
The season wraps with the Perfect Game 17U BCS National Championship July 21-26 at Major League Baseball spring training fields in Fort Myers, Fla. All the other tournaments have been staged at Grand Park in Westfield.
“It’s nice with Grand Park,” says Cleckner of the large complex in central Indiana. “Everyone comes to us.”
High schools represented on the 17U roster include Avon, Fishers, Harrison (West Lafayette), Heritage Christian, Huntington North, Indianapolis Cathedral, Indianapolis North Central, Noblesville, Penn, Plainfield, South Adams, Wapahani, Wawasee, Westfield and Zionsville in Indiana and Edwardsburg in Michigan.
Since the older teams can play as many as seven games in five days, there are often a number of pitcher-only players (aka P.O.’s).
“It’s nice to have P.O.’s,” says Cleckner. “We can supplement as needed with position players.
“We’re mindful of arm care and arm health.”
The 14U Arsenal Indiana team began in early April and will play until mid-July and could easily get in 60 games in 3 1/2 months. The 14U team plays in same types of tournaments that the 17U teams plays at Grand Park in Westfield.
Arsenal Indiana tryouts are planned for late July or early August, likely at Grand Park.
A fall season of four or five weekends features a trip to the Perfect Game WWBA 2022/2023 National Championship Oct. 7-11 in Jupiter, Fla., for the upperclassmen.
“The goal of the fall season is getting a little more work going into the winter,” says Cleckner. “You have new kids who’ve joined your team and you’re creating some chemistry and camaraderie.”
The fall also provides more college looks for older players.
Arsenal Indiana trains in the off-season at Finch Creek Fieldhouse in Noblesville.
What is now Arsenal USA Baseball was began in 1995 by Joe Barth Jr. and son Bob Barth as the Tri-State Arsenal with players from southern New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania. Besides USA National in New Jersey, there are affiliate locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
Many professionals and college players have come through the Arsenal program.

Arsenal Indiana’s Grant Brooks, a Butler University commit.

Arsenal Indiana’s Trey Dorton.

Arsenal Indiana first baseman Riley Behrmann.

Arsenal Indiana’s Joe Huffman.

Arsenal Indiana’s Jake Gothrup.

Arsenal Indiana’s Evan Jensen scores a run.

Arsenal Indiana’s Connor Ostrander, a Western Michigan University commit.

Arsenal Indiana’s Braden Gendron.

Arsenal Indiana catcher A.J. Dull.

Arsenal Indiana’s 17U with tournament hardware earned in 2021.

Coach/director Jeff Cleckner addresses his Arsenal Indiana 17U team at a tournament at Kokomo’s Championship Park. (Steve Krah Photo)

Right-hander Geesaman seeking next baseball opportunity

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

Wyatt Geesaman is seeking other baseball opportunities and he’s honing his pitching skills in the College Summer League at Grand Park.
A 6-foot-5 right-handed pitcher, Geesman graduated from Jay County High School in Portland, Ind., in 2019 and began his college experience at the University of Cincinnati, where he made two mound appearances in two years.
The former Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series participant is now in the NCAA Transfer Portal.
“I’m looking around and seeing what is a good fit,” says Geesaman, who is with the CSL’s Caleb Fenimore-coached Bag Bandits in 2021 after twirling for the Park Rangers in the circuit’s inaugural season of 2020. “I go out there and try to compete.
“I focus on that pitch and try not to let what happened before effect me or what happens next.”
Grand Park in Westfield, Ind., is about a 90-minute trip from Portland. Geesaman does his training at home and travels on gameday.
Geesaman identifies the area where he’s improved most since his Jay County days.
“I’m more consistent,” says Geesaman. “In high school I was kind of wild. I’ve settled down a little bit.”
Delivering from a high three-quarter overhand arm slot, Geesaman throws a four-seam fastball which sits at 85 to 89 mph and has been up to 92. He also has a 12-to-6 curveball and a “circle” change-up.
Beginning in high school, Geesaman began pitching from the stretch even with the bases empty
“It simplified things a little bit,” says Geesaman.
At Jay County, Geesaman played for veteran coach Lea Selvey.
“I love him,” says Geesaman of Selvey. “He’s a great guy to play for. He still helps me out today if I need help.”
Geesaman, 20, was born in Muncie, Ind., grew up in Portland and played his first organized baseball in the Redkey (Ind.) Junior League.
At 10, he switched to travel ball and was with the Indiana Longhorns, Summit City Sluggers and Indiana Prospects before spending his high school summers with the Indiana Bulls.
Geesaman earned four baseball letters for the Patriots — tossing a perfect game with 18 strikeouts helping his team to a sectional title as a senior. Jay County won conference, sectional and regional titles his junior season. He also played forward in basketball and receiver in football for JC.
At Cincinnati, Geesaman was working toward at Marketing degree.
Jeff and Lisa Geesaman have two sons — Jacob (a 2021 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology graduate) and Wyatt.
The Bag Bandits are scheduled to play a single game with the Turf Monsters at 7:05 p.m. Sunday, June 20 at Championship Park in Kokomo and a 3 p.m. doubleaheader against the Park Rangers on Monday, June 21 at Grand Park.

