Carmel alum Williams contributes for Michigan State

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Christian Williams was in the mix Friday, May 3 as Michigan State University edged visiting rival Michigan 3-2 in Big Ten Conference baseball.

The righty-swinging redshirt junior occupied the No. 6 slot in the Spartans lineup.

Another Williams — Nick — lofted a 10th-inning sacrifice fly that won the game and was mobbed by his teammates.

Heading into Game 2 of the three-game Saturday, May 4 at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field in East Lansing, Mich., Christian Williams has played in 39 contests (37 starts) and is hitting .280 (37-of-132) with three home runs, no triples, eight doubles, 24 runs batted in, 28 runs scored and an .831 OPS (.422 on-base percentage plus .409 slugging average). The designated hitter has eight multi-hit games with four safeties Feb. 24 against Marshall and three Feb. 28 at Georgia.

“I just like to see the ball in the heart of the plate,” says Williams of his offensive approach. “I look for something middle-middle with the fastball and use my athleticism to adjust from there.”

Williams was red-shirted for the 2021 season. In 2022, he played in 24 games (18 starts) and hit .258 (17-of-66) with two homers, two triples, four doubles, 16 RBIs, 14 runs and a .816 OPS (.346/.470). As a catcher, he made 84 putouts with six assists and posted a .978 fielding percentage.

A broken hamate bone in his hand suffered while swinging the bat limited Williams to just two games for the 2023 Spartans. 

He was with the Midwest Collegiate League’s Northwest Indiana Oilmen (the MCL is now the Northern League) in the summer of 2021, the champion Bag Bandits in the College Summer League at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind., in 2022, missed 2023 while rehabbing from his hamate surgery and plans to go this summer with the Coastal Plain League’s Lexington County (S.C.) Blowfish. He is to be be joined by MSU teammate Sam Busch.

Williams, 22, has at least one year of remaining eligibility and could have two if he seeks and is granted a medical redshirt for ’23. He graduated April 29 with a Kinesiology degree. He plans to pursue a certificate in Coaching, Leadership and Administration while playing in 2024-25. 

What about his defensive keys while behind the plate?

“Catching’s a tough position. You’re seeing the whole field. You’re kind of the unsung hero at times. Good catchers go unnoticed. 

“When I’m back there I try to help my pitchers as best as I can and be a leader on the field — stay calm, cool, collected and athletic and try to help the team win.”

It was at about age 12 that Williams became a catcher.

“When I was younger I liked the gear,” says Williams of why he decided to be a backstop. “I just stuck with it.”

Born in Tampa, Fla., Williams moved to Indiana at about 3 months. I’ve been in Indiana for most of my life. He played rec ball in Pike Township in Indianapolis until 12.

There was followed by a four-year stint in Michigan where he earned two baseball letters at Northville High School playing for head coach John Kostrzewa and played travel ball for the Michigan Bulls.

When he returned to the Hoosier State, Williams went with the Indiana Bulls for his 17U summer and earned two baseball letters at Carmel (Ind.) High School with his 2020 senior season taken away by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Greyhounds head coach was Matt Buczkowski.

“He was a great coach,” says Williams of Buczkowski. “He’s a great leader and a great guy. He led us in the right direction. He let us have fun — but at the same time — kept us on the straight and narrow.

“He kept us serious when we needed to be. We won a lot of games.”

Christian is the son of Alan and Lisa Williams. Dad played football at Williams & Mary University and mom soccer at Slippery Rock University. 

Among his football-coaching father’s teams have been the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears. He is taking the year off.

Two brothers — Solomon Williams (Carmel Class of 2022 now a safety at Princeton University) and Nathan Williams (Carmel Class of 2025 and exploring college options) — are football players.

At Carmel (Ind.) High School, Christian was a quarterback, receiver and kick returner and considered football as his collegiate route. 

“I had a strong thought,” says Williams, who won four football letters as a high schooler and helped Carmel to a 2019 Class 6A state runner-up finish with 118 all-purpose yards in the title game. “I was being recruited in both (baseball and football) until just before my senior year. Ultimately, I decided on baseball. I couldn’t forgive myself if I wasn’t able to swing a bat again.

“I hit the recruiting process hard and ended up here at Michigan State.”

MSU counts Jake Boss Jr., as head coach.

“He’s a great leader and a strong Christian guy,” says Williams of Boss. “He’s an awesome guy to play for. He lets us do our thing and have fun.”

Spartans hitting coach duties fall to former Western Michigan University shortstop Andrew Stone.

“He’s taught me how to be a good, mature hitter, stay inside the baseball, take good swings and work on my mechanics,” says Williams of Stone. “I work on my approach at the plate and the mental side and being confident and collected.”

