A veteran of the Lakeland baseball program for well over a decade, Mike Bachar returns for his seventh season as head coach of the Muskies.
Bachar has won 71 games in his first six years as the Muskies’ head coach, including an 11-26 record last year. Lakeland posted double-digit wins for the second straight year, following up a 13-24 mark in 2016 that was the program’s highest total since 2012.
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The Muskies were competitive in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in 2016 with a 7-13 mark that ranked at the back of a pack of six teams separated by a total of four games. Lakeland finished with a respectable 7-10 record in home games, and had eight players finish in the top 10 in NACC individual statistical categories.
Bachar was promoted to head coach after serving as an assistant coach at Lakeland for five years. The start of his coaching career followed a standout two-year career at shortstop with the Muskies in which he helped the team reach the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2003 and 2004. Bachar was named All-Lake Michigan Conference as a senior, when he led the conference in walks (16) and was fifth in runs scored (17), while also ranking fourth in defensive assists (44).
A native of Berwyn, Ill., Bachar graduated from Lakeland in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in exercise science, and he received his master of arts in counseling from Lakeland in May 2010.
In 2008, Bachar married the former Kristi Thill, a 2006 Lakeland graduate and former Muskies women’s basketball player. The couple resides in Plymouth with their daughter Kaelyn and son Landon.Kaelyn and son Landon.
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| Mike Bachar Coaching Record |
|
| Year |
Overall Record |
Conf. Record |
|
| 2012 |
17-21 |
7-15 |
|
| 2013 |
10-23 |
6-16 |
|
| 2014 |
11-28 |
3-17 |
|
|
|
| 2015 |
9-30 |
3-17 |
|
| 2016 |
13-24 |
7-13 |
|
| 2017 |
11-26 |
3-17 |
|
| Career |
71-152 |
29-95 |
|
