The next stop is about to begin for Brady Michel.
The former Great Bend High and Barton Community College star signed to continue his baseball career with Southern Illinois this past spring. He will be a junior when school starts up this month.
While at Barton, Michel hit .329 as a sophomore and led the team with 29 doubles, which set a school record for doubles in a season. He finished with eight home runs and 54 RBI.
Michel also holds Top 10 single-season marks in at bats and total bases. He finished his sophomore campaign with 219 at bats and 165 total bases. He played in 61 of 62 games.
That was good enough to earn his second team All-Jayhawk West honors as an outfielder.
Michel was instrumental in leading Barton to its first NJCAA World Series in school history. The Cougars finished the season with a 47-15 record, breaking the school record for wins a season.
Barton won the Jayhawk West for the first time since 1994.
“Brady is a competitor,” Barton Coach Brent Biggs said. “He gives you everything he has every day. When you combine that with his skill set, I think he is going to be a very good player for Southern Illinois.”
Southern Illinois went 28-30 this past season, losing in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. The Salukis went 10-11 in the MVC.
Michel will join another former Cougar, Mason Hiser, on the SIU baseball team. Hiser, a pitcher, missed most of the 2018 season with an injury.
The Salukis are coached by long-time coach Ken Henderson, who will enter his 10th season at Southern Illinois and his 35th overall in collegiate baseball. He spent 19 years as an assistant with the Salukis before taking over as the head coach.