On Thursday, March 3, 2011, Pennridge seniors Dylan Tice and Oscar Mikols were recognized at a special news conference for signing letters of intent to play baseball at the collegiate level.
Dylan Tice – Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Baseball)
Major: Sports ManagementFinal list of colleges: IUP, La Salle, New Jersey Tech
Reasons for choosing IUP: “La Salle and New Jersey Tech are Division One, but IUP is coming off of a PSAC championship (in 2010). My goal is to play in a college World Series, whether it’s Division One or Division Two. I figure IUP has the best chance of winning. They’ve always been winning, and that’s my dream – to win a championship. I like the core players they have there – I know some of the guys. I also thought it was the best fit academically.”
What was the progression that led you to playing collegiate baseball? “Baseball was always my favorite sport. Ever since I was eight, I wanted to play college baseball. It was never a predicament which sport I liked better. It was always baseball. I gave up basketball to play baseball year round and to train.
“I’m in a great program here. These coaches set you up for success. It’s kind of hard to fail here because if you work hard, they give you every opportunity. I really have been set up for success. I give a lot of credit to the coaching staff and the program. There are coaches up and down this program that really know what they’re talking about. They made it easy for me to come in and play and feel comfortable as a freshman. I have been lucky – the kids I’ve played with have been great kids and great teammates. Coach Nuneviller has been great, probably the best baseball coach I have ever had. He helped a lot – he sent e-mails and also taught me what coaches look for in players.”
Coach Tom Nuneviller says: “Dylan was a four-year varsity player. He is just a phenomenal player. He didn’t set the world on fire his freshman year, but he came in as a sophomore and had phenomenal years from his sophomore to senior year, being named player of the year in our conference as a sophomore and backing it up as a junior. He’s just a great baseball player.
“Defensively, he makes tremendous plays, and offensively, he has had some great seasons. He likes to win, and he’d trade player of the year for a league championship. That’s the desire he had and brought to the team.
“On top of that, he’s been our water boy the past two seasons. After school lets out, he would go to the training room and load up the Gatorade jug and would walk it out to the curb. Then he’ll get his car and bring his car down, pick the water up and drive it down to our practice or game site every day for the past two years. For a kid to be the top player and recognized as the player of the year and to show everyone else – I’m not going to make underclassmen do it because they’re underclassmen. I’m doing it because I’m a team player and setting an example. He’s a special one. When we lost our last game and I knew it was over, it was hard to see him walking off the field. It’s hard to see him go.”
Oscar Mikols – Gwynedd-Mercy College (Baseball)
Major: BusinessFinal list of colleges: Gwynedd-Mercy, Penn State-Abington, Wesleyan College (Virginia)
Reasons for choosing Gwynedd-Mercy: “When I went to Gwynedd, it set in right away. The players and coaches are nice – they knew a lot about the game, and I want to go somewhere where they’re going to win.”
What was the progression that led you to playing collegiate baseball? “Since I was five, I wanted to play in college. My dream is to make it to the MLB. There’s a slight chance of that – 1 in every 800 from high school goes on to the MLB, but if you’re good enough, they will find you.”
Coach Tom Nuneviller says: “Oscar went to Faith Christian as a junior and came back this year. He played American Legion last summer and was a contributor on that real good (Pennridge) legion team. He decided to come back to Pennridge, and we definitely needed him. If we wouldn’t have had him, we definitely wouldn’t have won a league title.
“He pitched some great games for us. I was a little concerned with him early in the year – we had a scrimmage, and I think he threw one inning. The day after the scrimmage he couldn’t lift his arm. I was concerned all season that he was going to have a sore arm, but his first start of the season was at North Penn – he went down there and pitched a two-hitter, a complete game. He had a one-hit, five-inning win against CB West. He pitched some awesome games for us.
“He was able to change speeds a little bit. He had a nice breaking ball and was able to throw it for strikes. He kept batters off balance. Sometimes he would pitch backwards – he would start up with a breaking ball and set up his fastball. He did a really nice job.”
Pennridge senior Jared Schaffer, the SOL Continental Conference Player of the Year, will be attending Bloomsburg University and has been invited to try out for the baseball team as a recruited walk-on.
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Jared Schaffer – Bloomsburg University (Baseball)Coach Tom Nuneviller says: “Jared has been a three-year varsity player for us, and he had a great season for us. He had some big games as a sophomore. He beat North Penn’s Eric Ruth for his only loss. He was in a lot of big games for us the last three years. This year he was dominating. His first two years he didn’t have great strikeout totals. As a sophomore, he had maybe a strikeout every three innings. Last year, he had a strikeout every two innings or inning and a half. This year he averaged a strikeout an inning. He did great, and on top of that, he went out and hit .429 in the league and hit three or four home runs and led the team in RBIs. He deserved that Player of the Year.”
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