Matt Nyce discovered the best way to be good at baseball was to take away his baseball façade.
The result has been eye-popping, as Nyce went from a .120 hitter as a sophomore for Princeton Day School, to hitting over .420 this season.
What the heck happened?
“I think I’ve relieved pressure off myself,” the Hopewell Township resident said. “Since last year, I’ve learned that I can’t base my identity on being a baseball player. It’s hard to place your self worth on a thing so unsteady as baseball. As cliché as it sounds, this year I know that if I go 0-for-5 with five strikeouts, I can still walk away knowing that my life is about so much more than just baseball. Last year it was a whole different story. I’ve matured so much since last year — to me that’s been the biggest difference.”
The statement is a bit ironic, since Nyce started his career by also trying to distance himself from the sport. He began in kindergarten and recalls that his mom “had to drag me to my first Little League practice. But looking back, I’m very glad she did.”
Nyce grew up with the HVBSA recreation leagues and all-star teams, and now plays travel ball for the New York-based East Coast Lumberjacks. He also played basketball and football, but decided to focus solely on baseball as a PDS freshman. In 20 at-bats that year, he hit a respectable .250 before last season’s plunge.
For once in his life, baseball was not fun.
“It was pretty rough to say the least,” he said. “I lost a lot of confidence. Sometimes I would go up to bat thinking that I was going to strike out and usually with that mindset, I did. I would stay after practice and take 200 swings off the tee because I thought I needed a mechanical change in my swing, but the whole time I just needed to change my approach.”
What he really needed was some mental floss to clear out the problem between his ears.
“Often during last season, I would begin to feel sorry for myself; which is probably one of the worst things a baseball player can do,” Nyce said.
So he began a cleansing of the mind in the off-season, reading the book The Mental Game of Baseball by Harvey Dorfman to give himself a stronger mindset. The athletic ability was there, all it needed was some help from the brain.
He also put down his bat and glove for some time, just to take a full break. Otherwise, it was business as usual as Nyce hit the weight room every day to work on his legs and build a strong body base.
It’s a habit he refuses to break.
“The kid works his tail off,” PDS coach Brian Dudeck said. “He’s a kid that gets up every morning at 5:30, gets himself to PDS, gets in the weight room. It’s just constant baseball.”
Nyce played outfield all through middle school and ninth grade. When he was moved to third base last year, it took some adjusting.
“I still considered myself an outfielder,” Nyce said.
Dudeck felt that might have helped contribute to his problems at the plate.
“We threw him in at third base and there were so many things coming at him,” the coach said. “The potential was there, the ability was there, but I think it was too many things to process at one time. This year, he’s more confident and relaxed.”
Once again, Nyce had an awakening of the mind when it came to his defensive capabilities and has become a solid middle infielder.
“At the beginning of summer ball last year, I was playing outfield and came to the realization that I didn’t have the attention span to be an outfielder, and that it was too boring for me,” he said. “So from that moment on I dedicated my summer to becoming an infielder. Since then I’ve been really focusing on becoming an elite infielder. I’ve really enjoyed playing the infield and have started to take as much pride in my fielding as my hitting.”
It all comes back to the work ethic that Dudeck could not stop talking about. At the end of every statement he made about Nyce, it was punctuated by “the kid just works hard.” Part of Nyce’s training, which helped his defensive range, dealt with flexibility.
“The more I look into it, the more I realize how important it is for my body to be loose and play at my peak performance,” he said. “I don’t consider it work. Honestly, I consider it fun. What drives me is that every time I step onto the diamond I want to be the best player on the field. I believe I’ve been given God-given talents to play baseball and every day I want to make the most out of the talents I’ve been given.”
He has done just that this season. As of May 15, Nyce was hitting .412 with 12 stolen bases, 15 runs scored and 12 RBI. He also had a 2-2 record on the mound.
Off the diamond, Nyce serves as a PDS tour guide for prospective students and enjoys spending time with his close-knit family. He is also focusing on his next stop for baseball and academics. He says he has an offer from a Division I college that he really likes.
“But I’m still checking out some other possible schools as well,” he said. “I’ve been trying to just take my time and to not rush into anything.”
Princeton Day School’s junior thirdbaseman Matt Nyce has seen his batting average rise from .120 last year to .420 this year. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
