Bates, WHAC champion Indiana Tech bound for NAIA Opening Round

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Indiana Tech has won its first Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference baseball title since 2019.

The Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Warriors, who swept a best-of-three WHAC championship series from Madonna Monday, May 6, find out today (May 9) where they will land for next week’s NAIA Opening Round. The draw show is scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

Fifth-year senior Parker Bates has been key contributor for Indiana Tech (32-22) in 2024.

In 53 games (49 starts), the righty swinger is hitting .300 (54-of-180) with seven home runs, three triples, 10 doubles, 40 runs batted in, 35 runs scored and a .883 OPS (.377 on-base percentage plus .506 slugging average). 

“I’m a guy that likes to swing a bat,” says Bates. “I’m not going to say I look for the perfect pitch every single at-bat. My focus is finding the barrel and trying to put the ball in-play hard. Sometimes that gets me in trouble. I’m a guy who likes to swing early because a lot of times the pitcher is coming with a fastball (up in the zone). That’s the one I like to hunt.”

There are times a pitcher knows Bates’ tendencies and he has learned to adjust when they flip an off-speed pitch his way.

Batting in the No. 2 or No. 6 hole based on the match-up and playing a shortstop, third base or left field depending on the team’s need, Bates has 13 multi-hit games with three March 30 at Rochester, May 1 vs. Aquinas and May 2 at Concordia.

Bates has similar keys whether at short, third or in the outfield.

“I want to get a good first-step reaction and good read on the ball,” says Bates, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder. “Sometimes I get caught flat-footed. But as long as I’m staying loose, fluid and working through things, that’s when I’m playing best defense. 

“I try to keep my hands out-front and keep moving and making the plays.”

Bates does much of his offensive work with Indiana Tech assistant Sean Herberger. Brent Alwine coaches Warrior hitters and infielders.

Kip McWilliams is in his 17th season as the program’s head coach.

“He’s an old-school guy,” says Bates of McWilliams. “He’s definitely going to hold you accountable. Nothing’s ever easy around here. If you’re slacking off or not working hard or performing, you’re going to know it. There’s no favorites around here. You have to earn every single bit of playing time, every at-bat, every chance on the mound.”

The Warriors has won 28 of its last 34 after a rough start to the 2024 season. 

What makes this Indiana Tech group so sturdy and resilient?

“I think what makes us as tough as we are is what we’ve all been through,” says Bates. “We actually played really good in the fall. I think we lost one or two games. We got our confidence way up. Heading into the winter we were thinking we’re going to be a good team. We got inside and it got tough. Our own pitchers started tearing us (hitters) up.”

Then the spring season started.

“We were dropping games on walk-offs and by one run. It came down to one play sometimes. It was us just sticking together, knowing we are a good team. We started putting some wins together and winning some big games.”

Bates graduated from Indiana Tech with a Mechanical Engineering degree and is a few more classes from finishing a Master’s in Project Management. He just accepted a job in that field with Fleming’s Excavating in Decatur, Ind.

He played for the Indiana Summer Collegiate Baseball League’s Kekiongas in Fort Wayne in 2020 and 2021, did an internship in 2022 and was with the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate Baseball League‘s Grand Lake Mariners (Celina, Ohio) in 2023.

With no more eligibility after 2024, Bates is heading into the last college games.

“This is it,” says Bates, who turns 24 in September. “It’s kind of surreal. It’s pretty bittersweet. I’ve enjoyed my career. I’ve been able to play on some great teams and play with some great guys. 

“I got blessed with one extra year. It’s the only good thing that came out of COVID. We’ve been trying to win the WHAC for five years and we finally did it.”

Born in Decatur, Ind., Parker got his baseball start playing around 10 in a Wilshire, Ohio, farm league for uncle Brendan Bates (who is now a softball assistant at Parkway in Rockford, Ohio).

After that came youth ball through Koufax League in Monroe, Ind. Travel ball included a team consisting of Adams, Jay and Wells counties including Grant Besser (who now pitches for Indiana Tech).

Adams Central Middle/High School in Monroe, Bates was a three-sport athlete (football, wrestling and baseball).

His head football coach was Michael Mosser.

“He’s just an awesome guy,” says Bates of the man who has led AC on the gridiron since the 2009 season. “He’s not the kind of guy that’s going to yet and scream at you. He’s going to get the best out of you.”

In football, there was also assistant defensive coordinator Tyler Roach.

“That guy helped me more than I can put into words,” says Bates. “He’s been a fantastic coach and role model in my life!”

Tony Currie led the Jets matmen aka the BAGUBAs (Brutally  Aggressive Guys Uninhibited By Adversity).

“I cannot give enough thanks to Tony Currie and the sport of wrestling,” says Bates, who helped the Jets to an Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association State Duals title and lost three times in the “ticket round” at the Fort Wayne Semi-State as an individual. “I don’t think I’d be the athlete or the competitor that I am without having wrestled. I love baseball, but wrestling in the hardest sport there is. If you can wrestle and be successful, there’s nothing you can’t do.

“Tony was a guy that was always helping me out and encouraging me. He was making me a better athlete and competitor. He’s a guy I very highly look up to.”

