BELOIT — Beloit College’s baseball team didn’t exactly build up a head of steam heading into the Midwest Conference Tournament.
The Buccaneers dropped their conference finale against Monmouth, then were shut out for the first time all season, 5-0 on Sunday by Aurora University in their final regular-season game.
They may want to listen to fifth-year slugger Brett Kiger about clean slates and taking advantage of new opportunities.
“I’ve learned you have to roll with the punches because you are going to have ups and downs,” the Beloit Memorial High grad said. “In Florida I started the season really poorly. I didn’t have many hits and a lot of strikeouts, but I was able to pick it up by the end.”
Kiger has been on a tear ever since, ripping a MWC-high and team-record 17 home runs with 51 RBIs and a .341 batting average. He has scored 33 runs. He has smacked a conference and team-record 45 career home runs.
If the third-seeded Buccaneers are able to have success in the MWC postseason Friday and Saturday, Kiger will likely have a hand in it.
Head coach Dave DeGeorge would love to see his team hit a hot streak and the Bucs are certainly capable. They have a solid core of players back from the team that went 31-14 a year ago, won the MWC Tournament and clinched an automatic NCAA Division III bid.
“It’s been a hot and cold kind of season,” DeGeorge said. “Expectations were so high. We talked about how we needed to put our expectations on preparation and how we handled things instead of how we were going to win so many games. Everyone understood the concept, but it’s hard to do.
“A lot of years here I would have been thrilled to have this season and make it to the tournament. Instead, we’ve been pretty miserable. Now, we just have to say that we’re one of the teams that’s alive, we have a great opportunity and there’s no pressure on us. We’re in a no-lose, all-gain sort of situation and let’s go have some fun and see if we can upset the apple cart.”
The apple cart is most likely top-seeded Lawrence (30-9 overall, 20-3 MWC), who’ll host the tournament in Appleton. Lawrence opens against No. 4 Cornell (23-16) while No. 3 Beloit (21-15, 14-10) plays No. 2 University of Chicago (17-22, 16-8). Both games are at 10 a.m. with the Bucs playing at Don Hawkins Field and Lawrence playing at Whiting Field.
“Is Lawrence the favorite? Absolutely,” DeGeorge said. “But Chicago just took two of three from them and Ripon beat them last week.”
Kiger said he’ll remind his teammates they have everything it takes.
“We’ve seen peaks of what we can go, but we haven’t been as consistent as we need to be,” he said. “My sophomore year we controlled the conference and had only lost a couple of games. We were the best team by far and then we got to championship day against Illinois College and we just had an off-day. Anything can happen. We just need to play to our strengths and have a good weekend.”
Kiger’s story is well-known around the Bucs. He had never hit a single homer for the Purple Knights. But after working with Joe Bennie, he became a disciple of the “no ground balls” philosophy, started elevating pitches and put in the time he needed in the weight room to make the ball fly out of The Ballpark at Strong Stadium.
“The size of the park doesn’t have any impact on him,” DeGeorge said. “He doesn’t hit many homers that just make it over. When they go, they go.”
Kiger said he’s had to be patient and know that he will see a steady diet of breaking balls.
“I noticed I don’t see many fastballs anymore,” he said. “My sophomore year when I was in the sixth hole I got a lot of fastballs, but ever since then a lot of breaking balls and changeups to see if I’ll chase. I have to be patient, wait for my pitch and know a walk is OK, too.”
• HEAVY HITTERS: Kiger may lead the MWC in homers, but Lawrence has the next four with Taylor Freeman hitting 16, Parker Knoll 15 and both Jacob Charon and Edan Perez 13 apiece. They also have the top hitter in terms of average in Charon at .493. He also leads the MWC in slugging percent (.870) and on-base percent (.592).
“Their whole team has grown up and done an amazing job hitting the ball,” DeGeorge said.
• SWEET HOME CHICAGO: Chicago comes into the tournament with the worst team batting average in the league at .268 and fourth-best team ERA at 5.47.
DeGeorge said all that is deceiving, considering the strength of the Maroons’ schedule.
“Chicago is very good on defense and they’re better at hitting than their statistics show,” he said. “They had a very difficult non-conference schedule. Their hitting stats looked horrible when we played them and then we saw them and thought, man, they’re not bad. They lost their two best pitchers from last year to Division 1 programs. So all of a sudden their three has to become their one. But the reality is that they all are very good.”
• PITCHING CRUCIAL: The Beloit head coach is more concerned about his own Bucs.
“I hope our pitchers hold them down and I hope our hitters show up,” he said.
Junior left-hander Aiden Phipps (7-3) will get the nod in the opener and freshman right-hander Ben Schweit will likely start game 2.
“Phipps is our guy,” DeGeorge said. “Our hope would be for him to give us six or maybe seven innings. Or he could go all nine. He’s in good shape and if he keeps his pitch count down he could go the distance.
“Ben in many respects has been our best pitcher over the past three weeks. He had a little growing pains as a freshman, but once he figured things out he’s been tough. He throws a lot of strikes and he throws hard. He is very competitive.”
The bullpen has been led by Harvey Pena and Tommy Murray. Pena could start a third game if he isn’t used much in the first two.
As for the hitters, many of the same heroes are around from last season: Matt O’Leary (.359), Connor Vogel (.318), Jack Alport (.359), Evan Zenger (2.73) and Miles Souza (.298). But there are plenty of newcomers who will factor in, like catcher Blake Nelson (.225), outfielder Seth Brankey (.256) and infielder Jacopo Tamburini (.250).
“We’ve seen peaks of what we can go, but we haven’t been as consistent as we need to be,” Kiger said.
• TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:
Friday — Game 1: 10 a.m., Lawrence (30-9) vs. Cornell (23-16), Whiting Field.
Game 2: 10 a.m., U-Chicago (17-22) vs. Beloit (21-15), Don Hawkins Field.
Game 3: 2:30 p.m., Loser Game 1 vs. Loser game 2, Don Hawkins Field.
Game 4: 2:30 p.m., Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, Whiting Field.
Saturday — Game 5: 9 a.m., Winner Game 3 vs. Lower Game 4d, Whiting Field.
Game 6: noon, Championship game, Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, Whiting Field.
Game 7: 3 p.m., if necessary, Second Championship game, Whiting Field.
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