From Ice to Diamond: Fischer’s competitive fire fuels Big Sticks surge – The Dickinson Press

DICKINSON — For people that have viewed a Badlands Big Sticks boxscore, there’s roughly an 80-90% chance that Chayton Fischer’s name is on it. Rarely does his stat line feature zeros. In his first year with the Big Sticks, the 21-year-old is fourth on the team with a .333 average and leads the team with a 1.217 OPS.

While he is currently playing baseball at the Division II level, it wasn’t the only sport he played growing up. His first love, as he says, was hockey. His family never played the sport and he didn’t envision himself putting on a baseball uniform.

“My mom was the one that taught me how to skate when I was two and I started playing games when I was three,” Fischer said. “When it came to winter, I was ice fishing and I even brought my skates out to go to the ice fishing spots when there was no snow on the ice.”

One of Minnesota’s most iconic annual events is the state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center, the home of the Minnesota Wild. In the 2021-22 season, Maple Grove advanced to the Class AA championship game, but lost 6-5 in double overtime to Andover. Despite losing, competing in one of the biggest high school hockey tournaments in the country was unforgettable.

“You grow up in Minnesota dreaming of being in the Minnesota State hockey tournament. I happened to go to the championship. No one would ever take that away from me,” Fischer said.

Courtesy of Chayton Fischer

While his offensive prowess is evident on the baseball, that wasn’t his role on the ice. During his high school years at Maple Grove High, he’d play a polarizing game, using his big 6-foot, 220-pound frame to deliver big hits.

“When I got to high school, [the coaches] were always like, ‘All right we need the big hit.’ and I was like, ‘I’ll do whatever I can to get our team to win,” Fischer said. “My main goal was to protect my teammates, have fun and win games.”

The physicality of his game on the ice translated to his role as catcher on the baseball diamond. He decided on catcher because of his older brother, who played behind the plate growing up.

“I just like the competition. I didn’t like sitting in the outfield, and I didn’t like sitting in the infield just doing nothing. So anything I could do that was doing a lot, it was just fun,” Fischer said. “I think that’s why I kept playing. If I would have been playing outfield or another position, there’s no way I would keep playing baseball.”

Fischer played his first two seasons of collegiate baseball at Minnesota State Mankato before transferring to Iowa Central Community College last summer. He led the team batting .404 and a .554 on base percentage while ranking second with 14 home runs. This spring he’ll be playing for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UT-RGV) for his redshirt junior season.

“He’s a competitor. I think above all that’s definitely the big piece for him that allows us to be successful. He’s mature in the box, he’s not going to get cheated. And I think that’s been a big piece for guys to see because no matter what the result of the last AB was, he’s going to go up there and try and do the exact same thing,” Big Sticks manager Kelby Coburn said. “I had high expectations coming into the season knowing what kind of hitter he was, but you never know if you’ll actually get that when they arrive. And it’s been really cool to see him just go out there and do his thing.”

Jacob Cheris / The Dickinson Press

Though he has only been in Dickinson for one month, he’s formed relationships and has learned lessons that he’ll take with him heading into next spring — and for the rest of his life.

“Everyone’s not given their position. When I was at school, I wasn’t given it,” Fischer said. “When you come here, you have to prove yourself again. So every time you go to a summer ball, go to a new team, it always just proves that you have to work hard to earn your spot every single time.”

Jacob Cheris covers a variety of high school and college sports. A graduate of Penn State University’s class of 2023, with a degree in broadcast journalism, he covered Penn State Men’s Hockey for three years. Jacob also covers Big Ten Hockey for College Hockey News.