Dave Neuenschwander was head baseball coach.

“He and I would butt heads sometimes, but it was because we were both such tough competitors,” says Bates of Neunschwander. “He wanted to win.”

Bates roots for the New York Yankees. His all-time favorite player is Hall of Famer Derek Jeter. 

Among actives it’s Yankees outfielder Juan Soto.

“I just love the way that he swings the bat,” says Bates. “That dude’s just a hitter through and through.”

Bates took some cues from Soto while struggling last summer and has carried it forward.

“He gets so wide and low and is so quick through the zone,” says Bates of the lefty-swinging Dominican. “I widened out my stance and shortened up to be able to do little more at the plate this year.”

Harness racing driver/trainer Brandon Bates is Parker’s father and Berne, Ind.-based nurse practitioner Alicia Bates is his mother. 

Brother Hunter Bates (Adams Central Class of 2016) played the same three sports in high school as his younger brother then a little football and was a national qualifier in wrestling at Wabash College. He now works at a hospital in Fishers, Ind.

Half sister Halle Bougher is a teacher in Convoy, Ohio.

Parker Bates. (Indiana Tech Photo)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Parker Bates. (McKenzie Noble Photography)

Even though program’s slated to fold, Ivy Tech Northeast baseball moving forward

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

Ivy Tech Community College Board of Trustees voted 8-1 April 7 to discontinue athletics at the Northeast campus in Fort Wayne, Ind., after 2022-23.
Titans baseball (established in 2017-18 by Lance Hershberger) is moving forward with the 2022 season and is looking to the 2023 slate, which appears it will be the school’s last.
Ivy Tech Northeast is 15-18 heading into a doubleheader Saturday, April 30 at Indiana Tech JV. After that comes a May 3 twin bill at Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College followed by a National Junior College Athletic Association Region XII sub-regional May 5 in Sandusky, Ohio. The Titans must win two games in the four-team single-elimination event featuring the Nos. 2-4 seeds from the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference to advance to regional play.
“I’m enjoying the public response and fight to keep the program,” says Ivy Tech head coach and dual-credit advisor Connor Wilkins, 29. “I’m doing my part. (The board is) pretty dead-set on not having athletics. It comes down to financials and Title IX (gender equity).”
Wilkins describes the mood of the team.
“There’s a little defiance there,” says Wilkins, a Fort Wayne native. “We’ll show you how good we are and lay everything on the line representing our college. It’s frustrating as a coach knowing what we’ve built as a program and serving the community.
“In my opinion, northeast Indiana needs a junior college program.”
The Fort Wayne campus is the only one in the statewide Ivy Tech system with sports. An Ivy Tech Northeast volleyball team folded when the coach left and players followed after the COVID-19 year.
There are currently three junior college baseball programs in the state — Ivy Tech Northeast in Fort Wayne, Marian University’s Ancilla College in Donaldson and Vincennes (Ind.) University.
Ivy Tech’s 2022 baseball team has 38 players with 22 on-target to graduate from the two-year school this spring. Some of that number have indicated that they will come back for a third year (granted because of the pandemic).
Six players — right-handed pitcher Matt Peters (Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger High School graduate) to NCAA Division I Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), twins outfielder Conner Beatty and catcher Alec Beatty (Augusta, Mich.) and catcher/outfielder Joel Deakins (Heritage) to provisional NAIA start-up Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, infielder Brayden Dockery (Continental, Ohio) to the NCAA D-II University of Indianapolis and Coby Griffith (Papillion, Neb.) to NAIA Huntington University — have made commitments to their next school and others are expected to make that announcement soon.
This summer, fireballer Peters is to play in the MLB Draft League. Other Ivy Tech players are bound for the Great Lakes, Jayhawk and Florida circuits plus the local Indiana Collegiate Summer Baseball League.
Two players whose only college offers coming out of high school were from Ivy Tech Northeast are Grant Lashure (now a starting catcher at NCAA Division I Eastern Illinois University) and Zach Haefer (a right-handed pitcher at NCAA Division II Davenport University in Grand Rapids).
There are also 13 recruits coming to the Titans in 2022-23.
“We still have next year,” says Wilkins. “The recruits are still coming. It’s a testimony to our staff that they wanted to develop and leave after that.
“We’re going to do right by them. It’s our job to get them on to four-year or two-year schools.”
Besides Wilkins, the 2022 coaching staff features Scott Bickel (who is heading to IUPUC as part of Crimson Pride head coach Zach McClellan’s staff), recruiting coordinator Drew Buffenbarger (a member of the “Dirty Dozen” — Ivy Tech’s first team and an assistant admissions director at the school), pitching coach Javier DeJesus and hitting coach Mark Flueckiger.
Without conference membership, the Titans schedule this spring has been on-the-fly and inclement weather has not helped. NJCAA Region XII has a rule that teams are not supposed to play when the “Real Feel” temperature dips to 35 degrees.
Ivy Tech Northeast plays home games at Shoaff Park. The diamond is owned by the city, but is maintained by coaches and players.
“We take care of it,” says Wilkins. “We mow it. We weed-and-feed. We do it as a team.”
Fundraisers and donors have made it possible to do things like laser-grading the infield.
“It was hard to get donations during the COVID year,” says Wilkins.
And if the Titans are heading into their final days, the coach wants them to go out with their heads held high, representing their institution and community.
Says Wilkins, “We’re going to finish it out and hopefully make them proud.”

