Sit Down With Reece Hemmerling

Reece had an outstanding two year career with junior college powerhouse Barton CC, in Kansas, and will now be heading to NCAA Division 1 USC Upstate University.

After a strong freshman season where he posted a 6-2 record and had 54 strikeouts in 55 innings he took a another step forward this past season, his sophomore year.

This past spring, Reece was the Cougars ace posting a 9-4 record, logging 79 innings with a 3.65 ERA. He racked up 65 strikeouts to just 19 walks. He also had an impressive 6 complete games and 4 shutouts, including two CG's and a shutout in the playoffs. He earned a 2nd Team All-Conference Selection.

Reece, who spent this past summer giving his arm a break and training here at AHP full-time, was a member of the inaugural AHP Academy team in 2021-22.

He has shown remarkable fortitude in the face of terrible adversity. His father Troy sadly passed away from brain cancer last November.

It was great to sit down and chat with him about the success of his college career so far and what he is looking forward to next!

Let's start off by talking about your decision to go to USC Upstate. What are you looking forward to most?

I’m looking forward to meeting all the guys and coaching staff. They did just have a coaching change but I built a pretty solid relationship with the pitching coach during the recruiting process so I feel really good about it. Biggest thing I’m looking forward to is the nice weather and getting to pitch in that year round.

It'll be great to get away from that Kansas wind! Talk about this past season at Barton. You guys maybe didn’t have the same level of regular season success as your freshman season (pretty damn hard to follow up 51-11 season), but you had a really solid post-season (which you were a big part of). What was different do you think between the two years and what allowed you guys to finish strong?

Freshman year we had a really heavy sophomore presence, so it was going to be kind of tough to repeat that win total and stuff. It’s funny because during the year it didn’t’ feel like we were having the best season but now looking back on it it was still really good, I think it was just because the year before we won 50 games so it’s tough to compare to that. But as the season went along I feel like we gelled more and just kept getting better.

Personally, you couldn't have had a much better post-season. Complete game shutout against Fort Scott in the opening game, and then follow that up with a complete game victory over the conference champ Hutch. You actually had a couple of just okay starts to end the regular season, but obviously really turned it around when you needed to most. What did you tweak or adjust going into the playoffs?

My playoff performance was just me having a couple bad outings going into it and I just needed to decide to lock it in and take pride in doing it for the team, and I was able to do pretty well. I think one of the biggest things was throwing more change-ups to righties, and then giving Hutch a different pitch selection off of that than what they’d seen a couple weeks earlier. I also tried to command the fastball inside a little more.

Talk about your time at Barton and specifically Coach Biggs. What does he do that has allowed that program to become one of the best in the region year in year out, and really the whole country?

I think Coach Biggs does a really good job preparing everyone for the season. He really pushes you in the fall and makes sure that we are all mentally tough enough so that w are going to be able to handle adversity once the season rolls around.

It’s crazy that it’s been two years since you finished up with us here at the  AHP Academy. What would you say was the biggest adjustment going from high school baseball to juco?

Biggest thing I noticed was just that the hitters can hit everything you can throw, and you have to be able to really pitch and throw your off-speed in hitters counts. That was the biggest adjustment early on I think.

What was your favourite memory about your year with AHP?

My favourite part was playing with guys from all over the place who all have the same goal of playing college baseball. It gives you that same sort of college baseball atmosphere.

What advice would you give to a kid who is just starting with the Renegades and has the goal of being where you are now, one day?

The biggest thing is sticking to the plan here with the lifts and the throwing program, staying positive, and trusting the coaching staff. I came in here throwing maybe 78 and 9 months later was mid 80s. I think it’s just about putting trust and faith into the coaches.

Your teammates gave you a pretty amazing gift when you came back after Christmas, can you talk about what that meant to you?

The glove my coaches and teammates at Barton got me was super special. When I was going through the hard times of losing my dad to brain cancer, they made me a custom glove that commemorated him. It'll be held with me for the rest of my life.

As a fellow Kansas Jayhawk Conference alum and lover of juco baseball, what will you miss most about Barton?

The thing I'll miss most about Barton, and I already do, is the relationships I built with my teammates over the last two years. These guys are my brothers for life. It's crazy how close you get with the guys in such a short period of time.

Coach Brent Biggs had many complimentary things to say about Reece:

"Reece is a college coach's dream athlete. Talented, great student, hard worker, but more important he's a great person and teammate. Nothing has come easy for him and all of his on field accomplishments are a product of a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Reece was dealt a hand of cards no young adult should have to go though. He went about his business day to day and very rarely would you know the heavy heart he carried. He loved Barton, loved his teammates, and never asked for anything in return.

In my sixteen years here, I can honestly say we don't get many come through the doors like Reece. He helped move our program forward but more importantly helped change the perspective and lives of his teammates and coaches."