Bantam Baseball's Incredible Season
The Trinity baseball team forged the habit of winning long before the season officially began in Florida on March 15 with a double-header sweep over Denison College. It began in the fall, when the captains—Michael Regan, Sean Killeen, and Guy Gogliettino—called informal practices. It persisted through the winter, when the team gathered for dawn workouts. It continued every day of the season, getting better, learning from mistakes, maximizing ability.
But it also occurred off the practice and playing field, and not enough has been said about how education also inculcates a habit of winning. These baseball players are students, very good students who carry a full load and understand that they are at Trinity to gain an education. No one commented on the fact, but Trinity versus Johns Hopkins for the national championship must have set a record not only for stellar ERA’s and AVG’s but also SAT’s and GPA’s.
As vigorous in the classroom as on the playing field
Trinity baseball players major in a variety of fields: economics, environmental science, biology, philosophy, political science, and American studies, to name a few. Three of them received awards on Honors Day this year. Many of them hold internships and are involved in community service. In a spring where baseball dominated everyone’s attention, most of the players had the best academic semesters of their college careers. There may have been a hiccup here or there, but what game is without an error? What they did is apply themselves in the classroom as vigorously as on the playing field. What they demonstrated is that the habit of winning in one arena can be passed seamlessly to the other.
This is a team that, prior to the start of the final game for the national championship, had won six one-run games, four extra-inning contests, and in the middle of its undefeated streak came back from an 8-1 deficit to beat Tufts 17-10. Through it all, the players carried themselves with dignity and continued to fulfill their commitments.
In mid-semester, despite pressing exam schedules, the players attended a talk by New York Times reporter Alan Schwarz. Michael Regan presented him with a Trinity baseball shirt. A week later, Schwarz wrote about the team, then 27-0, and the media frenzy began. At the World Series, film crews followed players everywhere. Reporters asked the same questions over and over. And these young men handled it all with aplomb, signing autographs for youngsters to whom Trinity’s Eric McGrath was as much a star as Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets.
A little before 2:00 p.m., on a sunny yet chilly Wisconsin afternoon, Trinity took the field in the ultimate test of poise and confidence: one game for a national championship. Jeremiah Bayer, a revelation all season, toed the mound on just 48 hours rest. He got through the first two innings easily, a sharply executed double-play getting Trinity out of the first.
When the Bantams scored two in the bottom of the second, after a base hit by Chandler Barnard (3-for-4 this game), a triple by Matt Sullivan (his first of the year), and a sacrifice fly by Tim Bourdon (a critical run, scoring a runner from third with less than two out), it looked as if the team was on its way.
But a leadoff home run for Hopkins in the third inning revitalized the downcast Blue Jays. The middle innings went scoreless. Had Trinity lost, analysts would have pointed to the bottom of the sixth as the turning point when the Bantams did not score despite having runners on second and third with no out.
In the top of the eighth, Hopkins erupted for two runs. An infield error on a routine play hurt. All year the defense had been nearly flawless. But this one bobble could have cost the Bantams the game. Then again, fans tend to focus only their team’s missteps; the Blue Jays committed five errors of their own in the game.
Though down a run, there was optimism in the stands. Hopkins pitching had been stretched, and Trinity’s bats seemed poised to explode. When James Woods lashed a single to open the bottom of the eighth inning, and advanced to second on a sacrifice, we all believed the tying run would find its way home. Barnard delivered a base hit up the middle. Woods, who seemed to get a late jump as he waited to make certain that the ball scooted through the infield, turned for home. The throw from center field beat him.
