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Larry, Baseball Hawks produced best season in 30 years
ROME – In a year when their conference was
arguably the best in the nation, the Shorter University baseball
team pieced together its best season in a long time.
While the Hawks’ 40-win season – their first in 30 years – put them back as a legitimate threat in the Southern States Athletic Conference, the overall strength of the SSAC left Shorter just shy of being one of seven conference teams in the NAIA Baseball National Championship.
As far as head coach Matt Larry is concerned, the Hawks were champions in their own right.
“It was a great season, one long in waiting,” Larry said as he looked back over the season that produced a rock solid 40-18 record that stands as the second best in the program’s history. “I hate the way it ended, but I’m happy.”
Although the year didn’t end the way they would have liked, the Hawks made their case as a contender in the SSAC by becoming giant-killers in the conference tournament right out of the gate, stunning then No. 6-ranked Auburn-Montgomery in the tourney opener.
After a loss to eventual SSAC champ Belhaven, the Hawks stayed alive by knocking off No. 18 Southern Poly to set up a showdown against William Carey, who like the Hawks were considered on the bubble to gain a national at-large berth. But Shorter’s bubble burst in the showdown as a two-out grand slam late in the game erased the Hawks’ lead and hopes.
“We were right there. We were just one out away,” said Larry.
William Carey wound up becoming the seventh SSAC member to advance to the national playing field, joining AUM, Southern Poly, Falkner, Lee, Brewton-Parker and Belhaven. Faulkner and Lee went on to win their opening round pool series and advance to the 10-team NAIA World Series, with Lee’s Flames advancing to the semifinals of the national event two weeks ago.
“I think the SSAC showed just how strong a baseball conference it is,” Larry said, “and I know we were part of that too.”
Larry is quick to point out that Shorter’s move into the upper echelon of the SSAC can be traced back to the dedication of the players themselves and to the Hawks’ coaching staff, especially assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Lee Bryant
“He did a great job bringing kids in,” Larry said of Bryant. “We had the talent and we had leadership.”
The leadership was rooted in the contributions of 13 seniors on the Hawks’ roster, the majority who helped establish the program’s foundation for the past four years.
That senior group included outfielder Jake Broome, who after missing the 2010 season with an injury, came back to play a key role this year and eventually was named Shorter’s representative on the SSAC Champions of Character team.
Three more Hawks landed postseason honors as senior pitcher Brick Carter, junior catcher Jordan Hollis and junior first baseman Cody Hooper were selected to the SSAC All-East Division Team.
Carter closed out his career with a 3.34 ERA and a 6-3 record, Hollis emerged as one of the conference’s top defensive catchers and hit a shade below .300, and Hooper hit .333 and had a team-leading nine home runs.
As a team, the Hawks batted a strong .315 – they were the fifth-best hitting team in the SSAC – with junior Willie Lewis leading the squad with a .356 average and senior Matt Johnson topping the chart with 44 RBI.
“If you look at what we’ve done the past three years the offensive numbers are almost identical,” said Larry. “But this year our number of hits was higher and our team average was higher, especially in home runs and doubles.
“I felt that one through nine [in the lineup] could hit the ball.”
Depth in the batting order was made even more deadly thanks to the depth the Hawks had on the mound.
So good was Shorter’s pitching staff that it ended the year ranked No. 7 nationally with 434 strikeouts and was ranked in the top 20 in opposition batting average (.247) and ERA (3.45).
Along with Carter, Shorter got outstanding performances from junior Eric Doty, who was nationally ranked in the top 20 in saves (8) and posted an 8-2 record; senior Blake Chapman, who was 8-1 and with a 2.32 ERA; and senior Tim Day, the Hawks’ workhorse who hurled a team-leading 87 innings and had a 3.72 ERA.
“We were in the top five in just about every category in our conference,” said Larry. “But we had a high number of errors, which was our Achilles heel, but we always came back with the hits and the pitching.
“Plus we played against teams that put the ball in play.”
Not to be overlooked was the ability of the Hawks to excel off the field in the classroom as 10 players were SSAC All-Academic selections – Broome and Johnson; juniors Beau Dahlke, Matt Herod, Sean Piper and Kurtis Robinson; sophomores Ben Stell, Morgan Tebbetts and Josh Watson; and freshman Jacob Perlmutter.
“It’s tough for college kids to stay focused,” Larry said, “but they did and got the job done.
“They just went out and played ball,” he added. “They were a comfortable team. Nothing ever bothered them – they never quit.”
