COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Alex Matchey has never been the tallest guy on any team he's been part of.

But the Saint John's junior second baseman has found other ways to make a large impact.

"I'm used to being the smallest guy in the group," said the 5-foot-8 Matchey, who transferred to SJU from North Iowa Community College prior to last season and ended up second on the team with a .366 batting average en route to earning All-MIAC honors.

"That's why I've always had to do a little something extra to standout - from trying to be a vocal leader to just hustling."

SJU first-year head coach Scott Lieser said it's exactly those kinds of intangibles that have made Matchey such a valuable addition to the roster.

"He's really the heartbeat of our program," Lieser said. "He's a hard-nosed player and that's exactly what we like most about him. He's tough on himself at times, but he plays the game hard and he plays the game the right way. He's fiery in the best possible fashion.

"He has the ability to kickstart our team offensively, which is one of the reasons we moved him up in the batting order this season. When he gets going, it helps get a lot of other people going too."

Matchey is again off to a great start. Going into action Thursday (March 19), he is batting .333 with 15 hits and 10 RBI.

"We have a lot of spark plugs on this team so it's definitely not just me," said Matchey, whose team is in the midst of its annual early-season Florida trip this week. "I just tend to be a more vocal kind of guy. I've always been more talkative. That's been my role on any team I've been on."

Matchey played football until he was in the seventh grade and stuck with basketball through his sophomore year in high school. But baseball has always been his first love.

He alternated between second base and outfield for the Johnnies a year ago but has settled into the full-time starter spot at second base so far this spring.

"That's where I feel the most comfortable," said Matchey, who also plays amateur baseball for the St. Paul Mudhens during the summer. "Outfield was just a position I'd play a couple games a year. 

"But when I got here last year, they asked if I'd ever played there before. I said yes and it ended up giving me a chance to see more playing time right away. So that worked out pretty well. It's nice to be back in my more natural position now though."

Matchey said he's become much more confident as a player the past few seasons.

"I've gotten better defensively and I'm mentally stronger than I was in the past," he said. "I have a more positive outlook and it's made me more consistent. The biggest thing I've had to learn is how to shake things off. I had a great junior year in high school, but my senior year, I got in my own head and didn't play as well. Even going back to youth baseball, it seems like I'd alternate a good season with a bad one.

"Now I know how to let things go and move past them. I don't get so caught up in one at-bat and let it drag me down."

Matchey lives with baseball teammates Riley Schwellenbach and Zach Helfmann, who are also members of the SJU football team alongside fourth roommate Wyatt McCabe (who played baseball through last season before a shoulder injury caused him to give the sport up).

"There's always a lot going on," Matchey said. "We're all over the place. In the fall, those three guys have their own thing. But I stay busy enough with fall baseball and I try to get to the home games to cheer them on.

"Then, in the spring, three of us still have baseball. So there's always a lot of sports talk around our place."

At the moment, that talk is centered on trying to contend for an MIAC baseball title.

"The sky is the limit for this team," said Matchey, a global business leadership major who will intern with a financial advising firm in New Brighton this summer. "We have so much fun together. If we keep smiling and keep growing, we have a chance to play late into May (in the NCAA Division III tournament)."

Talk of growing, of course, brings the conversation back to size.

"It was really an issue for me in basketball," Matchey said with a laugh. "In baseball, 5-8 doesn't seem quite as small. But I'm always hanging around pitchers who are like 6-4. 

"So it's noticeable by comparison. But I find ways to make it work out."