Adam Eaton, who logged 10 Major League Baseball seasons, is Michigan State’s director of player development.

“Just learning from a big leaguer has been amazing,” says Williams of Eaton. “He just has a different mentality and approach to the game. To pick up on little things that he teaches us has been huge for me.

“It’s really the mental side and how to be a good baseball player as much as the X’s and O’s and swing techniques. How do I approach baseball on a day-to-day basis? How do I show up and play hard? What do coaches look for?”

The rest of the MSU coaching staff includes Graham Sikes and Mark Van Ameyde plus director of baseball operations Tommy Merlo.

Williams’ favorite MLB team is the Boston Red Sox. He picked that up from his mother who grew up in New England and her side of the family.

Former Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia was a special player to Williams.

“He was a smaller player and I’ve always a shorter guy,” says Williams, who is 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds. “I liked how he played the game hard and well at his size.”

Christian Williams. (Michigan State University Photo)

Christian Williams. (Michigan State University Photo)

Christian Williams. (Michigan State University Photo)

Christian Williams. (Michigan State University Photo)

Christian Williams. (Michigan State University Photo)

Mokma does his part to help Huntington U. pitchers reach their goals

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Even before Mike Mokma became part of the baseball coaching staff at Huntington (Ind.) University, he was getting to know Foresters players.

Mokma, a standout right-handed pitcher at Holland (Mich.) Christian High School (2013-16) and Michigan State University (2017-19) who competed in the Los Angeles Dodgers (2021) and Seattle Mariners systems (2022) and served as head coach at South Christian High School in Grand Rapids, Mich. (spring of 2023), was the pitching coach for the Jamie Sailors-managed Lafayette (Ind.) Aviators (summer of 2023).

Prospect League member Lafayette featured Huntington pitchers Graham Kollen and Tyler Papenbrock and catcher Sebastian Kuhns and it was with the Aviators that Mokma met HU head coach Thad Frame. 

Hired by Huntington in August, Mokma reunited with the three Foresters who were part of a team that went 37-16 overall and 27-9 in NAIA Crossroads League when he arrived on campus in the fall as Frame’s pitching coach. 

The emphasis for Mokma, 25, has been development.

“It’s how we can get our guys to achieve the goals they want to achieve as well as the goals we want to achieve (as a team),” says Mokma. “It’s just being there all the time for them.

“What’s our plan on the mound every time we go out? What’s that look like opponent to opponent? What makes our guys good?”

The 2023 campaign ended with a 6-5 loss to Indiana Wesleyan University in the championship game of the CL tournament at HU’s Forest Glen Park. Two conference teams — IWU and Taylor University — moved on to NAIA Opening Round play then wound up at the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. Taylor is No. 9 and Indiana Wesleyan No. 14 in the 2023-24 Top 25 preseason rankings.

“Our expectations are to get the NAIA World Series,” says Mokma. “You look inside of that and it’s what we did last year and what we’re going to do. Our emphasis this year are the little things. What little things did not allow us to (make the 2023 NAIA tournament)? Everyone coming back knows the feeling of not being able to get there.

“You see how close we got last year. You clean up a few of the little things, there’s your opportunity.”

Mokma splits recruiting duties with Huntington assistant Jamar Weaver.

“For me, it’s finding guys that I feel fit out pitching staff with make-up, repertoire and how they compete,” says Mokma. “We’re looking for the best players that we feel fit us.”

The current 2024 online roster includes 24 players with Indiana hometowns plus three from Ohio and one each from Kentucky, New York, Canada, Curacao and the Dominican Republic.

Cost is the same for all players — in-state or out-of-state. Athletic scholarship money is based on a Crossroads League spending limit.

“Almost every kid coming in will get some kind of academic scholarship,” says Mokma. 

Frame plus assistants Weaver and Andy Vaught and graduate assistant Langston Ginder are all HU graduates. Ginder played for the 2023 Foresters.

At the NCAA D-I level, there are 11.7 available scholarships divided among 27 players on a 35-man roster. Mokma says he does not recall that anyone at Michigan State was on a “full-ride” is his three seasons in East Lansing.

Mokma grew up in Holland and played summer travel ball for Elite Baseball of Grand Rapids and occasionally was picked up for tournaments by the Kalamazoo Maroons. Jim Caserta was the Holland Christian head coach. 

Scott and Jennifer Mokma had two sons on the field when HCHS (also known as the Maroons) won a Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 2 state championship in 2016. Mike Mokma was pitching and little brother Chris Mokma, a freshman, was at first baseman.

In Mike’s junior and senior years of high school, he earned basketball letters with Jason Mejeur as head coach.

At Michigan State, the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Mokma made 34 mound appearances (18 starts) and went 4-7 with a 3.71 earned run average, 85 strikeouts and 37 walks in 111 2/3 innings. 

