NAIA Baseball Preview

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Next up on the ABCA podcast is our NAIA Baseball Preview with NAIA Ball's Taylor Thomas, St. Francis head coach and ABCA NAIA Committee Chair Brian Mihollett. We recap LSU Shreveport's historic season and discuss all things NAIA baseball. Good luck to all of our teams that started this last weekend. So welcome Taylor Thomas and Brian Mihalik to the podcast. All right here with Taylor Thomas, Nai Ball and then Brian Mahalik, head coach at St. Francis and our ABCA NAI Committee Chair. Thanks for jumping on with me you two. You know. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Last year Shreveport, you know, besides maybe IU football, maybe the one of the greatest sports stories in history besides what IU football just did and also broke up back to back years of west coast teams winning the national championship. So Taylor diving in. [00:03:15] Speaker C: Do we. [00:03:15] Speaker A: I mean does Shreveport have a chance with what they got coming back? [00:03:20] Speaker C: I think when you're led by a coach like Brad Neffendorf, you always have a chance. I mean, we've, we've kind of seen it at this level for a while. Shreveport kind of like your Gwinnett's and Southeasterns and Taylor out of Indiana and Cumberland's out of Kentucky. With Brad Shelton, you kind of expect those teams to be fighting for that spot in Lewiston, if not in Lewiston, every single year now. And what Brad did obviously last year is unprecedented at any level, especially the NAI level. I mean, we were, we talk about it all the time now because we covered it day in and day out last year. So we kind of, kind of somewhat got used to it, if you will. But just looking back now after what they accomplished, it's, it really is unprecedented stuff. And I mean, when you look at the rotation, you had another number two arm sign a UDFA due to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Draven Ziegler who's, you know, 95, 96 up to 97 with a really good mix of off speed stuff. And he had that guy's an ace on any other NAI staff in the country, if not at any other level of college baseball. But much like, much like Shreveport, it's going to be a very, very interesting year to monitor week in and week out because a lot of guys on that Shreveport team graduated, Brad graduated. Quite a bit of production. They return, I think, I think three arms from that who were back in bullpen, arms who were really, really good for him. But what Brad did and what he's been able to do as far as recruiting goes, they're always going to have a shot and it would not shock me one bit to see them back in Lewiston for a second straight year. [00:04:53] Speaker A: And they've always been transfer heavy there, correct? [00:04:56] Speaker C: Yeah, he's had a pretty good mix. A lot of guys asked me last year, wow, are these guys just D1 kickbacks with winning a bunch of games and it really wasn't the case. I want to say they had three on the roster. One was their center fielder. I'm blanking on the other two, but it was more so JUCO guys from that region. You had JUCO guys from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, which as we all know on this call, it's. That region is just unprecedented with talent. You mentioned JUCO leveled teams like Pearl river, lsu, Eunice right there in the home state, that that region is loaded with talent and Brad's been able to do a great job of getting those JUCO kids, especially last year, to all buy in he talked about it all the time on every interview he's been on. It truly was like a total 100% buy in from the first day of the fall, really. And you saw that throughout the year. We got to see him at the Cajun Collision, which is the tournament that we help host down in Sterlington, Louisiana with LSU Shreveport, and you could tell that the talent was there. Now if you'd asked me back in February if they were going to go undefeated, I would told you absolutely not. But it's unprecedented stuff and he's one of the better coaches at this level for a reason. And the way he's able to consistently recruit and get guys to buy into what he wants for his culture, it's. It's really special to see. And it kind of showed up on the field last year. [00:06:15] Speaker A: Brian, over the last four or five years as your recruiting had to change. I mean, you and I spent a lot of time on the road together up in Chicago watching games. Have you had to adjust your recruiting as much? [00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I think everybody has. I mean, with the culture, the way college sports are now at all levels, it's just, you know, the transfer portal, transfer. Even before the portal, more guys were transferring in all sports at all levels. So I think we are like most schools, we're a little bit more transfer, getting more transfers than maybe we had 15, 20 years ago. So you know what guys, if I could jump in real quick and just, you know what LSU Shreveport did last year, you. I mean, you think of the great teams that there have been in the history of baseball at all levels. And you know, there wasn't just, you know, a ground ball that maybe got a bad hop or just, you know, a wind blowing homer somehow some way. And that's never been done before with Brad in his staff and his players. His team did last year, that's that. That may never be done again. [00:07:32] Speaker A: We almost had two because Suny Niagara went in the Division 3 Junior College World Series undefeated. Yeah, they got beat, but like they had a legitimate chance with their team. They had some really good arms. I was at that World Series. They had some really good arms and good position players. But obviously you got to bear with Gloucester there. Gloucester just seems like they win the D3 juco every year now. But Gloucester came in there and handled business up in New York and it was cold, you know that I'm glad it's coming back to Tennessee because It was like 35 degrees when I got off the flight in New York last year. So it was more spring Midwest weather than it was championship weather. And Brian, talk a little bit about the convention. You know, you're in those small meetings with us and, and you brought up some great insights and points. What's going on with NAI baseball right now? [00:08:24] Speaker B: Well, first of all, what we're doing next year with our postseason, I think that that's pretty big. We are changing the post season format. Currently we have the 10 opening round sites. We have 46 teams get into the post season and 10 go to Lewiston to our World Series. We're changing that next year we're actually increasing the number to 48. Not this spring. The spring of 27 will increase to 48 teams making the postseason opening rounds. There'll be eight opening round sites, all with six teams. And then eight teams will go to Lewiston for the World Series. So in our bracket out at the World Series will kind of mirror the division one bracket where you know, two. Basically it's two four team brackets. You play down to one winner in each bracket and then the two winners play best of three series. [00:09:31] Speaker A: It's better for the field out there too. Yeah, I think. Is that going to be those eight sites? Team's going to bid for those with those eight sites. [00:09:40] Speaker B: They will bid for those, yes. [00:09:42] Speaker A: So probably in a geographic area maybe or maybe not as much. [00:09:48] Speaker B: Well, there's, I mean it's usually south heavy, but there are some Midwest, some northern considered northern sites and, and where teams are sent. There's geography is involved, cost is involved. And first and foremost though is seeding teams. That's the number one criteria. [00:10:14] Speaker A: Taylor going through and I know Nai did their preseason poll November. How similar is to your guys preseason poll to what the coaches put out. [00:10:25] Speaker C: For the naive, you know, especially for, for this year, like kind of what I alluded to earlier, there's been a lot of roster turnover. So we're, we're still getting our questionnaires back. We'll probably release that here in about a week. I remember last year on this interview, Robbie kind of said the same thing. I'd say it's going to be fairly chalk to, to what the league has written out, obviously, because we haven't seen a bunch of these teams play yet. But as as far as preseason top 25 goes, I would say it's going to be pretty similar. I mean when you guys look at the World Series last year you had a team like Grandview out of Iowa make it through that upland bracket and they're going to be another talented bunch under Doug Brinker as well. Same goes for Chris Pritchett up at ubc. UBC went to the World Series. Had to actually you guys were talking about the opening round sites. We had to follow that UBC team all across the country really. Which is kind of like what Southern Illinois football did at the FCS level. UBC went all the way to Hattiesburg. Mississippi from Vancouver won that opening round side. I think Chris told me that was about a 2500 mile trip. But as far as top to bottom goes in the top 25, I think a lot of these teams really proved themselves last year. And these are a bunch of teams that you look at year in and year out to consistently be in this top 25 poll. I thought the league did a great job for, for what is returning and a bunch of newcomers at this level too. Like, like Brian mentioned, these last couple years we've seen a lot of transfers come from multiple levels of college baseball as the, everything kind of changes as far as eligibility goes. We, we can talk about that for hours and hours if we want to as well. But even when you look at the league poll, Central Methodist right there with Nate Breland at that 25 slot. I wouldn't say that Nate wanted the, the result for last year. Obviously they still get to an opening round or competing for a spot in Lewiston. But when you look at the league poll too, you got blue bloods like Faulkner, Kansas Wesleyan and what Bill Nelly has done as well, St. Thomas down in Florida and IU Southeast. It's going to be very interesting to monitor how, how our poll changes, but how the league poll changes throughout the year as, as you guys kind of get the hint here. I think it's going to be a pretty wild year to cover, no doubt about it. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Brian, did you get a chance to listen to Paul's speech on, on Gordy at the convention? [00:12:39] Speaker B: I did not. [00:12:40] Speaker A: He was great. I did not shout out Paul. He did a good job. You know, probably tweaked the title because it was a lot about Gordy, but it is a more about transformational coaching than anything. And Paul shout out to Paul. He did a great job. His energy levels is infection. So I would, I would go back and watch that. That talk. Anybody doesn't know Gordy. It's funny with the newer generation of coaches, they probably don't know Gordy at all or who Gordy was. If you want to talk a little bit about Gordy, go ahead. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Well, yeah, that's right. The, the younger guys probably don't know him. They probably don't Know some of the other names, you know, Woody Hunt and just, I mean you could go on and on, but you know, Coach Gillespie, I was fortunate that I played for him here at St. Francis. And you know, you talk about Paul's enthusiasm in that and that, you know, I think you get that from. You can't be around. You could be around Coach Gillespie and not, and not pick up on that and absorb some of that and, and be that way. I mean he want real quick. Coach Gillespie always taught class. You know, he would teach coaching psychology, coach baseball theory, coach football theory or Taugh football theory. And they were always 8am classes and he insisted on that. And his enthusiasm at 8am you know, surpassed anything that the students brought usually. You know, he was, he was great teacher and in the classroom, on the baseball field, football field, basketball court, I mean coached all three sports. You know, there was a time he was athletic director coaching three sports and, and still teach classes. So I mean I know Paul did a good job and I mean it was, that was, that was the enthusiasm every day and everything we did, everything he did. [00:14:37] Speaker A: Taylor, what about early here? Who, what do we got? What are some key matchups here? First couple weekends to pay attention to. [00:14:44] Speaker C: So after last year, everyone's going to pay attention to each time. Brad knows you should report play. And they actually have a loaded, loaded non conference slate. The Red river is a pretty talented league from top to bottom. When you look at Texas A and M Victoria and kind of what they did last year with their rotation and Coach Stav and Chase Brewster now is over at Texas A and M Texarkana. They were a much improved team last year, but Shreveport actually opens up with one of the tougher non conference schedules I've seen in quite some time. They open up a Mark Staniford and Tabor here this weekend as we talked about. Weather's kind of moving everything around so we actually get opening day a day early here on Thursday the 22nd. So I'm really interested to see that one. The KCAC as a whole. We actually just finished up with their media day and I was interviewing a bunch of those coaches and a lot of those coaches in that league want to challenge their groups and Mark, and Mark's a legend in the game of college baseball as everyone knows. He's the, he's the all time home run king at Wichita State under Gene Stevenson. And it's kind of bled over to his Tabor program with how long he's been there and how this, how much success he's had as well, that's, that's the main one I have highlighted because I want to, I want to see what Shreveport can do against a really talented offense that's going to be down in, in Louisiana. As we all know, that's an extremely tough place to play. But when you have two blue blood programs going up against each other early on, that is something as a member of the media that we very, really much look forward to. And I can't wait to see it here. It's crazy to think that the season starts in two days, but I'm, I'm super excited for it. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Brian, what about you guys where you open up early? [00:16:16] Speaker B: We open up second weekend in February. We're headed to Cumberland University and so we'll play four game set down there each weekend in February. The second, third and fourth weekends we're traveling to Tennessee, Tennessee Southern, Freed Hardman and playing three or four games. Those trips have always been good for us. [00:16:41] Speaker A: Taylor, we got any teams that haven't made it here recently that have a chance to get into go to Lewiston and play? [00:16:48] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I, I think, I think it's pretty wide open this year as far as who, who are the preseason favorites. Last year we kind of had an idea as I mentioned too, when you, when you think of teams like lsu, Shreveport, Billy Berry and, and Tennessee Wesleyan, Taylor out of Indiana, those teams will always come to mind. Cumberland's, Cumberland, Tennessee even. But I, I truly believe that there's going to be a lot of surprises this year. Bill, Bill Neal over at Kansas Wesley group to Lewiston a couple years ago. He's actually the last team to beat LSU Shreveport as they took him down in that 2024 opening round. But even looking at last year, I don't think anyone as far as Grandview goes, Grandview made it for I think the first time since the 90s or the 80s. But going into that upland opening round is super tough as with a team like Taylor and what Kyle Gold has. But they still made it through and had to beat Kansas, Wesley and twice actually. So I really think you could see a lot of surprises. UBC made it for their first time ever. They still return quite a bit as far as the pitching size goes. I'm really curious to see how they play out in the Cascade Conference with LC State. And that's another topic we haven't touched on yet. LC State's missed it for the last two years and if you had asked me that as a player, I never would have thought that would happen. But coach Jeremiah Robbins is back he was a longtime coach at lc, won a few national championships. I think him being back is going to really, really make a difference. And honestly I. I wouldn't be surprised to see LC State back in Lewiston again, which is like I said, it's just weird to even think about that. They weren't but a team like Waylon Baptist out of the Sooner. I played in the Sooner Athletic Conference. Todd Welton had his group go up to the Lewiston opening round last year and knock them out. Actually, HIU is going to return quite a bit. They return three preseason All Americans and Colbin Moran, David Shackelford and and Josh Landry. They were led by a guy named Trey Sealy who got drafted by the Giants last year. But. But still Mahoney has done a great job recruiting based out of California there, right there in Fullerton. I expect kind of those heavy hitters to. To be competing yet again. But it wouldn't shock me if I look up here in May and we see three to four teams that haven't been there ever in quite some time make that trip. [00:19:05] Speaker A: Do you have any preseason player preseason pitch of the year? [00:19:11] Speaker C: Yeah. So I it's actually we just finished up our preseason all NAI ball team. Like I said, there's been a lot of turnover not only in every single league but across the country. We were looking at returners that are on this list and if you make an all NI ball team the previous year, you're automatically on it for the next year if you return. A guy I really, really was excited to watch last year was Colton Reynolds out of Tennessee Wesley and he actually was spent the fall of 24 at the University of Arkansas. Ended up transferring over to Tennessee Wesley and Billy Berry returns him as well and that that team's always going to be able to slug. They graduated quite a bit, guys like Daniel Stewart who was a.440 hitter. But Colton Reynolds is definitely going to power that lineup there for Tennessee Wesleyan. I'm really excited to see him play. I just mentioned him, but David Shackelford is back at Hope International. That's a guy that is going to be around the top of the leaderboards as far as the hitting statistics goes. And another guy that me and Robbie both love because Robbie's obviously based out of McAllen, Texas and he gets to see this guy compete a lot more than we do. And it's Jack Kaliske at Our lady of the Lake. He's a preseason all American as well. And that guy can. Can really, really get after it with the bat And I'm really, really excited to see him play. But if I had to pick right now, I'd probably go. Colton. Colton Reynolds out of Tennessee Wesleyan. As far as the pitching side goes, like I said, Shreveport had an historic rotation, but a guy like Jon Jones, who's also in the Red River Athletic Conference at Texas A and M Victoria, he returns from that elite staff last year. Colby Reynolds and Josh Johnson with coach Dave Serrano, and then obviously Josh Landry, who I mentioned as well, are returning All American. I think those are things. Three guys on the pitching side that are going to be at the top of the leaderboards. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Brian, what to say about NAIA coaching and the coaching at the level is you have two years in a row. Adrian Dinkle takes a job with the Yankees, and now you got Jeremy Schneider taking a job with the Nats. I mean, I think it speaks volumes of the coaches that we have at the NAI level. [00:21:13] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. I think there are really some great coaches. There have been for a long time, and there are now. And you're right, like Adrian Sheets, the two of them go into pro ball. That's, you know, they're not. They're not hiring guys just because they're buddies or they're doing anybody favors. I mean, both of them just what they did with their programs. Why wouldn't you hire? Maybe. Maybe we should. Why weren't they hired sooner with what they had done? [00:21:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:45] Speaker A: And Adrian's now at the Division 1 level, took a job. BYU, I think. Adrian's not at BYU. [00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:51] Speaker A: So shout out to all those guys. It's good. It's just good. I mean, obviously, I think. But you mentioned some of the names that we've had. Woody Hunt, you know, Gordon. Like, guys have carved out a really good career staying at the NAI level, too, for years and years and years, which we probably won't see it as much anymore from a longevity standpoint of coaching. I would like to think, you know, every time I go on these previews, I'm pulling for the guys that can carve out an entire career at places. It's really hard to do now, but I just think we still have some really cool storylines of coaches that have. Have gotten a place, been there and been there forever. [00:22:24] Speaker B: I think that's. And you're right. I think that's true everywhere. You know, longevity just is not, you know, there's more mobility in our whole society. You know, more mobility in our society. And that's, you know, kind of reflected. [00:22:38] Speaker C: But. [00:22:39] Speaker B: But it is nice to see guys that have been for a while place and have had good careers in that. That's, that's nice to see also. And it's also nice to see guys move up and get the recognition that they deserve and advance their careers too. [00:22:56] Speaker A: I tell you, all the sports writers have to go out on the lamb here. And who, who are your last two playing for the national championship? We won't hold you to any of it, but it's a good question to ask. It's fun. [00:23:08] Speaker C: Well, it's okay because like I said, I'm in year three now of any eyeball. By the way, thanks. Thanks to Robbie for, For bringing me on. Super blessed to do what I do as well. It's. It's really nice to be able to stay in the game in some capacity. But much like Robbie, whatever I say on this recording is, Is going to get me a bunch of hate mail. So as Robbie would say, direct all your hate. [00:23:30] Speaker A: Gotta follow Kendall Rogers lead from one. He takes more. [00:23:33] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:23:34] Speaker A: So. [00:23:35] Speaker C: Well, I'm not, I'm not married, but if I did, I would have a hat like, like his wife does that says my, My wife hates your team for sure. But. But honestly, I. It's hard not to pick against Tennessee Wesleyan. I, I do think that we see them competing for a national championship. We see him in the World Series, you know, year in and year out. I think, I think with a coach like Brad Neffendorf, I'm not going to say that he probably wouldn't want me to say that they're going to be competing for a national title, but I, I really have a lot of faith in how he manages that program year in and year out. We mentioned the roster turnover that they had as well, but I, I think Brad is going to be really, really motivated coming into this year to return back. And when you guys just mentioned Sheets leaving ggc, I still expect that program to be in Lewiston. And the success that they've had built under Sheets for quite some time now is really unprecedented as well. But when you retain some of those assistant guys that, that he has, I, I do, I do think GGC is going to make it back. But I really like Gabe Grinder again. I. That game, that game going back to the National Championship. And I'm glad Brian mentioned the format change for next year, because as a member of the media, I would love three game series and I'm super excited to see how that plays out. But even starting out in the National Championship, the score is 13 7. So you look at the box score, you think okay. Lsu, Shreveport dominated yet again, but Southeastern jumped on him on a 40 lead early. And we were kind of sitting there watching the game like, all right, well, here we go, Gabe. Grinder's there now. Dinkel's gone. But. But Grindr had a tremendous amount of success over at Ottawa in Kansas and building that program up to new heights. And now that he's at Southeastern, you kind of saw how he, his culture reflected over. Even though there had some returners from the Dinkle era, Grinder's been a hell of a recruiter. No matter where he's been. It wouldn't shock me to, to see them back and competing for a national championship. So if I had to go out on the limb right now, I'm probably going to go Tennessee Wesleyan and Southeastern, which I know. Shocker. Two blue bloods. You hate this guy, probably. But when you look at those two coaches and what they've done at this level, it's. It's really hard not to see them making the return trip to Lewiston and ultimately competing in that final game. [00:25:44] Speaker A: Cool. All right, before I let you two go, any shout outs, Brian, or anything else you want to touch on before I let you go, and then we'll finish up with you, Taylor. [00:25:53] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Appreciate everything that you do, Ryan, for, for college baseball, Taylor. Also for you guys. You know, you talk about, you know, nai baseball and, you know, you get people talking about nai baseball, even though sometimes you got to. You guys got to take the bullets. People are talking about it and, and being informed and, and that's big for our game. So thank you. [00:26:23] Speaker A: Yeah, go ahead, Taylor. [00:26:25] Speaker C: Yeah, we appreciate that, Brian, for sure. Like I said, I'm a bit of a younger guy. I'm 27, but I played in the Sooner Athletic Conference against guys like, like Mike Ross, Denny Crabaugh, you know, God rest his soul as well. But seeing that, and I tell the story all the time, I went, the school I went to, Southwestern Christian, was in the exact same town as my high school. I didn't know about it until my senior year of high school. So that kind of, kind of par for the course as far as the NAI goes. But now that I'm in my third year as a member of the media, every time I tell someone about AI baseball, every time they hear something about it and they go out and watch a game or send a kid there, send a coach there, it's truly eye opening. And that's kind of what we do it for. You guys know Obviously this levels really is the nation's best kept secret and to be a part of something that Cody Butler obviously started back in 2017 and now what Robbie's been able to to carry on his legacy for and being able to be a part of it with guys like Connor and Tyler Norris, it's a blessing every day that we get to do it. This is the best time of year for us. As we all know the season gets underway. So I appreciate those kind words and it's, it's always nice to hear that your work is appreciated. For sure. We're happy and blessed to do it. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And I love following it. I've become a huge NAI fan since I've taken the job here at the abca. Shout out to all the NAIA coaches and programs. You guys do a great job and hopefully I can get back out to Lewiston this year. So thank you two for jumping on with me. This is awesome. It's always fun for me. Gets my juices going for the season. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Thank you, Ryan. [00:27:50] Speaker A: Game of baseball has grown at all levels in large part to what our sports writers are doing to shine a light on every level. Thanks to all of our sports writers for all their hard work and covering the game of baseball. This is your yearly reminder to get out there and support all your local colleges. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABC office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email r brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok @coachbca or direct message me via the Mybis app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off with the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you. [00:28:35] Speaker C: And you know that way Yep Wait. [00:28:39] Speaker A: For another day. [00:28:43] Speaker C: And the world will always return as your love is never for yearning and you know all that way. [00:28:58] Speaker A: Wait for another day.