“A Neal of a Deal”
Blackburn Celebrates a Decade of Winning Baseball Under Mike Neal

This year marks the tenth season of Mike Neal’s run as head baseball coach at Blackburn College. In those ten years, Blackburn has captured a pair of St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles, made two trips to the NCAA Division III tournament, won at least 20 games seven times, and won 206 games overall.

In the process, Blackburn has become one of the elite teams in the SLIAC and is recognized as a consistently competitive program across the state and around the region. To say the least, the decade has been a good deal for Blackburn baseball—a “Neal of a deal,” as it were.

From its inception as a varsity sport in 1983 until Neal’s hiring, Blackburn baseball had enjoyed some good seasons, but had not reached a level of winning consistency. From 1989-91, Blackburn had won a total of 56 games under Don Flowers, including an 18-12 campaign in 1989 and a fourth-place finish at the National Small College Athletic Association tournament the following year.

In 1995, Tom Parkevich directed Blackburn to a 17-19 season and a third-place SLIAC finish to start a three-year span in which the Beavers won 43 games The 1998 team under first-year head coach Mike Auble finished 10-16 with a third straight fifth-place finish in the SLIAC. But the Beavers had never won a conference title or reached 20 wins—until Neal came along.

Neal was hired in the winter of 1999 and the program took an immediate step forward, tying the school record for wins with a 19-21 season. Shortstop Tim Mallekoote and outfielder J.T. Furnish were first-team all-SLIAC selections, while first baseman Luke Angelo took home second-team honors and outfielder David Gundy was an honorable mention pick, the third all-conference honor of his career. Certainly, the inaugural season of the Neal era was memorable, but the best was yet to come.

In 2000, Blackburn kept moving up, breaking the school wins mark with a 24-17-1 record and reaching the .500 mark in the conference for the first time since 1996. This time, five Beavers were all-conference picks as Blackburn appeared to be on the verge of becoming a serious SLIAC contender.

It did not happen in a disappointing 2001 campaign, although transfer Pete Schmitt was named SLIAC Newcomer of the Year, the first in a five-year streak of such honors for Blackburn baseball. But it all came together in 2002, when the rise of Beaver baseball continued to never-before-seen heights.

That season, Blackburn came out flying and never looked back, racing to a 17-4 mark in the SLIAC to capture the school’s first-ever conference title in baseball. With it came a trip to the NCAA Division III tournament, the first appearance at the nationals for the baseball team and just the second for a Blackburn sports team overall. When the dust had settled, the Beavers had reached a new school mark for wins for the second time in three seasons, going 27-15 in one of the best seasons by a Blackburn sports team in the history of the school.

With the great season came a load of honors, as senior Tony Etnier was named both SLIAC Player of the Year and SLIAC Newcomer of the Year. Seven Blackburn players were all-conference selections, with four earning spots on the first team. Neal’s work was paying off; he was named SLIAC Coach of the Year, and his baseball program was finally at the top.

And it would stay there. The 2003 team made another serious run at the title before finally finishing second with a 16-5 mark and a 24-16 record overall. That spring was highlighted by one of the signature wins in the history of the program, a 5-3 win over SIU-Carbondale, an NCAA Division I program, in a game played in Memphis in early March. This time, it was junior transfer Billy Puckett who was the SLIAC Newcomer of the Year as Neal continued to recruit top-line players to Blackburn.

The Blackburn baseball program traditionally plays a brutal nonconference schedule loaded with top Division III programs and NAIA scholarship schools. No other conference school attempts such a challenge, but the Beavers routinely take on the best in their effort to be the best. This was never more true than in 2004, when Blackburn took their best shots in the nonconference slate and came away with a 1-13 start to the season.

At that point, another SLIAC title looked like a longshot, but Blackburn was primed for another run. The Beavers proceeded to tear through the conference in one of the most dominant displays in SLIAC history, rolling to a 19-2 league mark and another title, finishing four games ahead of second-place Fontbonne on the loss side. Again, the Beavers were champions, and were a definite force to be reckoned with–a point driven home with a narrow 6-5 loss at the University of Illinois in Champaign in late April as the Illini nearly fell victim to a major upset.

