By Steve Krah
PBR Indiana Correspondent

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When the umpire signals “play ball!” Friday, Feb. 26, in Florence, Ky., something historic will happen. 

Weather permitting that afternoon, Indiana University South Bend will be playing its first-ever baseball game against Ohio Christian University at UC Health Stadium. The next day, the Titans and Trailblazers are slated for a doubleheader. 

Perhaps a year or two ahead of schedule, the diamond sport has joined the steadily-growing IUSB athletic roster. Besides baseball, the northern Indiana campus features basketball, cross country and golf for men with basketball, volleyball and softball for women.  

More programs could be on the horizon. 

Brian Blondell, a South Bend native who spent the last three seasons at Holy Cross College before that program was dissolved, is IUSB’s head baseball coach and architect at the NAIA-member school and Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference member.  

Nine former Holy Cross players that helped the 2015 Saints go 31-21 and finish second in the CCAC South Division and some junior college transfers are on a 32-man IUSB roster, which features 11 juniors and 19 freshmen. Most Titans hail from Indiana.  

“We’re in a pretty good position here at IU South Bend,” Blondell said. “The newness of everything has everybody excited. For years, everybody — at least in this area — thought IU South Bend should have a program.” 

Those who have signed on are getting a chance to set the groundwork and write some history. 

“I think we can be very, very good, but we know our conference isn’t going to give us any breaks,” Blondell said. “We’re going to be battle-tested early in the season to see where we’re at. 

“We’ve built a pretty good nucleus of kids, now we’ve just got to see how it unfolds.”

In building a program from scratch, Blondell prioritized a few items. 

“When we were recruiting, we were looking for kids that brought a lot to the table athletically and academically,” Blondell said. “We were looking for high character kids.” 

Players are being lured to South Bend with the idea all graduates get an Indiana University degree and that they are coming to a campus with a growing student population and expanding list of activities. 

“College coaching is a sales job,” Blondell said. “You are trying to convince high school student-athletes what you can provide to them with something that is going to be long-lasting after college.” 

Blondell, who is assisted by Mike Huling and Matt Schwitz, looks to be two-deep at every position with 12 to 18 pitchers from starters to specialists. 

“I like to have the depth, especially the way our conference is set up,” Blondell said. “Nine-inning baseball is a lot different than seven-inning ball. We can’t run on a four- or five-man (pitching) staff here. We have to have depth in the arms. 

IUSB, the lone CCAC school on Eastern Standard Time, will play three-game series with division foes (usually on Saturday and Sunday) and a doubleheader with teams in the other division on Tuesday. 

IUSB is in the CACC South Division along with Calumet College of St. Joseph (Whiting, Ind.), Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbonnais, Ill.), Purdue University Calumet (Hammond, Ind.), Purdue University North Central (Westville), Trinity Christian College (Palos Heights, Ill.) and University of St. Francis (Joliet, Ill.). 

The CCAC North Division consists of Cardinal Stritch University (Milwaukee, Wis.), Judson University (Elgin, Ill.), Robert Morris University Illinois (Chicago), Roosevelt University (Chicago), Saint Xavier University (Chicago), St. Ambrose University (Davenport, Iowa) and Trinity International University (Deerfield, Ill.). 

The eight-team CCAC tournament is to be hosted by Judson. The conference will send to teams to the NAIA regional — the tourney champion and the team with the best overall season in conference play. Regional winners move on to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. 

“If we win every series, we can get into the top eight,” Blondell said. “If we’re in the tournament, anything can happen.” 

To get ready for the season, the Titans have been doing much of their preparation at Blondell’s indoor-outdoor training facility in Elkhart, P3 Premier Training & Acceleration.  There, batters have been able to see live pitching from IUSB starters and when the weather has permitted, track fly balls outside. 

“We’ve got to do what we can do in the north,” Blondell said. “if you can have success indoors seeing the ball, it’s going to be that much easier outdoors. 

“We’re better off than best.” 

IUSB ROSTER 

Senior: c Jordan Hinton (Elkhart, Ind.). 

Juniors: rhp Trey Bickel (Mishawaka, Ind.), lhp T.J. Cerven (Decatur, Mich.), c Damon DeJesus (Fort Wayne, Ind.), rhp Tyler Fritz (rs) (Grant Park, Ill.), lhp Luke Gaboury (South Bend, Ind.), of/lhp Nick Kellams (rs) (Dyer, Ind.), 3b Jalon Linville (Louisville, Ky.), 1b Chris Mangus (Niles, Mich.), lhp Ryan Novak (New Lenox, Ill.), mif Kevin Phelps (Portage, Mich.), 1b Brian Reits (Kalamazoo, Mich.). 

Sophomores: of Sam Azarian (Racine, Wis.), rhp Paul Geha (Fort Wayne, Ind.). 

Freshmen: 3b/rhp Seth Adams (Greenfield, Ind.), lhp Eric Calip (Bolingbrook, Ill.), mif Vinny Essig (Noblesville, Ind.), c Josh Fry (Mishawaka, Ind.), utl Josh Harbert (Fishers, Ind.), c/of Robbie Hernandez (Griffith, Ind.), lhp Jacob Howe (Fort Wayne, Ind.), rhp Jacob Kwisz (Knightstown, Ind.), 3b/rhp Mason Love (Monmouth, Ill.), of Spencer McCool (Anderson, Ind.), of/lhp Michael Mehall (Roswell, Ga.), mif Drew McDonald (North Liberty, Ind.), rhp Austin Pickett (Gunnison, Utah), rhp/mif Cody Quier (rs) (Mishawaka, Ind.), lhp Josh Rankert (Galveston, Ind.), rhp/utl Tyler Reece (South Bend, Ind.), utl Armaan Rodriguez (Fishers, Ind.), rhp Austin Weaver (Kokomo, Ind.).

(rs) — Redshirt. 

Head coach: Brian Blondell (Bethel College graduate). 

Assistants: Mike Huling (University of Southern Indiana), Matt Schwitz (Holy Cross College).