On a quiet Christmas morning in 2019, Mitch Dye (Illinois) woke up to the sound of his alarm, got dressed and walked out to his family’s holiday tree, full of excitement. But instead of hunkering down to start opening presents like any normal kid would, Dye grabbed his baseball glove and stepped out the front door. He had work to do.

Moments later, he met up with his longtime friend Sam Antonacci— one of his teammates at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School (Illinois). With their upcoming season already in doubt due to the incoming COVID-19 pandemic, they had put together a compilation of throwing exercises from the internet to help keep their skills sharp. Bundled against the biting 20-degree cold, the two went to work, determined not to lose a step.

Though they followed similar routines throughout high school, Dye and Sam’s paths have split drastically since that day.

A year above Dye, Sam stayed close to home and spent the next two seasons at Heartland Community College (Illinois) before transferring to Coastal Carolina as a junior. The following summer, he was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the fifth round of the 2024 MLB Draft.

Although Dye has yet to hear his name called by an MLB franchise, he’s still right where he wants to be. Born into an Illinois family, Dye dreamed of one day suiting up for his hometown team in any role he could. But in order to make that dream into a reality, he was forced to take a bit of a detour. After receiving little to no D-I offers out of high school, Dye committed to a nearby JUCO program — Lincoln Land (Illinois) — where he spent his first two years of college primarily as a starter. Thanks to his experience with the Loggers, he now finds himself as one of the Fighting Illini’s bullpen staples ahead of his senior campaign in 2026.

“Mitch was a difference-maker type kid, and he was just continuing to blossom. Still, he had a lot of room to grow and try to get better,” former Lincoln Land head coach Ron Riggle said. “Our opportunity at a junior college was really what he needed.”

Even during his childhood, Lincoln Land served as Dye’s main source for all things baseball.

When he first got involved in the sport, his father signed him up for youth development camps on the school’s campus. Focused on both offensive and defensive fundamentals, Dye was introduced to several Lincoln Land coaches who would later guide him during his college career.

The basic skills Dye absorbed from those camps helped shape him into a jack-of-all trades player by the time he reached high school. While pitching was clearly Dye’s biggest strength, he was used at just about every position throughout his first two years at Sacred Heart-Griffin. Assistant coach Bill Antonacci described Dye as someone with a “ball player” mentality who would bring his catching gear to every game, just in case he needed it.

As a junior, Dye’s role drastically shifted. During a historic 2021 campaign for the program, he was mostly leaned on as a starting arm. Occasionally used as a designated hitter, it quickly became clear he belonged on the mound full-time. As the season progressed, his fastball finally began to reach past the mid-80s — and continued to climb. His calm presence was infectious, and it brought confidence to the team behind him each time he made a start.

Earning the No. 2 spot in the rotation, Dye helped lead his team to the state tournament behind a nearly perfect regular-season record. But for Dye, there was more to be desired — and he knew it. His command wasn’t where it needed to be, as he still occasionally fell into avoidable walks or hit-by-pitches. Unfortunately, the country’s top programs only saw the negatives in his game.

After receiving few D-I offers ahead of his senior year, Dye — like most kids from his hometown of Springfield — had to settle for a nearby JUCO school. But with a deep connection already established fifteen minutes down the road from his home at Lincoln Land, Dye’s decision was easy. Without any convincing, he joined the Loggers with the hope that the program could give him the boost he needed.

“I always dreamed of playing for Illinois, but I didn’t know if that was possible. I would say going into it I didn’t really know what I would make of it,” Dye said of his time at Lincoln Land.

As one of the few freshmen on the team, Dye made sure to take mental notes while he watched the sophomores around him pitch. By dissecting their techniques, he realized that unlike what he had been taught throughout his high school career, velocity wasn’t everything. What mattered most was painting the strike zone as consistently as possible.

Nobody embodied that sentiment better than right-handed pitcher Brannan Kraft, who took Dye under his wing that season. With a polished four-pitch mix—fastball, curveball, slider and changeup—Kraft showed Dye that being a dependable pitcher didn’t mean constantly throwing your arm into the ground every outing.

“I feel like I could pick something up from each one of my teammates, no matter if you were the last man in the rotation or the number one. We had a really close bond and we always watched each other’s bullpens and gave each other tips,” Dye said.

