Led by senior co-captains Dan Melito and Kevin Brown, the Baldwin-Wallace College baseball team set or tied nine school records this season.
Melito capped one of the best offensive careers in B-W history by smashing the career record for doubles with 47 over the last four seasons — nearly a dozen more than the previous mark. He hit 17 this year alone, falling just one short of the season record set by Pat Shannon in 2003. He finished his career with more runs scored and a higher on-base percentage than any other player this decade, and he’s among the all-time top ten in nine categories, including hits, runs batted in, home runs, walks, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
He’s also fifth all-time among B-W outfielders with a .970 fielding average. In fact, all three of the Yellow Jackets’ senior outfielders finished their careers with top-ten fielding averages. Center fielder Matt Green’s .974 average is second all-time — just five one-thousandths behind Brian Keller’s school record of .979 — and left fielder Mike Farrell is seventh with a .964 average. Farrell also finished in the top ten for career doubles, home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage.
Brown, the Yellow Jackets’ leadoff hitter, earned his place in the school record book the hard way. He was hit by a pitch 11 times this year, breaking the season record and giving him the career record with 19. His tough luck led the Jackets to a new team record of 38 beanings. His 71 career walks are the most by any player this decade, and rank sixth all-time. He also finished in the top ten for runs scored and fielding assists.
On April 13, he hustled his way to three doubles against Case Western Reserve University, matching a school and Ohio Athletic Conference single-game record shared by Phil Stringer ’90, Brian Johnson ’01, Pat Shannon ’03 and Mike Turchan ’05.
On the mound, junior pitchers J.D. Fullerton and Clayton Kynkor made a record number of pitching appearances this season. Fullerton’s relief appearance in the Jackets’ final game of the season broke the career record for most appearances by a reliever with 28. He missed the season record by only two appearances. Kynkor’s 11 starts tied the season record set by Scott Medvin in 1982 and matched by Walt Kendzierski in 1985, Bernie Bonhotel in 1988 and Matt Palumbo in 1991.
Kynkor’s 10–4 career record going into his senior year is tied with Heath Baker’s 15–6 mark from 2000 to 2003 for the best record this decade. Kynkor and Baker are tied for the third-best record all-time with Bret Butler, who also went 10–4 from 1991 to 1992.
