Negaunee native Tony Jandron cracks a smile as the manager in the Northwest Missouri State dugout during a Bearcats’ baseball game this past season. (Photo courtesy Northwest Missouri State University)

NEGAUNEE — Under the leadership of first-year manager Tony Jandron, the Northwest Missouri State baseball team reached the championship game of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association before its season ended a week ago.

Jandron is a 2006 graduate of Negaunee High School, later earning a bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College in 2011 and master’s degree from Northwood University in 2019.

He had been the assistant baseball coach at NCAA Division I Central Michigan from 2019-23 and spent the 2024 season in the same position at Division I Illinois State. He also had earlier assistant coaching stints at Northwood and the College of DuPage.

Jandron was a two-sport standout at St. Norbert in baseball and basketball, and in baseball led the NCAA with a .511 batting average and is the Green Knights’ all-time leader in pitching victories.

This spring, the Division II NW Missouri team finished at 27-25, including 19-17 in the MIAA, as the No. 6 seeded Bearcats won two league tourney games, 6-5 in 10 innings over Fort Hays State on May 8 and 9-8 over Washburn on May 9, before falling to Central Oklahoma 11-4 last Saturday.

This was NWM’s most wins since 2018 and the most in program history by a first-year manager in a program that began in 1956.

With three of Jandron’s players named to the MIAA all-tournament team, this Bearcats team set the program record for home runs in a season with 57.

When Jandron was hired in June 2024, his first head coaching position, he became only the fourth different manager at NWM in the last 42 years.

Story contents based on email received from Amy Clickner and the Northwest Missouri State athletics website, bearcatsports.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.