As a Spartan, Mokma discovered his diamond identity.

“I learned just who I was as a pitcher,” says Mokma. “I got to college and I could throw hard and I could throw strikes. But besides that it was how I could get guys out and how I could go deep into games.

“When you go against big-time hitters you get intimidated pretty quick, especially being a young freshman. I had to learn quickly that who I was had nothing to do with who they were and my best was going to beat their best. It wasn’t easy, but once I learned that the confidence went up from there.”

Jake Boss Jr., was — and still is — head coach at Michigan State. Recruited by Mark Van Ameyde, Mokma had two pitching coaches at MSU — Skyler Meade (now head coach at Troy, Ala., University) in 2017 and Van Ameyde (who head coach at Eastern Michigan University then came back for his second stint as a Spartans assistant) in 2018 and 2019.

Mokma pitched in 53 professional games (all in relief) and went 7-5 with two saves, a 3.32 ERA, 78 strikeouts and 25 walks in 81 1/3 innings. He was in the Dodgers organization for three years but only go to play for one. Injured in March 2019, he spent the rest of the year rehabbing though was signed by LA as an undrafted free agent. The COVID-19 pandemic took away the 2020 minor league season. 

He finally pitched in a game again in 2021 for the High Class-A Great Lakes Loons (Midland, Mich.). A free agent at season’s end, Mokma was inked by the Seattle Mariners organization and hurled for the High Class-A Everett (Wash.) AquaSox in 2022. 

“I learned the mental game of baseball is a very funny thing,” says Mokma of his pro experience. “I think it’s overlooked from a pitching standpoint. I learned to control what you can control not let your highs get too high or your lows get too low.”

Mokma decided to make 2022 has last season as a player. He earned his degree from MSU in Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science and began his coaching career in 2023, leading the program at South Christian. 

“I always wanted to get into coaching,” says Mokma. “I always wanted to give back and do the same that every coach I’ve had has helped me with, getting them where they want to be.”

Mentors include Caserta, who also led West Ottawa High School in Holland to an MHSAA Division I state crown in 2003, and David Kool, Michigan’s Mr. Basketball in 2006 at South Christian and Western Michigan University’s all-time leading scorer with 2,122 points and a former Holland Christian head boys basketball coach and now the South Christian athletic director.

“Both of them have told me some of the things I’m going to run into and here’s a framework for a lot of things,” says Mokma. “With (Caserta), we were going get our work in, do the best we can and we’re going to get out.”

Caserta is now quarterbacks coach for Holland-based Hope College football.

Chris Mokma, who was a back-up catcher and first baseman on the varsity as a freshman and grew to be a 6-foot-4 right-handed pitcher with multiple perfect games, committed to Michigan State but was selected in the 12th round of the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Miami Marlins and went pro. He has logged 80 minor league games 2019, 2021-23. He was with the High Class-A Midwest League’s Beloit (Wis.) Sky Carp in parts of 2022 and 2023.

“He’s always been able to control the fastball a little bit better than I have,” says Mike of Chris. “He’s got a really good change-up. I never had a change-up. I was always a fastball/slider guy. That’s what I relied on.”

In a pairing of former NCAA Division I athletes, Mike and Miranda (O’Donald) Mokma were married October 2020 in Emmaus, Pa. She is from that Lehigh Valley town and played softball for three years while majoring in Sport Management at the University of Delaware. The couple met in the summer of 2018 when Mike was playing in the Cape Cod League with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks and Miranda was doing an internship.

Huntington is scheduled to open the 2024 baseball season Feb. 9 against MidAmerican Nazarene in Olathe, Kan.

Mike Mokma. (Los Angeles Dodgers Photo)

Mike Mokma. (Michigan State University Photo)

Mike Mokma. (Everett AquaSox Photo)

