NEW ALBANY, Ind. – Tyler Yotkewich had a choice to make. Come back and play one more season at IU Southeast under a new head coach or be content with his bachelor's degree and pursue other opportunities.
 
To Yotkewich, the choice was easy. Being a student as well as an athlete was important to him. A master's degree was right around the corner, and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to go one more season with his teammates.
 
Growing Up
 
Yotkewich, a graduate student on the IU Southeast baseball team, is from Johnston City, Illinois. He was quick to mention how small the town and his high school was.
 
"They do in fact have one stoplight," Yotkewich said. "It's a farming town, coal mines in the area, not a lot there."
 
"I went to Johnston City Community High School. I graduated with 45 kids. Pretty small."
 
Yotkewich began playing baseball around the age of five or six, and soon faced a decision about what sport meant the most to him.
 
"I was probably like 10," Yotkewich said, "I was playing football and basketball and I was like, yeah, nothing tops baseball. I played basketball all the way through high school and stuff like that, but it was kind of always baseball. I quit football to play more baseball."
 
High School Recruiting
 
Yotkewich was recruited out of high school by several programs. He came to the realization that junior college, often referred to as JUCO, was the best route for him.
 
"I had some offers all throughout high school and it kind of picked up a little bit when I was a junior," Yotkewich said. "The area where I'm from is known well for JUCO baseball. Every other town has a really high ranked JUCO team and there's a good conference there so I kind of figured that was the route I was going to take."
 
Yotkewich stayed close to home, attending Southeastern Illinois College. It was about 45 minutes from his house, so he was able to commute.
 
Journey to IU Southeast
 
After his freshman season at Southeastern Illinois, Yotkewich began receiving interest from other schools. One of the schools interested was IU Southeast, and he began hearing from assistant coach Joe Nattermann.

"I threw almost 85 innings as a freshman at my JUCO, so I had quite a few offers out on the table," Yotkewich said. "Then, Joe Natt kept hitting me up. They were like, you should go check it out. So, I decided to come up here one day."
 
Joe Nattermann, who has been an assistant coach at IU Southeast for more than a decade, was impressed with what he saw from Yotkewich.
 
"I first saw him online," Nattermann said. "I watched him throw and he had great late velocity jump, and kind of got on you a little bit and had a little bit of movement at the time. I just stayed with him a little bit and kept asking him what was going on…I just kind of kept in touch to see who was talking to him and what he was looking at doing."
 
Yotkewich was impressed with the culture that had been built at IU Southeast
 
"I was like, man this place is pretty cool," Yotkewich said. "I knew they were winning…they were really good. They had won a lot of conference championships the years before that, and they were supposed to have a really good team then."
 
"When I came and visited, I was like, I like the area. I like that they win. I think that was one of the biggest things that I looked for…here, everybody had the same goal. That's all that anybody cared about was being brothers and winning. That was what sold me and won me over."
 
Yotkewich committed to IU Southeast in November of 2019 as he headed into his sophomore year at Southeastern Illinois. He did not realize how important that decision would end up being because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
"I think that in a weird way I kind of lucked out," Yotkewich said. "It kind of worked out because the season didn't last very long. I think we only played like 13 games so if I hadn't committed then, I don't know what would have happened."
 
An Unusual First Year
 
Yotkewich mentioned how chaotic it was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as he was adjusting to a new school.
 
"That was wild," Yotkewich said. "We maybe practiced like 5 weeks that fall. We'd practice a little bit and then were getting COVID tested every week. So, it was pretty much on your own. It was different because you didn't get to know how everybody was on the field and stuff like that."
 
Though it was unprecedented times, the team still found a way to come closer together and find success according to Yotkewich,
 
"It was kind of what made the year special," Yotkewich said. "Everybody was just close because there was nothing to do. The whole team lived at the same apartment complex, so everybody just became friends and I think that was kind of a deciding factor."
 
That season IU Southeast made it to the NAIA World Series, winning 50 games, including going 26-1 in conference play.
 
Dealing With Expectations
 
IU Southeast now had a national reputation after their NAIA World Series appearance, and Yotkewich noticed how other teams viewed them differently right away.
 
"Everybody kind of looked at us differently then," Yotkewich said. "And I think it felt like that in every game that we played. Every team we played; it was just a different level."
 
