Gumpf credits chemistry for major part in South Bend St. Joseph run to 3A title game

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

John Gumpf has enjoyed watching his South Bend St. Joseph Indians take turns wearing the hero label on the way to the program’s first IHSAA state championship game appearance.

“It’s not one person all the time doing it,” says Gumpf, who sends St. Joseph (24-4) against Jasper (30-4) in the 3A title game (following the 11 a.m. 1A game) Saturday June 17 at Victory Field in Indianapolis. “It could be top half the order one time. It could be the bottom half of the order one time. It could be our defense. It could be our pitching. It’s been a team effort throughout.”

Team chemistry has also played a major part in the Tribe’s success.

“(Chemistry) can take you a long way,” says Gumpf. “They’re a pretty loose group. They enjoy one another. They are definitely fighters. They don’t quit.”

Gumpf, who is in his 10th season as head coach, says he plans to send junior left-hander Michael Dunkelberger to the mound against Jasper. It has been Dunkelberger and junior right-hander Alex Voss logging most of the playoff innings for St. Joe.

The new IHSAA pitch count 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) have not been a real concern for Gumpf in ’17.

“My goal for these kids is to play at the next level and I don’t want to jeopardize anything by overthrowing them,” says Gumpf. “During the year, you’ve got to manage it a little more. We did have pitchers throwing their (between-appearances) bullpens more during games this year.”

Voss slammed a key three-run home run in the semistate.

The Indians’ path to the championship game includes wins over New Prairie and Culver Academies at the Jimtown Sectional, Griffith and John Glenn at the Griffith Regional and NorthWood at the Plymouth Semistate on the heels of a strong regular-season schedule which featured against Northern Indiana Conference foes Penn (2017 4A state finalist) and Glenn plus one game against 4A Plymouth and doubleheader vs. 3A Fort Wayne Dwenger.

St. Joe won its first 16 games of the season before falling to Penn in mid-May.

“I try to schedule games that will help us play into June,” says Gumpf, who also serves as assistant athletic director at St. Joe. “I think it has helped us.”

Gumpf, who played in the Minnesota Twins organization from 1989-92, coached high school baseball and junior college football in southern California before coming to South Bend when wife Deanna took an assistant softball job at Notre Dame (2017 was her 16th season as Irish head coach). John was a volunteer softball coach at ND for four seasons and volunteer Irish baseball assistant for three more before taking over the St. Joseph baseball program.

Gumpf, 45, is a stickler for the fundamentals.

“The biggest thing is doing the little things,” says Gumpf. “If you do the little things, the spectacular things will come.”

After giving his team Monday off, he planned to go back to work on Tuesday with the players and coaching staff of John Smolinski, Ray Torres, Nick Kleva, Drew Mentock, Dan Mentock, Ryan Newland, Ted Pajakowski and Tom Kostielney.

“We’re going up against a great baseball team in Jasper with great baseball tradition,” says Gumpf. “Hopefully they’re not scared, but excited to be a part of this.

“It’ll be fun If we do the best we can and bring home a state championship.”

John Gumpf, in his 10th season as head baseball coach at South Bend St. Joseph High School, will lead the Indians against Jasper in the IHSAA Class 3A championship game on Saturday, June 17. (St. Joseph Photo)

 

 

Sheets credits community support with role in NorthWood baseball success

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Wa-Nee sports fans have a reputation for backing their teams.

The latest example comes with NorthWood High School winning its fifth straight baseball sectional championship.

The folks of Wakarusa and Nappanee would really have turned out in force if the weather had cooperated and the event was held at NorthWood as scheduled.

But rains forced all but a few innings of the first game to be played at Wawasee.

Plenty of Panthers fans went to Syracuse to see NorthWood top Wawasee and Lakeland for a berth in the Class 3A Bellmont Regional on Saturday, June 3. Yorktown meets Norwell in Game 1, followed by NorthWood against Fort Wayne Concordia with the championship that night.

It’s nearly 90 miles to Decatur. But that’s not likely to stop NorthWood fans.

“It’s like we’re a big family,” says Panthers third-year head coach Jay Sheets, who was part of a sectional baseball championship team and an Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association All-Star as a NorthWood senior in 2007 before playing at Manchester University for coach Rick Espeset. “People rally together. “Parents want to see all the kids do well. On Memorial Day — with other things going on — we had a big crowd (at the sectional championship game).”

NorthWood (24-1) lost 1-0 in its season opener against Westview and have won 19 times by allowing three runs or less.

“Our pitching and defense does not give up a lot of runs,” says Sheets. “Our hitting is coming around at the right time.”

The workhorse has been senior Drake Gongwer (a Taylor University commit), but the Panthers have a half dozen capable arms.

Sheets, 29, credits the Class of ’17 for leading the way this spring.