Lake Central alum Tomasic’s diamond path takes twists, turns

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

Circumstances have caused Conner Tomasic to build his baseball and academic careers in unique ways. 
The 2018 graduate of Lake Central High School in St. John, Ind., went to Purdue University in West Lafayette for two seasons (2019 and 2020), transferred to South Suburban College in South Holland, Ill., for one (2021) and then came back to the Big Ten with Michigan State University (2022).
The right-handed pitcher has another year of college eligibility, but his next move might be as an independent pro.
This fall, Tomasic is a commuter student at Purdue Northwest in Hammond, Ind., while staying prepared for his diamond future. His major is Construction Engineering and Management Technology.
Tomasic entered college as a Kinesiology major. Having had Tommy John surgery in high school he had worked with plenty of physical therapists. A Biology course at Purdue made him decide that was not the path for him. He followed some teammates and went with construction.
“I like to see things in front of me and work with my hands,” says Tomasic. “It felt like a teamwork class. I felt comfortable with it.
“You learned how to deal with people and work a job site.
An associate degree was earned at South Suburban, a two-year school. But Tomasic also faced a bit of a curve. He had to switch his major at Michigan State to Psychology to stay eligible.
A 6-foot-1, 185-pounder, Tomasic took the mound 17 times (nine as a starter) for head coach Jake Boss Jr.’s MSU Spartans. He went 4-4 with a 5.40 earned run average, 41 strikeouts and 26 walks in 65 innings.
Because of the work load, Tomasic did not play summer ball, focusing on strength training. In July, he began traveling from Schererville, Ind., to PRP Baseball in Noblesville, Ind., to work with Director of Player Development/Pitching Anthony Gomez. The two have known each other since Tomasic — who turned 23 in August — was an eighth or ninth grader and Gomez was coaching in northwest Indiana.
“We’ve always been close,” says Tomasic of Gomez. “It’s nice to work with someone who’s seen me grow up and develop.
“He knows my delivery almost as well as I do. He knows what I need at the end of the day.”
His PNW classes meet Monday through Thursday then Tomasic heads to central Indiana for workouts later that day or on Friday before returning to The Region.
Tomasic has three pitches — a four-seam fastball, slider and change-up.
His four-seamer was clocked at 92.9 mph this summer at 93 mph at South Suburban.
His slider — often thrown between 77 to 79 mph — has evolved.
“When I first started throwing it, it was a ‘gyro,’ says Tomasic of the pitch’s movement. “Now it’s getting mike more a ‘bullet’ slider. You can see the dot (as it rotates).
“My change-up, some people think it’s a splitter. It depends on what it’s doing that day. The majority of the time it’s going to sink and have arm-side run. But sometimes it dives straight down.”
Tomasic describes his delivery as “a little funky.”
The arm angle is about mid-three quarter overhand. But the delivery comes low.
“It’s something (opposing batters) don’t see that often,” says Tomasic. “My fastball plays up in the zone so it seems fast than it is.”
Tomasic sees determination and focus as two of his best athletic qualities.
“I’m a guy who know how to separate his sport from his daily life,” says Tomasic. “If I have a bad, I flush it. If I have a good day, I forget about it quick.
“You’ve got the day ahead of you in baseball.”
Born in Hammond and raised in Schererville, Conner is the oldest of Jerry and Dena Tomasic’s two children. Jennifer Tomasic (Lake Central Class of 2021) played basketball at Indiana University Northwest in Gary and Governors State University (University Park, Ill.).
Jerry Tomasic was born in Yugoslavia before that country split and moved to the U.S. around 2. He played baseball but not past junior high and went on to play basketball at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa.
Dena Tomasic works at Cheers Food & Drink in Munster, Ind.
Conner played for the Dyer team that finished runner-up to eventual Little League World Series qualifier New Castle in 2012.
When he was ready for a travel ball transition outside northwest Indiana at 15 to 16 he was unable to play for Top Tier because of his injured elbow.
Tomasic shined as a two-way player at Lake Central and got to swing the bat for head coaches Mark Wasikowski and Greg Goff at Purdue and Steve Ruzich at South Suburban.
As a three-year letterwinner and four-time scholar-athlete at LC, he played for head coaches Jeff Sandor and Mike Swartzentruber.
The Indians won sectional titles in baseball and basketball in 2018 and Tomasic played a part while earning LCHS Pride, Hustle and Desire in both sports. He also earned 2018 Perfect Game All-American and All-Region Team honors.
He was the Roger Maris MVP in leading Team Serbia to the title in the 2018 International Baseball Challenge Tournament in Whiting, Ind.
In two seasons at Purdue, he hit .250 (3-of-12) with a triple in three runs batted and made one putout and five assists in the field. He pitched in 19 games (all in relief) with an 0-1 record, 4.30 ERA, 18 strikeouts and 11 walks in 25 1/3 innings.
At South Suburban, the pitcher/middle infielder was an National Junior College Athletic Association all-region selection as he hit .392 with 60 hits, including eighth home runs, three triples and 12 doubles with 49 RBIs, 28 walks and 15 stolen bases. On the bump, he was 6-1 with a 4.64 ERA, 81 strikeouts and 22 walks in 64 innings.
Tomasic played for the Northwoods League’s Bismarck (N.D.) Larks and Midwest Collegiate League’s (now Northern League’s) Northwest Indiana Oilmen in the summers of 2019 and 2020.
Along the way the focus became pitching rather than two-way player.
“I think I’m athletic enough,” says Tomasic. “I can pull it off.”

Conner Tomasic. (Michigan State University)

Conner Tomasic. (Michigan State University)

Conner Tomasic. (Michigan State University)