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Central Missouri Has Sights Set on World Series
By David Boyce
Before the start of most practices, the players for the No. 2 team in NCAA Division II baseball are running around playing touch football.
No, Central Missouri players don’t think they are so good at baseball that they can goof off and still win.
The Mules simply use this as a tool to get them energized for practice.
“We seem to lack energy sometimes, coach says. But we try to bring energy to the field every day,” Central Missouri senior outfielder Chance Tuttle said. “Most days we start practice by playing touch football and that’s a way for us to get motivated and energy going and that seems to help us.”
Well, once again, Central Missouri is the team to beat in the MIAA. The Mules head into a four-game series that begins today at Missouri Western with a 23-3 overall record and 16-2 in the MIAA.
The immediate challenger to Central Missouri is Emporia State, which is 21-7 and 15-5.
Emporia State, though, has something the Mules want back and that is a spot in the Division II College World Series.
A year ago, Emporia State beat Central Missouri in the regional championship game and went on to finish runner-up in the College World Series.
“We were second place across the board,” Central Missouri coach Tommy Myers said.
The Mules finished second to Emporia State in the regular season and lost to Nebraska-Omaha in the championship game of the MIAA Tournament.
“It was very frustrating,” Tuttle said. “Coming into a program like this, you are expected to make it to the World Series and make a deep run in the World Series. Coming up short was pretty hard.
“But we look at last year and learned from it. We were very young last year. We’ve matured from last year. We are a better team than last year.”
In a few games in the MIAA Tournament, Myers recalled starting five freshmen and three sophomores.
But Myers wasn’t using youth as an excuse of falling just short of a very special season.
By the time the Mules reached postseason play a year ago, the freshmen and sophomores were playing like juniors and seniors in Myers’ mind.
“Every year when you look at young players and young teams you want to see maturity and growth,” Myers said. “At the end of last year, quite a few of our young players were playing at a high level like you would expect out of a junior.
“This year they have picked up where they left off from the fall. They are playing as mature as we’d hope our seniors are.”
With a comfortable lead in the MIAA standings, Myers doesn’t expect his team to get complacent.
In fact, the Mules got a taste of what they will face the rest of the regular season on Tuesday when Southwest Baptist took the second game of a doubleheader 12-11 when the game was called because of darkness in the ninth.
It was only the fifth conference win for Southwest Baptist, which is in 10th place in the MIAA.
“When I first got here last year, some of the older guys were telling me that teams that don’t have the best records usually play their best against us,” Tuttle said. “They usually get up for us and play their best ball against us.”
Myers is confident that his players have the maturity to battle against any midseason slump.
Plus, he has a great leadoff hitter in Tuttle that brings the necessary enthusiasm that energizes the entire team.
“He’s been great,” Myers said. “He’s been spark plug for us, a catalyst. It’s nice to have a guy with some speed and some power at the top of our lineup. When he’s not hitting doubles and home runs, he’s finding ways to get on and stealing bases and creating havoc.”
The Central Missouri baseball team takes delight in playing the game the right way and doesn’t lose sight of what is really important.
“What we’ve been talking about now is this stuff doesn’t really mean anything,” Tuttle said. “The rankings don’t mean much to us. Our record doesn’t mean much to us. We take pride in it, but in the big picture it doesn’t mean much.
“In the end, it comes down to winning the regional championship game to make the World Series. Since we see the big picture, we will have the ability to perform when we get there.”
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail
dboyce@themiaa.com.
