BY STEVE KRAH
How committed to baseball are Daylan Nanny and his friends?
At the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown, Nanny, brothers Cooper and Grant Trinkle and Caleb Clark spent nearly a month in a Franklin, Ind., training facility.
“We slept on air mattresses and — gross enough — we took showers in sinks,” says Nanny. “We lived in there for 27 days the first part of quarantine.”
The buddies trained every single day. Cooper Trinkle is on the team at Indiana University. Garrett Trinkle is committed to John A. Logan College. Clark is on his way to Post University in Connecticut.
“That will be my biggest memory from the quarantine,” says Nanny, a 2017 Plainfield (Ind.) High School graduate who has played three collegiate seasons — one at Arizona Western College (2018) and the last two at Western Carolina University (2019 and 2020).
Nanny, who bats and throws lefty and plays in the outfield and at first base, goes after baseball and life the same way.
“My biggest strength is my ability to want to get better every single day,” says Nanny. “I showed up to the park everyday with a plan of how I want to attack the day. I see where I’m at and where I need to get better in order to take my game to the next level.”
Nanny says he’s always been that way.
“That’s the way my dad raised me,” says Daylan, the oldest son of Jamie and Jennifer and older brother of Skylar (12), a player for Evoshield Canes Midwest. “Be your own biggest critic and always find a way to get better so you’re never really getting complacent.”
Nanny has learned its not hard to settle.
“It’s easy to do,” says Nanny. “You see a lot of guys do it.
“The guys who can push themselves — day in and day out — and find a way to get better, even if it’s something super small, hopefully it makes a difference in the end.”
Nanny hit .394 for his high school career, including .452 with a career-high 38 hits as a senior and earned honorable mention on the 2017 Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Class 4A all-state team.
Originally committed to the University of Evansville, Nanny played one junior college campaign at Arizona Western and hit .347 with 11 doubles, one triple, one home run, 34 runs batted in and 46 runs scored to go with 39 walks and a .487 on-base percentage in 57 games.
At NCAA Division I Western Carolina in Cullowhee, N.C., he started 50 times as a sophomore (42 in right field, seven at first base and one at designated hitter) and batted .320 with seven homers, 19 doubles, 31 RBIs, 22 walks and a .403 OBP.
Nanny played in all 15 games before the season was halted, starting 12 in the outfield and three at first base. He batted .211 (12-for-57) on the shortened season with four doubles and seven RBIs while scoring 12 runs.
“I had some uneasiness about how the spring went,” says Nanny. “I had two really good weeks and I had two really bad weeks. I really couldn’t get into a rhythm. It was good-bad-good-bad.
“I had a 1-for-14 stretch at the end that didn’t sit too well with me. I thought I had put in a lot of work to be ready for the season and it didn’t happen.”
Not that he would go back and change it.
“It helped me figure out what I really do to be successful,” says Nanny. “I learned from it. I grew from it.
“I’m a way better baseball player now because of that struggle.”
Nanny was selected to play in the Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational June 4-6 in Bryan, Texas.
What’s the baseball future hold?
“The way the world is right now, you’ve got to be ready for anything,” says Nanny, who has two years of college eligibility remaining thanks to an extra year granted by the NCAA with a big portion of 2020 being wiped away. “I don’t want to rule anything out. It’s very different times to say the least.
“If I go back to Western Carolina, I go back to Western Carolina. If I sign (a pro contract), I sign. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m prepared for anything that comes my way.”
Nanny is one year away from a Psychology degree. What he learns in the class room — or online — he tries to apply to his daily life, including on the diamond.
“I find myself learning about the mental side of the game more,” says Nanny.
One of his favorite books is “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great” by Joshua Medcalf.
“I read it once every couple months,” says Nanny. “It’s a very interesting book that gave me a whole different perspective on how to go through the day in and day out of the baseball grind and how to mentally be able to stay at an even keel level.
“This game is hard and it’s easy to let the game get you down. The game’s going to hit you and you have to be ready for it.
“You have to control the things you can control you can control on a daily basis to give yourself the best chance for success. Once you take that swing or the ball leaves your hand, it’s out of your control. You have to be OK with that.”
Nanny notes that “Chop Wood Carry Water” is not a sports book.
“It’s more of a life book, honestly,” says Nanny. “I don’t get too into sports psychology. I try to keep it as basic as possible.
“It’s finding the simplicity within the complexity.”
Born in Indianapolis, Nanny moved from the Ben Davis to the Plainfield school district as a middle schooler. From the age of 13, he played travel baseball with the Indiana Outlaws (now known as the Evoshield Canes Midwest).
Three men who made an impact on his early baseball career and life are David Bear, Jeff McKeon and Zeke Mitchem.
Bear, who is head baseball coach at Ben Davis High School, was a travel coach for Nanny for multiple summers.
McKeon, who is head coach at South Putnam, was head coach at Plainfield High School when Nanny was active with the Quakers.
“I’ve been blessed,” says Nanny. “Those two have always had my back. They’ve been the most-supportive coaches along the way.”
Mitchem led the offense at Western Arizona.
“He helped me transition from a really good high school hitter to an elite college hitter,” says Nanny.
At Western Carolina, Nanny gets daily help from Catamounts head coach Bobby Moranda and a staff that features assistants Taylor Sandefur and Jeff Lavin.
This summer, Nanny is playing in the College Summer League at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind., and Cooper Trinkle is a teammate. Nanny played travel ball there and worked for Bullpen Tournaments when he was in high school.
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