Wyatt Geesaman (U. of Cincinnati Photo)

Communication key for Bullpen Tournaments VP Tucker

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Growing up playing sports in Zionsville, Ind., Michael Tucker knew what it was to be a teammate.

A center in basketball and catcher in baseball, Tulsa, Okla.-born Tucker played at Zionsville Community High School and graduated in 2008. Some of his closest friends to this day played on those squads.

“We had some great teams,” says Tucker, who played for head coaches Dave Ferrell and Shaun Busick in basketball and Darrell Osborne and Adam Metzler in baseball and counted Matt Miller as a mate on the court and the diamond. Miller went on to pitch at the University of Michigan and in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

Eric Charles went on to play baseball at Purdue University.

Ryan Price’s father Tom Price played baseball for Dr. Don Brandon at Anderson (Ind.) University and that’s one of the reasons Tucker ended up at the NCAA Division III school.

Tucker was a standout hitter while playing catcher and first base for the Ravens and the Hall of Famer they called “Bama” for his first two college seasons followed by two with David Pressley.

Brandon impressed Tucker with his memory.

“He can tell you the situation — who was on the mound and the count — (from most any game),” says Tucker. “He was really fun to learn from.”

Pressley was a first-time head coach at Anderson. Tucker credits him with lessons on and off the field.

“I learned how to be a man,” says Tucker. “(Pressley) is a huge man of faith.

“He taught a tremendous amount of life lessons.”

Tucker also gained knowledge from Brad Lantz, who was an AU senior receiver when he was a freshman and went on to be a high school head coach at Guerin Catholic and Lapel and is now coaching in the Indy Sharks travel organization.

“I learned so much about catching, counts and what to look for,” says Tucker. “I learned more from (Lantz) than anyone else.”

Tucker was named to D3baseball.com’s 2010s All-Decade Team.  During his career, Tucket hit .361 with 52 home runs, 50 doubles, 193 runs batted in and a .730 slugging percentage. He was a first-team All-America selection and the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference MVP in 2011.

Franklin (Ind.) College has long been a big HCAC rival for Anderson. Tucker recalls how Grizzlies head coach Lance Marshall sometimes used to bring in a fifth infielder when Tucker was at the plate. 

Not a Marshall fan at the time, Tucker has come to see the veteran coach as one of his favorites.

Tucker received a Management degree with a minor in Entrepreneurship from Anderson U. in 2012. 

His “internship” time was spent coaching (coaching with Cesar Barrientos and the Indiana Baseball Academy Storm while injured in 2009) or playing summer collegiate ball (Fort Mill, S.C., Stingers of the Southern Collegiate Baseball League in 2010 and Hannibal, Mo., Cavemen of the Prospect League in 2011 — a team owned at the time by former big leaguers Ryan Klesko and Woody Williams) and he saw a future related to the diamond. 

“I wanted to make baseball my job whether that was with an indoor facility, coaching, training or tournaments,” says Tucker. “I didn’t know what avenue.”

Tucker was a director at the Incrediplex on the northeast side of Indianapolis 2013-15 and coached for the Indiana Bulls travel organization 2012-16.

Since April 2015, Tucker has been part of a different team as vice president for Bullpen Tournaments, Prep Baseball Report Tournaments (with Rhett Goodmiller as director of tournaments) and Pro X Athlete Development (with former big league pitcher Joe Thatcher as co-founder and president) are tenants at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind. Bullpen, with Tucker as the director of day-to-day operations, is involved with Pro X and works with PBR Indiana and consults with PBR national, which operates LakePoint Sports campus in Emerson, Ga., and Creekside Baseball Park in Parkville, Mo.

