Swarthmore all set for the NCAA tourney
SWARTHMORE » To understand just how special this season has been for the Swarthmore College baseball team, all you have to do is look at the All-Centennial Conference selections.
The Garnet had four players — pitchers Sawyer Lake and Jack Corkery, outfielder Charles Levitt and designated hitter Jackson Roberts — earn first-team honors. First baseman Cole Beeker was named to the second team. Pitcher Ricky Conti earned honorable mention and head coach Matt Midkiff was chosen as the Coach of the Year.
In the previous 24 years, according to the conference website, Swarthmore had six first-team selections total.
It has been a wild and crazy ride and one that isn’t over yet.
For the first time since 1985, and only the second time in program history, the Garnet are headed to the NCAA Division III tournament.
Fifth-seeded Swarthmore (33-9) takes a 10-game winning streak into Thursday’s 10 a.m. tourney opener against fourth-seeded Baldwin-Wallace in the eight-team New York Regional at Falcon Park in Auburn, N.Y. The winners of the eight regional tournaments advance to the Division III World Series next week in Appleton, Wisconsin.
“It’s been amazing,” senior second baseman Matt Palmer said. “I think that’s a pretty accurate description.”
Record-setting may be a better depiction. Swarthmore has set the program record for wins and individual records for hits (61 by Beeker), at-bats (181 by Jared Gillen), doubles (18 by Gillen), home runs (nine by Charles Levitt), RBIs (59 by Beeker) and total bases (91 by Beeker, Levitt and Jackson Roberts). There was also a mark for runs scored (45) tied by Levitt.
On the pitching side, Conti has the mark for wins in a season (11). He is one start shy of tying the program record for starts in a year (12) and three innings from breaking the mark for innings pitched in a season (81). Corkery has equaled the mark for saves in a campaign (seven).
Not bad for a team that was 16-22 a year ago.
“We had a lot of young guys and the last half of last year, we really started to play well,” said Midkiff, who is in his sixth season as the head coach. “It actually was my worst record as a head coach here, but it was the best season I had coaching because there was a lot of teaching and working with these guys knowing that the future was very bright and that these guys were the guys who were going to take us where we wanted to go.”
Swarthmore went 10-9 in the second half of the 2017 season, winning its final three games.
“The last two games were against McDaniel and they were two high-scoring games (14-12 and 10-7),” Beeker said. “We were down in both games and put some runs together and won both games. I think we carried that over into this season.”
Swarthmore opened the season with five straight wins, have had other winning streaks of five, six and 10 games. The Garnet also has shown a knack for winning close games, going 13-6 in games decided by three runs or less and 5-3 in onerun games. Two of those wins came in the conference tournament when Swat beat Johns Hopkins 6-5 and then 4-3 in 11 innings to win its first Centennial Conference title and first championship of any kind in 33 years.
“We have a next-man-up mentality,” Beeker said. “We had a walk-on freshman (Sam Jacobson) score probably the biggest run in school history. It was an awesome feeling.”
The Garnet overcame a 5-2 deficit to beat the Blue Jays in the winners bracket final in the conference tournament and then rallied twice to win the league title on Jacobson’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning.
“The main thing about this group is that they’re so resilient,” Midkiff said. “Their mental toughness is unbelievable. I tell them all the time I don’t know what it is you guys have in you, but never lose it because this characteristic you have will carry you through. You’re going to get knocked down a lot, but it’s how you respond, and they respond.”
That resiliency will be put to the test this week in Auburn, N.Y. The eight-team field in the double-elimination region features ninth-ranked SUNY-Cortland (32-10), No. 10 Salisbury (33-10) and No. 24 Southern Maine (27-13).
“These guys have earned this opportunity, so it’s neat that we get to take a little road trip together, stay in a hotel, have fun and enjoy the experience,” Midkiff said. “As a group, we’ve definitely taken advantage of this year together. No matter what happens for all these guys, next year, the year after or in 20 years, this group will always have this special moment together. It’s something I’ll never forget and there is still a lot to be written.”