“We have five phenomenal seniors,” says Sheets of a group that includes Gongwer, Drew Minnich, Vincent Herschberger, Jaron Mullet and Travis Stephenson. “They’ve instilled work ethic in our younger guys.”

Gongwer, Minnich, Herschberger and Moore were all regulars as sophomores in Sheets’ first season as head coach after a few leading the junior varsity. “They’re all battle-tested. They know what (regional) is going to be like with the crowd sizes. They can tell the younger guys.”

Even so, the Panthers might have a few butterflies. That does not bother their head coach.

“Nerves are a good thing in my mind,” says Sheets. “They keep you on your toes.”

Sheets, a third grade teacher at Wakarusa Elementary, is helped in the dugout by Todd Cleveland (pitching coach), Matt Cox (hitting and outfielders coach), Greg Estepp (junior varsity head coach) and Aaron Arnold (JV assistant).

Success is a tradition for NorthWood baseball. With the latest hardware, the Panthers have won 11 sectionals.

The 2017 Panthers won the Northern Lakes Conference. Other NLC members are Concord, Elkhart Memorial, Goshen, Northridge, Plymouth, Warsaw and Wawasee.

Jay Sheets, a 2007 NorthWood High School graduate, is in his third season as head baseball coach at his alma mater. The Bellmont Regional-bound Panthers won their fifth straight sectional in 2017.

Archuleta, Southern Indiana back in NCAA D-II regional

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

There’s a tradition of diamond excellence in Evansville.

For the seventh time in the 11 seasons, University of Southern Indiana baseball finds itself in regional play.

The 20th-ranked Screaming Eagles (32-19) are the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional and will meet No. 7 Saint Joseph’s (Ind.) on Thursday afternoon. The event is slated for Thursday to Monday, May 18-22.

The field at Gerace Baseball Stadium in Midland, Mich., also features top seed and host Northwood (Mich.) (43-11), No. 3 Quincy (Ill.) (32-20), No. 4 Drury (Mo.) (36-18), No. 5 Bellarmine (Ky.) (34-19), No. 6 Wayne State (Mich.) (31-19) and No. 8 Kentucky Wesleyan (27-22). Northwood (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), Quincy (Great Lakes Valley Conference) and Kentucky Wesleyan (Great Midwest Athletic Conference) are automatic qualifiers and the others were awarded at-large berths.

Regional champions will advance to the double-elimination Division II College World Series May 27-June 3 at The Ballpark at Grand Prairie in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Why is USI in the title mix again?

“I don’t think there’s a magical secret,” says 11th-year Screaming Eagles coach Tracy Archuleta. “We’ve been fortunate to be around some good baseball players that have a common goal and they’re able to make a deep run into the postseason. Since 2007, we’ve built that tradition and that expectation to get the (College) World Series and compete at a high level.”

Archuleta took USI to the D-II CWS in 2007 and the Screaming Eagles won it all in 2010 and 2014.

The winning has helped attract players willing to work and do what its necessary keep that team success going. The 2017 roster features 26 players with Indiana hometowns.

“It’s those little intangible things you look for when you go out recruiting,” says Archuleta. ”We want to bring in the best players in the state of Indiana and our area.”

NCAA D-II is allowed to give nine scholarships. USI fully funds six.

“We work within our budget,” says Archuleta. “That’s the way it is.”

Archuleta, who has more than 550 victories in his 16th season as a college head coach, carries high expectations in the way the Eagles prepare.

“I’m a guy who demands a lot from my players as far as putting in the work,” says Archuleta. “I want our guys to be able to understand what we’re trying to do at practice so when we get to the game they’re going to be instinctive and be able to react to situations.

“I’m not a micro-manager once the game starts.”

Player development is a very important component of USI’s winning ways.

“As a staff, we really want to make that player better,” says Archuleta. “We focus on individual skills stuff.”

The 2017 coaching staff includes Jeremy Kuester, Ryan Bertram and Kevin Brown.

Kuester has been with Archulea since 2010. He is USI’s pitching coach.

Bertram played four years for Archuleta and is now a graduate assistant.

Former big leaguer and USI player Brown is a volunteer. Bertram and Brown work with hitters and catchers.

While playing at Northwood will be a new experience for Archuleta, going against Saint Joseph’s will not since the Eagles and Pumas are both in the GLVC. With Saint Joe closing its doors, the May 6-7 series in Rensselaer was USI’s last.

“If was sad day,” says Archuleta of that final Sunday. “Coach (Rick) O’Dette does a great job. He’s made that program have a lot of pride and tradition. I have tremendous respect for him and the institution.”

It’s the lasting strength of GLVC baseball that gives the Eagles confidence at postseason time.

“The conference over the years just continues to get better,” says Archuleta. “It definitely prepares us.”

