After stellar stellar season going toe-to-toe with league’s best, Vintage’s Tenscher signs National Letter of Intent with UC Berkeley
By Kyle Foster
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Pitching is such an art form it feels like you’re seeing something new every day. Part of this is the creativity that’s in the game, but another part is if pitchers are willing to try something outside of the box.
After all, everyone has seen sidearmers and pitchers that throw heat. One thing that people never really see is a pitcher with both of those traits. That’s where Vintage ace Miles Tenscher comes in.
Because of this unique ability to throw absolute filth and his growth over the last year, Tenscher signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball at the University of California, Berkeley.
One of his main deciding factors for signing with the Golden Bears was the fact that he’ll be just an hour away from home, making it easy for family and friends to come to watch him play.
“It’s definitely good to be able to have my family out coming out to most of my games and have friends and family from here just to be able to be at my games,” Tenscher said of playing close to home.
Before last season, Tenscher was an ace that only Vintage knew they had. After doing everything on the bump last season, he became the ace of the staff and is one of the top pitchers in the Vine Valley Athletic League.
As a junior last spring, he went 3-1 while having an astounding 0.96 ERA across 15 total appearances and 51 innings pitched. He also struck out 77 while allowing just 23 on by way of the walk.
With these numbers, Vintage had to find ways to use him however they could. He began the season as the closer, where he picked up 4 saves. Then, he transitioned into a staring pitcher, which shows the skills he has to go back and forth with ease. Before this, he was a catcher in Little League.
“Definitely just seeing how I could get myself on the field,” Tenscher explained. Obviously, in Little League, I was a catcher and because of Ian (Fernandez), I wasn’t getting playing time. So I decided I had to change something, and the best way to get on the field was pitching. Then, found a way that was successful.”
However, Tenscher was more or less a diamond in the rough that no one knew about before last spring. He ended up changing his release as a way to get on the field.
One of the main reasons he was able to grow was because Vintage gave him the environment to do so as well. After all, Smith and pitching coach Mark Lundeen were having to find ways to get him into games because he is that much of a difference maker.
“Mark saw it,” Vintage manager Billy Smith said. “Like I said, we were going to close him in every game, and we just couldn’t get him on the mound. We got into a little rut during the year that we couldn’t get him on the mound. Finally, we were like ‘To make a run, we’ve got to put him in. We need to start him.’ He wanted to start the whole time. But we were trying to have more value of him being in every game, and he went up against the best. He earned his co-pitcher of the year, and very proud of him for that.”
Tenscher was also a key reason why the Crushers were able to heat up over the second half of the league season and make it to the playoffs. After all, he went toe-to-toe and beat some of the best pitchers in the VVAL. After all, he finished as the Co-Pitcher of the Year in the league alongside Casa Grande’s Austin Steeves who will be pitching at Stanford after high school.
When Tenscher gets to UC Berkeley he will play for Mike Neu a 1996 Vintage graduate. Under Neu, the Bears have been a consistent team in the PAC-12. He has a career record of 153-134 as the head coach at UC Berkeley. The Bears have also made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2019 when they finished 4th in the conference.
Tenscher is the third pitcher to go to play for the Bears joining Aaron Shortidge and Jared Horn who also played there.
“That’s definitely part of the decision,” Tenscher said of being the third Crusher to play for the Golden Bears. “It was exciting being a part of something bigger than just yourself, being part of something that’s like almost a tradition now, with the head coach, a couple other pitchers from Vintage. It’s definitely exciting. It’s definitely part of the recruiting decision was being a part of something bigger with a lot of guys.”
He’s joining a Bears program that will be moving to the ACC at the end of the upcoming season. In 2023, Cal went 24-28 overall, with a 12-18 mark in the PAC-12. Their season came to an end in the PAC-12 tournament with an 18-10 loss to Stanford.
“I’m excited,” Tenscher said of facing some good competition in the ACC when he gets to Berkely. “To be the best, you’ve got to face the best. So it’s gonna be good to face some of the best competition in the country.”
When Tenscher gets to Berkeley, he plans to study business. His reason for this is that Cal has a competitive business school.
Tenscher was joined in signing a National Letter of Intent by teammate Ian Fernandez. They were the first Crusher duo to sign on the same day since February 2016 when Jake MacNichols and Horn signed to play college baseball.
“It’s exciting,” Tenscher said of signing alongside Fernandez. “We’ve been buddies playing together since kindergarten. So it’s definitely exciting to be with him.”
The senior hurler still has a season to go for the Crushers as well. He spent his freshman season at Napa High as well. His baseball journey started at Napa Little League with stops along the way at Napa Valley Baseball Club, and Area Code 707.
Luke Haeuser also signed a National Letter of Intent at the ceremony to play lacrosse at Belmont Abbey.