"I think the way that we got treated and the way that we got looked at as a program definitely changed to some of the teams that wanted to play us. The invites we were getting to go play in tournaments and stuff like that, it kind of flipped a switch and I think you still see the effect now."
 
IU Southeast finished 41-15 in Yotkewich's second season, making the NAIA Opening Round.
 
A New Roster
 
IU Southeast went through a major roster change after the 2021-22 season. The Grenadiers graduated double digit seniors. Yotkewich knew that the next season was going to be different.
 
"It was different," Yotkewich said. "You turn around and you don't have the same person giving you the signs, and you go from just having to throw the ball to…kind of directing all kinds of different things to get to try to get stuff straight."
 
Yotkewich had to become a leader, as there were many new faces on the roster. To him, he had never felt a feeling quite like the one he had last season.
 
"I don't think that the record last year [in 2022-23] shows quite what that team did," Yotkewich said. "I think that for me personally, I had never felt a rush, an adrenaline rush…like last year. Everybody kind of started doing enough or filling a hole that needed to be filled and it just kind of came together. It was like we were winning in different ways which I think was the most exciting thing, seeing everybody kind of come together."
 
IU Southeast went 33-20 and made it to the River States Conference Championship Game.
 
A Change in the Program
 
Following the 2022-23 season, Ben Reel resigned as head coach of the IU Southeast baseball program after 15 years in the position. Yotkewich, who had already earned his bachelor's degree, had a decision to make about his future.
 
Yotkewich soon realized he wasn't done playing baseball. He couldn't go out without some more hardware.   
 
"The majority of the guys that decided to come back, last year was the first year that none of us had won a trophy," Yotkewich said. "We found ourselves in a championship game but that was the first time since I've been here that we haven't won the big game.
 
Nattermann is incredibly thankful that Yotkewich decided to come back because he has been in every situation and can help the young guys adjust.
 
"It means a lot to us with him being a senior and knowing the system and knowing how to pitch, just having the college experience," Nattermann said. "He's been kind of like a second coach in the bullpen with Coach Neff. I know that if he's telling a guy something, they're listening and they're taking it to heart. He can really help them out because he knows what he's doing."
 
"I don't think there's one guy in there that doesn't look up to him and thank him for coming back."
 
Yotkewich felt he could contribute more to his teammates and to the program.
 
"I told Coach Reel when I committed, and we always had talked about it, you leave a place better than the way you found it," Yotkewich said. "And it's like, maybe last year, I don't know if me not coming back would have left it in the right position, I think, from a leader standpoint…whatever I can do through all this transition to help the program get back to where it deserves and to get back on top in my last season, I think that would be the icing on the cake to whatever is next in my life."
 
Getting an IU Degree
 
To Yotkewich, getting not one, but two IU degrees means a lot to him.
 
"It means everything," Yotkewich said. "When you look at it, that's a renowned school across the world. You have people that…come to Indiana to go to school at IU and it should give you a leg up in any aspect in life. Everybody is going to see where you went and know that you had to work hard for what you got. I think that's something that can't go unnoted."
 
Yotkewich notes that an IU degree puts not just himself in a great spot, but his future family as well.
 
"I think that this puts me in a position that I can take care of a family," Yotkewich said. "I can support others. It opens up so many doors to relationships and other things like that. You can go anywhere you want with an IU degree."
 
A Lasting Impact on the Program
 
When asked about how he wants to be remembered, Yotkewich pauses for a moment. He thinks back to the seniors before him and how he remembers them.
 
"The biggest thing for me is I would give anything to go back and play with Daunte [DeCello] and Marco [Romero] one more time," Yotkewich said. "I think that that's something I can show them. It's like, man, there's an end is coming. And you don't want to waste a day. I think that's the biggest thing from me for the younger guys is making sure they know; it's going to end at some point. And when it ends, you need to know you gave everything that you had. You're playing for a special place that had a lot of people before you that did a lot. You don't want to have any regrets when you leave."
 
Nattermann knows and values the impression Yotkewich has made on him and the program.
 
"He's a great kid, a great guy," Nattermann said. "There are quite a few people on this team that I'll stay in touch with forever and he's one of them. He's just a great kid and I love having him around."