One of the newest additions to the Middle Tennessee State baseball team hasn’t experienced everything, but he’s experienced a lot.
Since graduating from Indian Creek, Dustin Sprong, who first enrolled at Xavier and transferred to Howard College in Big Spring, Texas, battled through the uncertainties of an injury and a global pandemic and carved out a sophomore season worthy of a return to Division I.
The 6-foot-3, 175-pound right-hander posted a 2-0 record with one save, striking out 22 batters in 21 innings on the hill for the Hawks. Sprong’s 3.50 earned-run average dipped to just below 2.00 against Western Junior Collegiate Athletic Conference opponents.
During one memorable stretch of the season, Spring threw 17 consecutive scoreless innings.
Two years in Big Spring (population 28,041) didn’t present big options socially, which Sprong felt helped his development as a pitcher.
“It’s just a small town in Texas. Not a lot of distractions, so I could just focus on baseball,” he said. “I loved it, personally. Sometimes, me and my friends would drive the 30-35 minutes to Midland to a bowling alley or just play video games or poker in one of our dorm rooms.”
Bus trips to road games ranged from an hour one way when playing Midland or Odessa to the 10-hour marathon drive to the state’s eastern reaches to play in Galveston. Jokingly asked if a tumbleweed ever bounced across Howard’s home diamond during a game, Sprong said it actually became a relatively common occurrence.
“You get used to it,” he said. “At one point, it wasn’t distracting at all.”
As part of the Howard College team, Sprong — who often overpowered hitters at the prep level with a fastball/slider combination — added a cutter and change-up to his arsenal.
“I was able to work on my pitching mechanics. In high school, I was throwing harder than everyone else. I had to learn more pitches and not just rely on my fastball,” Sprong said. “They all just work together. If I don’t have a fastball, I’ll go off-speed and use the fastball to change their eye level or to change pace.”
Approximately 15 Division I programs showed interest in Sprong; seven or eight made offers.
Middle Tennessee State is coached by Jim Toman, who in nine seasons at Liberty (2008-16) led the school to national prominence, including an NCAA Regional final appearance in 2013.
One of Toman’s marquee talents that season was another Johnson County product in former Whiteland two-sport standout Ashton Perritt, a sophomore that spring who played center field and even pitched on occasion.
“This past year in baseball, their conference (Conference USA) did really well,” Sprong said of Middle Tennessee. “I talked to the coach two times over the phone, and I can tell by the way he talks that he’s real genuine. It sounded like he was from Trafalgar, Indiana. That he worked on a farm or just went fishing, and those people are real genuine.”
Middle Tennessee State is coming off a 24-29-1 season in which 21 of the 43 players on Toman’s roster were transfers. The campus is located in Murfreesboro, 30 miles southeast of Nashville.
As a result, Sprong goes from being a 17-hour drive from home to five hours away. However, being much closer to family and friends than he was the past two years is only one of the perks.
“I’m looking forward to getting there and having real good facilities where I can lift weights and just get better,” Sprong said.
