Photo from DMACC’s first game of the season. Left fielder, Grant Bohling , from Lincoln, Neb. The Bears loss 7-3 and went 1-3 in the series. Photo courtesy Michelle Ymker and DMACC baseball.
The future of DMACC baseball starts this season as first-year head coach Nic Mishler is set to take over for the Bears.
David Pearson coached the Bears from 2016 to 2019 before resigning to become an assistant coach at North Dakota State. In those three seasons, Pearson had an overall record of 92 -72, winning 73 percent of his conference games.
Coach Mishler is no stranger to success; he has seven years of NCAA division I and II coaching experience under his belt, with one of them being an assistant at Grand Canyon University and going to the Division II College World Series in 2013.
“I think more than anything, my experience is going to help me lead a team and show them that, throughout a baseball season you’re going to have some failures, and to me, the championship teams are able to handle the adversity better,” Mishler said.
Mishler is also no stranger to DMACC. Mishler served as a pitching and recruiting coordinator under Pearson last season. Even though Mishler was a part of the team as an assistant, there are still some changes for both coaches and players this season.
For right-handed pitcher Kolton Scherbenske, this will be a season that is focused on the team, and also improvement. Scherbenske had to medically redshirt his freshman year after having Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow.
In his third year at DMACC, Scherbenske is setting higher goals for both himself and his team. One of these goals is increasing his innings count. Last year he pitched in about 4 to 5 innings, and he is set to increase that number to 45 to 50 this season. Development will be a major focus throughout the season for the Bears.
“[With coach Mishler ] everything is super organized and the development of all the players has skyrocketed” said Scherbenske.
With many teams, there can sometimes be that “rebuilding” season when a team gets a new coach, but for DMACC, there will be no “rebuilding” season. The expectations throughout the team are high.
In his second year at DMACC, left fielder Grant Bohling is focused on contributing to the team both offensively and defensively. His expectations for the team are straight to the point, and like others, is very high: “[our expectation] is to win our conference and win lots of games,” Bohling said.
Of course for the team and coach Mishler, a championship is on their minds, but there is also the progress and building a consistent and successful program.
“The main goal is just to get up and get better each day and hopefully the big [games] at the end of the year fall in line,” Mishler said.
This is a team that is focused on success and on the process of what it takes to build a winning program.
“I believe we can do this, it’s not a nine-player game, it takes everyone” Scherbenske said.
The Bears are on a two game winning streak and will be at Southwestern for a double header on March 4 before coming home for their home opener against Indian Hills on March 14.
The Bears are looking to improve on their record of 3-7 before starting conference play.
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