Gavin Smith makes a throw at third baseball for Ivy Tech Northeast baseball.

Gavin Smith swings the bat for Ivy Tech Northeast baseball.

NABF salutes Fort Wayne’s Rachlow as Umpire of the Year

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

Fort Wayne’s Bob Rachlow was named 2021 Umpire of the Year by the National Amateur Baseball Federation at the 107th NABF Major/Unlimited Division World Series in Battle Creek, Mich.
Rachlow has made many calls from Little League to college to men’s wood bat league to professional over the years.
It was as a Little League coach that spark ignited his start as an umpire.
Guiding his son’s team in a district game, he did not see eye-to-eye with the men making the calls that day. He said as much to the tournament director.
“I’ll expect to see you at our classes next winter” was the reply.
“I went in not knowing anything,” says Rachlow. “How much I did not know was scary.”
Rachlow closely studied the rules, started at the youth level and soon got recruited for high school ball.
“You have to know the rules cold,” says Rachlow. “I thought I knew the rules as a coach.
“As umpires, we have to know all the rules — and not just fair/foul, ball/strike.”
There’s also game management.
“A lot of people can do 90 percent of it, but to move up you must have a feel for the game,” says Rachlow. “You can’t umpire by the book. You have to umpire with the book.
“Sometimes it’s the spirit of the rule.”
By 2009, he was working a college baseball schedule.
An owner for nearly 19 years with Luminary Wealth (formerly Capstone Advisors) — a financial investment firm in Fort Wayne — Rachlow has a partner that allows him the flexibility to work games in the NAIA-affiliated Crossroads League, NCAA Division III’s Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, occasional NCAA Division I or as a minor league fill-in for the the High-A Central League’s Fort Wayne TinCaps.
“It’s unbelievably a neat thing to do,” says Rachlow of the pro experience. “If I’m in front of 1,000 people that’s a big crowd for my usual games. There’s the sounds and the cheering (at Fort Wayne’s Parkview Field). You take that all in and it’s all directed at the field of play. As a fan you’re on the other side.
“I’m very grateful to be able to do that.”
Many of his assignments come through the College Baseball Umpires Association.
Each February, Rachlow escape the Indiana cold and goes to Port Charlotte, Fla., to umpire in the Snowbird Baseball Classic — a series of games involving NCAA D-I and D-III teams. The event is to include Indiana State University in 2022.
“I get some games under my belt before the Indiana season,” says Rachlow. “I also use it as a family vacation. My wife (Darlene) and dog come down. I get to umpire. She gets to go on the beach. It’s kind of a win-win.”
Bob and Darlene have two sons — Aaron (who turns 29 Sunday) and Nathan (26). Both played high school baseball.
Fort Wayne Black Christian School and Cedarville (Ohio) University graduate Aaron Rachlow began umpiring 10-year-old girls softball when he was 12 and is now a Cincinnati-based college umpire with a wife and a toddler.
Nathan Rachlow played in Fort Wayne’s Wildcat Baseball League and graduated from Lakewood Park Christian School and Indiana Tech.
Bob Rachlow hails from Itasca, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. He played baseball at Lake Park High School, where he graduated in 1979. He earned an Actuarial Science degree from the University of Iowa and went from Louisville to southern California and wound up to Fort Wayne in 1990.
Rachlow keeps a spreadsheet tracking his umpire assignments. He worked 124 games in 2021 and 114 in 2019. There was a dip in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of his spring games are of the college variety. In the summer, Rachlow umpires in the Fort Wayne Baseball Federation as well as the Indiana Summer Collegiate Summer Baseball League and Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.
Rachlow recalls an unusual play in one of his collegiate games.
With a runner at first base, a batter hit a liner to shortstop, who guided the ball with his glove to the ground then picked it out of the dirt and threw to second second for a force and the second base relayed to first base for an apparent double play.
“I had read about this in the rule book but had never seen it happen in real life,” says Rachlow. “I was the base umpire, and when I turned to see the shortstop ‘drop the ball,’ I called time – called the batter-runner out and put the runner back on first base. Then I turned to the shortstop and said, ‘nice try!’ He just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“What I thought was interesting was when he got back to the dugout, the coach called him over and said, ‘that may work in Little League, but not here at the collegiate level. What you should have done instead was catch the ball and fire it over to first base to double off the runner as he was initially running when the ball was hit.’
“Good teaching moment!”

Bob Rachlow.

Darlene and Bob Rachlow, the 2021 National Baseball Federation Umpire of the Year at the 107th NABF Major/Unlimited Division World Series in Battle Creek, Mich.

Bob Rachlow, the 2021 National Baseball Federation Umpire of the Year, and umpire in chief Dan Eversole at the 107th NABF Major/Unlimited Division World Series in Battle Creek, Mich.