A pair of Kent State University baseball players, infielder Tyler Bischke and pitcher Brody Ware, are the first two players to commit to the West Virginia Miners for the 2020 Prospect League season. The names of the pair were announced by the Beckley, W.Va., based team on the morning of October 3, 2019.

Bischke was the first player to commit to play for the Miners in 2020 when the team received his completed contract on September 26.

The upcoming spring of 2020 will see the Gibsonia, Pa., resident play his freshman season of college baseball as a member of the roster at Kent State. The 5-9, 175-pounder also considered offers from Youngstown State University and the University of Delaware before making his final decision in favor of Kent State.

His primary position was as a shortstop for Hampton High School of Allison Park, Pa., (a northern suburb of Pittsburgh). He also lettered in basketball during his high school days at Hampton.

Playing college baseball runs in the family as Bischke's father, Scott, played baseball collegiately at the University of South Dakota.

 

As for Ware, he will be part of the mound staff for his freshman college season in the spring of 2020 for Kent State, which is located close to his hometown of North Canton, Ohio.

The right-hander will bring a superlative high school pitching resumé with him as he joins the roster of the Golden Flashes. He played three varsity seasons for North Canton Hoover High School, where he put up some outstanding numbers for the Vikings over the course of his high school career. His final overall career high school numbers saw him appear in 25 games on the mound and strike out 167 hitters in 131.1 innings of work. His final earned run average at Hoover was a stingy 1.76 and he received All-Federal League first team honors.

 

As a high school junior, Ware had originally committed to play college baseball at Liberty University before changing his destination point to Kent State during his senior year of high school.