Along with the guidance he received from fellow starters like Brannan, Dye also tweaked his craft with the help of Lincoln Land pitching coach Levi Petzoldt.

Between practices and games, Dye and Petzoldst mainly focused on improving the three pitches that had carried him through high school — fastball, changeup and slider — rather than introducing new ones. When Dye first arrived at Lincoln Land, Petzoldst also noticed that his arm path was long and jerky, which was impacting his pitch speeds.

“I always tell guys that if they have two pitches they can throw for a strike in this league, they’ll be good. If they have three, more than likely they’ll be a starter,” Petzoldt said.

From Day One, that’s exactly the role Dye was thrust into for the Loggers. He didn’t disappoint.

Through 17 appearances in 2023, Dye racked up a whopping 91 strikeouts through 17 games played, 14 of which he started. Between his consistency on the mound that year and strong showings in well-scouted showcases across the Midwest, Dye finally started to draw the attention expected of a Division-I prospect. Several Power 4 conference schools reached out to him before his sophomore year, offering private tours of their facilities. Dye made quick visits to Purdue and Indiana State, but he remained set on taking his talents to Illinois.

On October 5, 2023, just one day after receiving his initial offer from the Fighting Illini, Dye officially committed to his dream school. Riding a wave of confidence, he went on to deliver an even more dominant season with the Loggers than before.

In his second and final campaign at Lincoln Land in 2024, Dye started on the mound in each of his 13 outings — including a seven-inning complete game in which he allowed just two runs. On April 13, 2024, Dye all but secured his spot within Illinois’ bullpen via a 10-punchout performance against Vincennes. The showing sent a clear message: the Mid-West Athletic Conference simply couldn’t hold him anymore.

“In our program, we have a lot of kids who are just as talented as the ones at D-I schools, it’s just the guys at those schools show that talent off a lot more than our guys do,” Riggle said. “That’s kind of our biggest challenge as a coaching staff: Having our guys continue to grow more as pitchers, but also become more consistent. I think that’s what Mitch became.”

Despite Dye’s success as a starter at both the high school and JUCO levels, Illinois slotted him in as a middle or back-end arm for the duration of his junior year. The transition wasn’t an easy one for Dye. In his first three showings, he gave up nine earned runs through just 1 ⅓ innings of work combined. It was a humbling experience for Dye, but the stretch taught him that when pitted against D-I bats there was much less wiggle room for mistakes.

Slowly but surely, Dye found his groove. Given more opportunities by his coaches to get his feet wet at the highest level, Dye appeared in 18 more games (21 ⅔ frames) the rest of the campaign. Across those outings, he allowed just 10 earned runs and struck out 27 batters.

“I started at the bottom of the barrel, but then I kind of finished up there in a pretty big role for the team,” Dye said of his first year at Illinois.

As his junior year came to a close, Dye’s coaches permitted him to find somewhere to compete over the summer to not only sharpen his skills against D-I competition, but to also place him in front of MLB scouts. The Cape Cod Baseball League provided a perfect outlet.

When Dye was first activated by the Whitecaps on July 21, 2025, he was welcomed by a familiar face in teammate Zach Bates (Illinois). The two often drove to games together, strengthening an already tight bond that Dye described as being “two peas in a pod.” Brewster manager Jamie Shevchik even used both relievers in the same game on two different occasions.

Dye finished his five-game stint on the Cape with two earned runs, 12 Ks and a 2.08 ERA through the 8 ⅔ innings of work he was allotted. His best moment came against Harwich on Aug. 2 when he struck out the side in the third.

With his time on the Cape now concluded, Dye enters his second year at Illinois with a chance to fight his way into an even more prominent role in the bullpen. But according to Dye, his top priority this spring is to simply help secure wins for his hometown team in any way possible — just as he'd always imagined during his childhood.

Thanks to his time at Lincoln Land, Dye’s now able to turn that fantasy into reality every time he takes the mound.

“They definitely have a pretty good collection of guys getting drafted and playing pro ball, and I think I want to add to that list. It would mean a lot to me and my coaches at Lincoln Land just to keep that legacy going,” Dye said of potentially being drafted someday. “If that happens, I wouldn’t be in that situation without them.”

Title photo credit: Casey Bayne.