May 10, 2007

College Park, MD (CSTV U-WIRE) -- Even though senior Brandon Mise had earned his way onto the Terrapin baseball team with an impressive performance at walk-on tryouts in September, by the first official practice a few weeks later, he was nervous.

Mise was so nervous he kept forgetting things. First, he left his glove in his car, and when he later realized he had forgotten some other things there too, he was afraid he'd miss the practice altogether.

"I had to keep running back and forth to the car without being late for my first practice," Mise said. "I was trying not to be late, so I was just running back and forth from the locker room to my car because I kept forgetting things."

Mise made it through that first practice and eventually found his confidence - and the playing field - with the Terps varsity team this season, an accomplishment considering he thought he would spend his senior season playing for the club team for a third straight year.

Club baseball coach Andrew Williamson said he expected to have Mise back this year. The team started workouts a week before walk-on tryouts, and Mise was there. A few days before the tryouts, former coach and teammate Mat Wenzel saw Mise and asked him if he was going to the walk-on tryout. Mise didn't even know when the tryouts were.

"I wasn't even going to try out," Mise said. "I figured, it's my senior year, and they had a young team. They pretty much had everybody coming back. It was like a last-minute decision for me."

He had been through the tryout process before, and it hadn't worked out. In 2005, Mise attended the tryout but left after injuring his back running the 60-yard dash.

Even that had been a big step for the Hampton, Va. native. Out of high school, he was not recruited heavily by any big schools for college baseball. He instead chose to focus on academics, coming to this university to study architecture before eventually changing his major to art/studio design.

"I didn't want to go to just any college just to play," Mise said. "It wasn't anybody real big or a school that would really interest me [who recruited me]. So I just decided to come here and do school."

As a freshman, he didn't do anything baseball-related. At the beginning of his sophomore year, he approached coach Terry Rupp about opportunities to play baseball for the Terps. Rupp pointed him to the club team. By spring of his sophomore year, Mise was playing for the club team.

"He's definitely one of the best outfielders I've coached or played with," Williamson said. "When he did play club, I remember wondering why take a chance on him. He's definitely talented enough."

Then came the failed tryout that led to his first full year as a club player, which Mise said helped him immensely.

"It kept me doing something instead of just sitting around," Mise said. "It kept me in shape. I got to see live pitching, take fly balls, ground balls, running, the basic essentials. Instead of just sitting around all the time doing nothing, I got to keep polishing my skills."

He played outfield and also acted as the club's closer, sporting a fastball in the upper 80s. He also started experimented with hitting left-handed in the middle of his junior year, a key factor in his being added to the varsity team. Rupp liked the idea of adding a left-handed outfielder and has made Mise hit exclusively left-handed this season.

"In club, I used to just switch over," Mise said. "If I was struggling from the right side, I would just bat left-handed or vice-versa. This year's the first year that I actually batted left-handed the whole time."

Then came this year's tryout. Mise was healthy enough to show his full range of talent and immediately impressed Rupp with his speed, arm strength, defensive range and emerging left-handed bat.

"We liked some things that he did in the tryout, and we felt like he could be an asset to the program," Rupp said. "He's earned a spot, and he's done a nice job for us."

Although Mise said he's had to adjust to the speed of the game with faster, stronger players than he's ever competed against before, he's been valuable to the Terps, appearing in 32 games this season as a defensive replacement and pinch runner.

"That's the thing about Brandon: He's a role player," Williamson said. "He'll do whatever you ask him to do."

He also has six hits in 28 at-bats. He had pinch hits in ACC play against Miami and Virginia, but his first hit came in the Terps' 27-0 win over Coppin State on March 14, a triple off the right field fence.

"It was cool because at first I thought I got enough of it to get out, but it was good to finally get that monkey off my back," Mise said. "It made me finally realize that I can actually hit at this level."

He also got his second start of the year in Sunday's Senior Day loss against Florida State, going 0-3. Though he was pleased with the ceremony that recognized him, it may not be the end for Mise, who still technically has a year of eligibility left. He's on pace to graduate after one more semester, so he may stick around, do some graduate work and play one more season with the Terps. He currently puts his chances to return at 50-50, but one thing is certain: The Terps are happy to have found Mise, and would be happy to have him back.

"Hopefully, he decides to come back," Rupp said. "I think another year of summer baseball, he's going to play here [at Shipley Field] for the [College Park] Bombers [of the Cal Ripken Collegiate League], will really help him develop from the left side."

Contact reporter Eric Detweiler at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com.

(C) 2007 The Diamondback via CSTV U-WIRE