Former Brave ready to win: All-Star catcher brings in wealth of experience, knowledge

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As far as experience goes, Brandon Tormoehlen brings a plethora of knowledge to the Braves.

On top of setting numerous records during as his career as a Brave, Tormoehlen was named a North-South All-Star his senior season in 2002.

He was a two-time All-Mid-Southern Conference catcher at Brownstown, and was named honorable mention all-state as a senior.

When he graduated from Brownstown, he held the records for RBI’s (41), career home runs (20), career RBI’s (109), career at bats (285) and career hits (99).

Upon graduation, Tormoehlen joined the Butler University baseball team as a catcher.

He played five years for the Bulldogs, red-shirting a year due to injury, and started three years behind the plate. He finished his career with a .972 fielding percentage.

“The year that I was hurt, I was actually also a JV assistant at Bishop Chatard High School,” Tormoehlen said. “I was able to help while I did rehab. I played my fifth year and then got a teaching job at Greenfield-Central High School. I was then coaching some travel ball, the Indiana Bulls, and was the JV coach at Noblesville for 2007-08.”

Missing the collegiate game, Tormoehlen decided he wanted to get back into coaching at a higher level.

So, Tormoehlen worked as an assistant at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne, where he coached the hitters as well as the catchers and outfielders and also acted as the strength and conditioning coach.

While there, Tormoehlen taught at South Side High School.

Another opportunity presented itself to Tormoehlen soon after.

“I loved coaching at the college level,” Tormoehlen said. “I met an assistant at Creighton University, in Nebraska, and then spent the next two years as an assistant coach out there.”

Working with Ed Servais’s staff at Creighton University, the Bluejays went 72-41 while Tormoehlen was on staff.

The Jays won the 2011 Missouri Valley regular season and conference tournament championships, the first time in program’s history the team has won both in the same season.

Most of the time, Tormoehlen worked with the catchers and pitching coach Rob Smith.

The Jays’ pitching staff ranked in the top-15 nationally.

“One of the neatest experiences I had was that TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, where they play the college world series, is Creighton’s home field,” Tormoehlen said. “I got to coach the first game ever at that field. That’s a special memory for me.”

The next stop for Tormoehlen was two years at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, starting in 2011.

“A guy I know got the head job at Bellarmine in Louisville,” Tormoehlen said. “I wanted to transition to being a pitching coach. That was kind of my career goal. I got a job on that staff. My wife is from the Greenfield area, and she had moved out to Omaha, and it was an opportunity for us to get closer. I was a recruiting coach/pitching coach at Bellarmine for two years.”

Bellarmine had a lot of success in the short timespan.

“We were seven outs away from the college world series our second year,” Tormoehlen said. “With that came opportunities to move up. My boss went to coach at Richmond University and one of the other assistants got a job at Valparaiso. It was either I ask my wife to move from her job in Jeffersonville and start over or buy a house and put down roots, so I got out of coaching for about two years and worked in business.”

Tormoehlen came back to baseball after two years to head Scottsburg.

The Warriors went 9-17 in his first year and 12-16 in 2017 under Tormoehlen.

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