When the NIU baseball squad held walk-on tryouts last week, head coach Joe “Spanky” McFarland looked at over 100 players.

Six of those players: Dan Bohn, Buddy Day, Greg Gargani, Sean Holton, Mike O’Donnell, and Jason Skicewicz, saw their hard work pay off.

After expecting to keep only one or two walk-ons, McFarland found himself stuck with more talent than he originally anticipated.

“There wasn’t anything in particular we were looking for,” explained the second year coach. “Of the guys we saw, these six were the best out there.

“The best part is, each of them has a shot at making the spring squad. We (the coaches) just wanted to give some guys another five weeks to show what they can do. If they do it better than the regulars, then we’ll keep them for the rest of the year.”

Excited as the players may be about getting more time on the practice field, each one of them knows what it will take to be on the roster when the regular season rolls around in March.

“Everything will start all over again,” said Gargani, a transfer second baseman from Rock Valley Community College. “I was very confident of my ability when I tried out. But next time it will be against guys who have already established themselves. I’ll just have to step it up a notch and do my best.”

McFarland claims that a team “can never have enough good pitching” and proved that by keeping four walk-on pitchers. Those four hurlers realized the intense competition during tryouts.

“I was really nervous trying out,” said O’Donnell, a junior from Notre Dame high school. “Everyone was showing some great stuff.

“But I threw over the entire summer and I felt that I had a great shot at making the squad.”

Not all of the players were new to McFarland. Holton, a freshman outfielder from Niles West high school, was originally recruited by NIU.

“Spanky had a chance to see me play in high school,” explained Holton, “so I felt that I had a little better chance going in. But I was still very nervous because there were a lot of great athletes. I just had to play within myself and hope that I didn’t screw up.”