Once again, Blackburn was back in the NCAAs, and the Beavers proved that they were not just happy to be there. The Beavers took Carthage down to the wire in a 6-4 loss in their regional opener before knocking off Illinois Wesleyan 6-3 in their second game. The season finally came to an end with another loss to Carthage by the score of 14-10, but Blackburn had made a statement that had lasted throughout the season and would be heard for years.

For the second time, Neal was named SLIAC Coach of the Year, while pitcher Kyle Rensing made it four in a row with another SLIAC Newcomer of the Year honor as Blackburn went 24-19 overall behind an offense that set team records in four major categories. Eight Beavers were represented on the all-conference team–four on the first team and four on the second team–as Blackburn set a regular-season SLIAC record with 19 league wins on the spring.

Although the Beavers fell short of a repeat in 2005, the season was an unqualified success as Blackburn set another school record for wins in a 28-14 season that included a second-place conference finish and a berth in the newly reintroduced SLIAC tournament title game. It was the fourth time in seven years that Blackburn either tied or broke the school victories mark.

Blackburn went 17-4 in the conference overall as five players, the most in school history, earned first-team all-conference honors. Seven Beavers were all-conference picks in all, while outfielder Dustin Hopkins was named SLIAC Newcomer of the Year–the fifth straight season that a Blackburn player won the prestigious award.

After several years of veteran clubs, the 2006 edition of the Beavers was very young and lacking in experience at many positions. At this point, it would have been easy to wonder if the program was finally going to hit a bump, but it was hardly the case as Blackburn took the SLIAC race down to the wire before finally being eliminated on the last day of the conference season.

In all, Blackburn went 22-19 and tied for second in the conference at 14-7. The season was highlighed by an impressive win at Illinois Wesleyan in the season finale as the Beavers extended their winning streak over the Titans, a perennial CCIW powerhouse. A doubleheader sweep of new rival Webster in late April was also memorable as seven Beavers took home all-conference honors, including three first-team selections.

The 2007 season began in the usual way–with a brutal nonconference schedule and high expectations of another title when the league slate rolled around. This year’s team was also lacking in experience, but Neal’s knack for recruiting again showed through, and Blackburn plowed through the SLIAC schedule to set up a huge home doubleheader with front-running Webster on the final day of the league schedule.

Needing a sweep to tie for the conference title and earn the top seed for the conference tournament, Blackburn came through with a 4-2 victory in the opener to set up a winner-take-all scenario in the second game. With a large crowd on their side, the Beavers took the game into extra innings before falling 4-2 to settle for a tie for second place once again.

Blackburn was disappointed with the outcome to a season that most programs would have been proud of–a testament to the lofty standards of Beaver baseball. Blackburn went 13-5 in the conference and 20-21 overall, the sixth straight time that the Beavers had won at least 20 games and the seventh time overall in Neal’s tenure. The Beavers have also finished no lower than second in the conference in that span, going a league-best 97-29 in that stretch.

The 2007 season also had two other important highlights; the conclusion of the brilliant career of catcher Brian Neal, who is no relation to the coach, who left as Blackburn’s all-time leader in hits, runs, and batting average. In addition, coach Neal won his 200th game in a Blackburn uniform by virtue of a doubleheader sweep at Maryville on April 22. He has won more games than any coach in any sport in school history.

During the last decade, Blackburn has become a consistent winner in baseball while earning respect around the conference, state, and region. In total, the school has won 206 games in Neal’s tenure and has produced 51 all-conference players, including 22 first-team picks. Much of the credit is due to Neal, who defers to his players, praising them for the many accomplishments of the program.

At the Division III level, it is not uncommon for coaches, who often lack staff, funding, and facilities, to have to go the extra mile to get their teams ready to play. But few do it like Neal, who routinely puts in hours of work getting the playing field in shape, doing the dirty work that is necessary to have a nice place to play. He also insists on taking care of his own statistics.

Neal also has reached out into the community and, in the process, is well-known in the town as well. Loyal to his players, he has evoked strong loyalty from them in return, and many have followed their mentor into the coaching ranks. Several of Neal’s former players are currently coaching on the staffs of Division I programs.

Programs such as Blackburn baseball expect to win, and there is no reason to believe that the winning will stop any time soon. The last ten years have indeed been a great deal for Blackburn–a “Neal of a deal” that keeps on producing a lot of wins and even more memories.