Archuleta is a graduate of Caliche High School in Colorado. He played at NCAA Division II Metropolitan State of Denver 1993-96. Building up a network in the D-II baseball world, he was an assistant coach at D-II Wayne State (Neb.) and Central Missouri State before serving five seasons as head coach at D-II Wisconsin-Parkside. He took the Rangers to their first-ever NCAA tournament.

Then he landed at D-II USI and fell in love with the program, institution and city.

“It’s a great university and great community,” says Archuleta. “We really have a great backing. Evansville is a great place to raise a family.”

On the diamond, Archuleta and the Eagles hope to keep raising banners.

Tracy Archuleta is in his 11th season as head baseball coach at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. He has the Screaming Eagles in the NCAA Division II regional for the seventh time in those 11 years. (USI Photo)

Discipline, structure part of Nielsen’s Concord program

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Regimented and respectful.

Those are concepts Eric Nielsen is establishing in his second season as Concord High School head baseball coach.

“I’m very structured,” says Nielsen, who followed the retiring Jim Treadway as leader of the Minutemen. “All our practices are planned out. We have times and we stick to those times. Guys hustle everywhere they go. We’re very disciplined and are going to play the game the right way. I teach them to respect the game. There’s no trash talking at all. I’m big on body language.”

It’s taken some time, but players are starting to come around to Nielsen’s way of doing things.

“You are starting to see people buying into that,” says Nielsen. “They know what’s expected. Seniors will get on guys if they are not doing things the right way. That’s less that I have to do because that expectation is there.”

Nielsen was an all-state catcher at Elkhart Memorial High School, graduating in 2004. He went to be a regular behind the plate at Purdue University. His first high school head coaching stops came at Mt. Vernon (Fortville) and Knightstown before he moved back to north central Indiana.

Along the way, he has learned how to read his young athletes.

“I’ve learned really well how to manage the players,” says Nielsen. “I think that’s why (Chicago Cubs manager) Joe Maddon is so good at what he does. He’s not managing baseball, he’s managing people. In the olden days with (LaPorte coach) Ken Schreiber, it was this is the way it is and if you don’t like it ‘see ya!’ It was hard-nosed and it was tough.”

And while Nielsen considers himself a traditional, hard-nosed guy, he knows he has to motivate in a different way and keep his players engaged.

“If you know the game of baseball and you can build relationships, you’re going to be very successful, pending you have the talent,” says Nielsen. “I’ve seen teams that have the talent but they never go anywhere because they are so done with the season by the time the state tournament comes around. They’re cashed out.”

A syndrome that baseball and other spring sports face is a loss of focus because it’s the end of the school year. For 12th graders, they call it “senioritis.” But other grades — and even coaches — can get it, too.

Nielsen insists on holding out a carrot for his players.

“You’ve got to have them chasing something,” says Nielsen. “If you don’t, they’re going let up.

“How do you intrinisically motivate the player to want to compete? I tell them to get caught up in the process, don’t get caught up in the results.

“If I can get the process important to them then the results will come. If the process is not important to them, they don’t want to compete and there’s no reason for them to put in everything they have, you’re going to get that apathy.”

Nielsen looks at his 2017 team and sees pitching depth. At least nine of 12 varsity players can take the mound.

“The hard part is finding out who is my No. 1 and No. 2, who’s my best reliever,” says Nielsen. “We’re still in the process of finding that out.”

Along with pitching coach Mike McGregor, Nielsen looks at pitchers not only in terms of physical talent but what’s happening between the ears.

“We’re trying to teach mental toughness on the mound,” says Nielsen. “If we can have guys that will compete, saying ‘I’m going to strike this guy out.’ Even if they don’t, they are going to distinguish themselves from the rest of the players.”

What about the new pitch count rule?

“I thought it was going to be a bigger issue than it has been,” says Nielsen. “I traditionally don’t have guys throw that much anyway. I don’t push the 120 spot. As long as they’re under 80, I know how many days they need off.

“I thought I’d be juggling a lot. It hasn’t been too bad.”

Nielsen said the pitch count rule will likely be more of an issue during the IHSAA tournament series than the regular season.

“People are going to watch that really close,” says Nielsen.

Concord spends plenty of time at its regimented practices on “small ball.” The Minutemen work on moving runners with the bunt.

“We don’t have anybody on the team we can rely on to hit the long ball yet,” says Nielsen.

Something that Nielsen established in his first season at Concord was an Armed Forces Day (Concord Baseball Armed Forces Day on Facebook). It was such a hit, the Minutemen will be pay tribute to those who have served Saturday, May 6 when South Bend Adams visits for a 10 a.m. game.

Father Scott Nielsen (Army during Vietnam era) and grandfather Bob Burns (Air Force during World War II) and assistant coach Jason Paulson (Marines) are all people close to Nielsen with military ties.

As a social studies teacher at CHS, he also gets a chance to tell students about the importance of the military.