Ground was recently broken for Championship Park in Kokomo, Ind., and that complex will also be used by Bullpen and PBR.

The 2021 summer will mark Tucker’s seventh with Bullpen Tournaments. 

Hired by BT president Blake Hibler, whom he knew from working Prep Baseball Report showcases, Tucker started at Bullpen in time to experience Grand Park’s first full summer.

“I did everything,” says Tucker. “I tried to be a sponge. Being in baseball your whole life is completely different from the tournament industry.

“There’s learning the business side and scheduling.”

While at the Incrediplex near Lawrence, Tucker had done scheduling on a smaller scale and had become comfortable with software.

Tucker appreciates that Hibler lets him seek out processes.

“If I can find a better mousetrap, he lets me run with it,” says Tucker.

Bullpen is a very large operation.

“We’re a different beast in a lot of ways,” says Tucker, who notes that on any given weekend the company may have as many as 45 fields under its control, including those on and off the Grand Park campus.

Tucker says the key is getting the word out to teams, families and recruiters.

“You have to be able to communicate,” says Tucker. “Half of scheduling is the communicating of the schedule.”

With Hibler having a large part in brainstorming and development, Bullpen first used the Tourney Machine app and now works with Playbook 365 while also helping develop PitchAware and ScoreHQ. 

Bullpen hires scorekeepers for every high school tournament game (15U to 18U) at Grand Park. In 2020, there was also video on six fields.

“It’s huge to have accurate data,” says Tucker. “We can overlay video with stats.

“(A college) coach can recruit from his office.”

But even though Bullpen is dealing with many moving parts, there are only a half dozen full-time employees.

“Guys are tasked to learn a lot of different things,” says Tucker. “But we never feel like this is something I can’t do. Our mentality is we’re going bust our butts and how do we solve this problem?

“Our guys do a tremendous job of being flexible.”

An example of teamwork and flexibility is the creation of the College Summer League at Grand Park, which came about when so many other leagues were canceling the 2020 summer season during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team that made it happen include Hibler, Tucker, Thatcher, Phil Wade, Luke Dietz, Mark Walther, Matt Bowles, Logan Weins, Cam Eveland and Kevin Ricks. Thatcher and Walther are at Pro X. Weins splits his time between Bullpen Tournaments and PBR Tournaments.

With many players reaching out, Bullpen saw the need and went to work to put together what became a 12-team league with most games played at Grand Park with a few at Kokomo Municipal Stadium and Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis.

The league was constructed with safety, NCAA and recruiting regulations in mind. Players were placed, umpires were lined up and jerseys were distributed in a very short time frame.

“We had about seven days to do it,” says Tucker. “We’re excited for it to come back (in 2021).”

As a D-III alum, Tucker was especially pleased that the CSL allowed top-flight players like Joe Moran (who pitched for Anderson and has transferred to Taylor University) was able to compete against D-I talent.

While the pandemic slowed the start of the 2020 Bullpen season, Tucker estimates that there were upwards of 80 percent in games played as compared to a normal year.

The fall included more contests than ever.

“Teams couldn’t play in the spring and that baseball hunger was still there,” says Tucker. “They wanted to play a little longer.

“We had a great fall.”

Weather plays a part, but the first games each year at Grand Park with all its turf fields are collegiate in February. 

“If we get a warm-weather day our phone blows up,” says Tucker. 

Activity starts to ramp up in March with the first 8U to 14U contests the last weekend of that month.

Of course, the pandemic will have a say in what happens in 2021.

“With all the uncertainty it’s tough,” says Tucker. “It’s going to be an interesting spring.”

A perk of Tucker’s position and location is the relationships he gets to build with high school coaches. 

He sees the unique dynamic between between Noblesville’s Justin Keever, Westfield’s Ryan Bunnell, Zionsville’s Jered Moore and Fishers’ Matt Cherry of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference.

“They’re buddies,” says Tucker. “They go out to eat after the game.”

Michael and wife Dani Tucker live in Noblesville, Ind., with son Cole (5) and Cali (3).

The Tucker family (from left): Cali, Dani, Michael and Cole. Michael Tucker is vice president of Bullpen Tournaments is a tenant at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind.