Indiana State has enjoyed consistent winning baseball since Mitch Hannahs took over as coach for the 2014 season.
Before the current crop of Sycamores came to prominence, ISU advanced to NCAA regionals under Hannahs in 2014, 2019 and 2021.
Nothing, however, compared to the white-hot success the Sycamores enjoyed in 2023 and 2024. ISU won the Missouri Valley Conference in dominant fashion in both seasons, combining to win 88 games in two seasons.
There was the right to host a regional in 2023 and then a subsequent trip to the super regional afterward. In 2024, ISU was nationally-ranked and a top 10 team in RPI.
All of that made it tough that it came to an end Sunday night at Kentucky Proud Park. The Wildcats’ 5-0 win over the Sycamores ended the dream ISU had of advancing one more round than last year to the College World Series.
That was a hard reality to face, but even harder is the fact that the upperclassmen and draft-eligible Sycamores who made it happen – Zach Davidson, Randal Diaz, Cam Edmonson, Joe Kido, Grant Magill, Adam Pottinger, Mike Sears, Parker Stinson and Josue Urdaneta – won’t get to play as a team again.
“I’ve spent so much time with these guys. More than our own families and they’ve become our family,” Sears said. “Being here for four years and seeing the program change since we got there … we always talk about making the program better than when we got there. I think this group raised the bar to a place not even thought we could do.”
Magill noted that there was a lot of emotion in the dugout after the loss to Kentucky was confirmed. There always is, but this was a group that took the 44-15 Sycamores into the national spotlight.
“The kind of relationships you get to make on teams that make regionals and the super last year, you get so close with these guys,” Magill said.
“The emotion isn’t because we lost, it’s because of those relationships and the ability to play on this stage. I’m so grateful I was able to make those relationships and I was able to grow as a player under Coach Hannahs and all of the coaches,” Magill said.
While there was deserved pride in the accomplishments the Sycamores were able to achieve, there is also an undercurrent of irritation too.
ISU’s huge moment in 2023 was ruined, in some respect, by a decision to not host the super regional it had a right to have at Bob Warn Field.
The ripple effect of that was considerable. The principles involved in that decision – President Deborah Curtis and Director Of Athletics Sherard Clinkscales – both have already departed the school.
When ISU had a resumé that suggested it should host again in 2024 – a Top 10 RPI and a Top 20 nonconference schedule – the NCAA selection committee turned to other schools to host.
Did the 2023 decision by ISU not to host weigh on their minds? Did the loss of Clinkscales, who had been on the selection committee, prove costly to the Sycamores? We’ll never likely know for sure.
One thing ISU coach Mitch Hannahs knows is that he and his team were surrounded by thousands of rabid Kentucky fans happy to be make their home stadium a cauldron.
He wishes his team had received the same chance on its own field.
“When you set in that game and you get to the ninth and you have a chance to kind of reflect because you’re thinking, man, this is going to be tough sledding to score five or six in the ninth, you can’t help but point your mind to ‘I thought this group did enough to host a Regional.’ I thought they did more than enough to host a Regional,” Hannahs said.
“And you’re sitting there and you’re a little frustrated, but not only do you not host, you come to the No. 2 seed, which we knew was going to be extremely tough when we saw the draw,” Hannahs said.
“So I think getting past that frustration to this point now, I think that frustration will lay there a little while because it is what it is. But I think you still look to the way these guys have competed and what they’ve done,” Hannahs added.
He noted that one of the challenges the team had in 2024 was pitching injuries. Jacob Pruitt missed much of the season, so ISU essentially had to cobble together its rotation on Friday nights when most teams throw their ace.
ISU still managed to win each MVC series it played anyway.
“We lost a lot of Friday night games through the season when Pruitt went down at Southern Miss and missed about seven weekends,” Hannahs said.
“For them to battle through that and win all those series, when they were, probably three or four of them were dropped to Friday night, just says a lot to the resiliency of this group,” Hannahs continued.
“I think as you look back, look at what these guys have done and what they’ve been — they’ve been one of the most resilient groups I’ve been around. Nothing seems to faze them. So I think that’s been the special part of this last couple of seasons,” Hannahs concluded.