“It’s good to show the kids what these guys are doing day in and day out for our country and show them appreciation for the sacrifices that they make and have made for our freedom,” says Nielsen, whose other assistants are Sean Sears and Nic Minder.

The Minutemen compete in the Northern Lakes Conference (along with Elkhart Memorial, Goshen, Northridge, NorthWood, Plymouth, Warsaw and Wawasee). The double round robin NLC race began this week.

Eric Nielsen, a 2004 Elkhart Memorial High School graduate, is in his second season as head baseball coach at Concord High School. He was a catcher at Purdue University.

Reinhardt reflects on two decades at Bethany Christian

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Only three men in the last half century have held the title of head baseball coach at Bethany Christian High School.

Dan Bodiker led the program 1966-95.

Jason Leichty served 1996-97.

Brent Reinhardt has been in charge 1998 to the present.

Reinhardt, who took a teaching job at the private school on the south side of Goshen the same academic year he assumed baseball coaching duties, has announced that this spring — his 20th — will be his last season as head coach.

While he plans to stay around baseball as a summer youth coach and remain in his role as varsity assistant girls basketball coach, he is stepping away from his spring diamond job.

The father of four (Brent and college sweetheart Marla have BC graduate and Grace College freshman Alex, junior Brooke, eighth grader Mia and fourth grader Jacoby) took the time this week to discuss his baseball past, present and future.

Alex has played junior varsity baseball this spring for the Lancers. The two girls are both athletes and Brent plans to see them play for Bethany in 2017-18. He also intends to form a 12U team in the Boys of Summer League that will include Jacoby and other Bethany students.

Stepping down in the spring will also give him more time for at-home projects and taking care of his sheep.

Reinhardt says he could see himself returning to high school baseball coaching someday, but as an assistant. He would leave the administrative work to the head coach.

Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association members who reach 20 years of service are designated as a “dinosaur” and receive a T-shirt declaring their jurassic credentials.

“It’s kind of interesting being a ‘dinosaur,’” says Reinhardt. “I just had opportunities earlier than most people did.

“But when you look around, there’s hardly anyone still around when I played (Reinhardt is a 1988 NorthWood High School graduate who played for Bob Riley and Dennis Myers before playing for DeVon Hoffman at Goshen College, where he met volleyball player and wife-to-be Marla Gerber).”

Bodiker and Hoffman are to be honored when Goshen visits Bethany at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 2. RedHawks head coach Josh Keister also played for Hoffman (who is also a former Goshen High head coach) at GC.

Even though Reinhardt is just 47, this is his 25th straight spring of leading teenagers with bats and balls. He was NorthWood’s head softball coach for five seasons before being hired at Bethany.

Why has he stuck around for two decades?

“I just love baseball and I love kids,” says Reinhardt. “I love the turning of winter into spring and the new life. That six to eight weeks just flies by.”

Reinhardt, a social studies teacher, has spread the game to non-players through baseball-themed Interterm/J-Term sessions.

One year, he took students to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Another time, he had them develop a minor league franchise where they had to pick the city, name the team, identify the ballpark food and construct a model of the stadium.

Reinhardt grew up a Chicago Cubs fan.

“It’s been a tradition in our family,” says Reinhardt. “Last year was pretty exciting.”

As a high schooler, Reinhardt’s favorite player was Ryne Sandberg. His favorite Cub from the 2016 World Series champions is Anthony Rizzo.

“I really like the way he plays and his leadership,” says Reinhardt. “I think he’s the face of the Cubs.”

Bethany is a Class 1A school with one IHSAA sectional title in school history (1987) and is often taking the field with teams full of players with more skill.

This gives the Bruins chances to see what it’s like to face challenges and overcome adversity.

“There’s a lot of lessons in just going out there and fighting and scratching and clawing and, at the end of the day, saying you gave it your best,” says Reinhardt. “Those are good life lessons.”

Teaching the fundamentals has also been fun for Reinhardt.

“Sometimes I’ve really had to break it down because we had some really inexperienced players in some years,” says Reinhardt. “You see a lot of improvement from freshmen to senior year if they stick with it. That’s gratifying to see that.”

A small school like Bethany allows students to get involved with many activities. Reinhardt knows he will be sharing his players with choir programs and other athletic teams.

“That’s just the way it is,” says Reinhardt. “We want to develop balanced kids who can do lots of things.”

It’s all the educational experiences that count.

“I’d like to win sectionals and state titles and those sorts of the things. But I’ll look back on all those great kids and see what they’re doing now and how they’re changing the world.

“Hopefully, they’ll look back and say baseball was fun. One of my biggest hopes is to have them playing catch with their children, taking them to games and passing on the love of baseball.”

Brent Reinhardt has announced that 2017 is his 20th and last season as head baseball coach at Bethany Christian High School.