\u201cThis is incredible,\u201d MUM coach Mark Adams said with excitement. \u201cHow about that? I feel like I\u2019m living in a movie. It\u2019s just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams said the ThunderHawks were on the outside looking in \u2014 ranked 13th in the nation \u2014 heading into their Sunday doubleheader against defending champion UC Clermont. The USCAA Small College World Series takes the top 10 teams.<\/p>\n
The ThunderHawks swept the Cougars \u2014 and relied on the fact that a couple teams ahead of them in the polls weren\u2019t eligible for postseason play \u2014 which was enough conviction for MUM to earn the 10th and final seed.<\/p>\n
The ThunderHawks went 8-0 to start the fall portion of their 2024-25 schedule before entering the spring at 8-2. Miami-Middletown won three of four against rival Miami-Hamilton and closed out its season with the two victories over UC Clermont.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all began with Hamilton,\u201d Adams said. \u201cWe have been in playoff mode now for the last three weeks. We knew what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams said the team came together for a meeting on the Monday before the Miami-Hamilton series, ultimately rallying the troops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put on the board that day, and the theme was, \u2018One more day,\u2019\u201d the coach said. \u201cWe were playing for one more day. We talked about it being their time \u2014 right now. \u2018This was your time. Let\u2019s play for one more day.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done that for every practice. All we\u2019ve worried about is just getting to play one more day.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. 10 Miami-Middletown will face No. 7 Penn State Schuylkill on Monday, May 12, at 10 a.m. in the first round of the Small College World Series, which takes place on the campus of Penn State DuBois in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve appreciated the opportunity to play one more day,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThe hardest thing to teach a young team is how to embrace opportunity and how to appreciate opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m lucky to be 68 years old because I get to be around these guys every day, and they keep me young. Maybe I keep them a little old, and I think it\u2019s served us well.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long way in short time<\/p>\n
Adams took a moment to collect his emotions Monday after receiving the news that this ThunderHawks were competing in the Small College World Series.<\/p>\n
He glanced over the exact same spot inside Miami-Middletown\u2019s gymnasium where he had told the baseball program two years ago that he was going to be the head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kneeling on that floor damn near to the day,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThey wanted me to be the head coach, and they asked me to meet with the team. All the guys were sitting on the floor. I knelt down. I didn\u2019t stand. I told them, \u2018Guys, you don\u2019t understand what you\u2019re asking me to do. I will lose you games. I\u2019m a basketball coach.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Jake Lange, he didn\u2019t hesitate. He said, \u2018Coach, we\u2019ll lose you games, too,\u2019\u201d Adams added. \u201cWhat he said that day touched my heart, and I couldn\u2019t let them down. That\u2019s when I decided to be the head baseball coach at Miami University Middletown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them, \u2018What I do know how to do is win championships. And what I do know is how to help you graduate.\u2019 I went through the goals \u2014 100% graduation, USCAA national championship, be a better father, be a better husband, be a better son, be a better friend, be a better teammate. Those are the things we talked about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat laid the foundation for where we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ThunderHawks didn\u2019t have a team since 2019 until the program revamped last year. Miami-Middletown a year ago was the youngest college baseball team in the nation and finished its first season at .500 or better in 25 years. <\/p>\n
Adams recalled not having a field to play on, let alone not having any baseballs, uniforms or equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t be as far from a national championship as we were that morning,\u201d Adams recalled. \u201cHere we are \u2014 now two years later \u2014 going to play for a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is incredible,\u201d MUM coach Mark Adams said with excitement. \u201cHow about that? I feel like I\u2019m living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,648,1694,2341,6003],"class_list":{"0":"post-10106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college-baseball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-baseball","12":"tag-nissan-stadium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114471099763534917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}