BW Baseball Online Almanac

The history and records of Baldwin Wallace University baseball

Justin Novak Named to Academic All-District Baseball Team

Justin Novak Named to Academic All-District Baseball Team »

Senior pitcher Justin Novak, who’s put together a 4–3 record with five complete games this season while carrying a 4.0 grade point average in B-W’s MBA program, has been named to the first team of the 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All–District IV baseball team.

Game Ball

Photograph by Ron Linek for the B-W Sports Information Office

Winning pitcher Scott Luthman presents the game ball to head coach Bob Fisher after the Yellow Jackets beat Muskingum College 7–0 at Heritage Field on Tuesday to give Coach Fisher his 700th career victory. Luthman threw a four-hit shutout at the Muskies, while the Jackets’ scrappy offense scored five of its seven runs with two outs and manufactured an insurance run with a suicide squeeze. Muskingum got a pair of leadoff runners on in its last at bat, but Luthman stamped the game into the history book by striking out the next three batters.

Yellow Jackets Give Coach Fisher His 700th Career Victory

Yellow Jackets Give Coach Fisher His 700th Career Victory »

Head coach Bob Fisher got his 700th career victory Tuesday when the Yellow Jackets beat Muskingum College 7–0 in the opening game of an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader at Heritage Field. His record is now 700–639–14 (.523), and he has won more games than any other coach in B-W sports history. He’s also 11th among active NCAA Division III baseball coaches in career victories.

Pat Havens Named OAC Pitcher of the Week

Pat Havens Named OAC Pitcher of the Week »

Freshman right-hander Pat Havens has been named the Ohio Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for notching his first collegiate victory with a nine-inning complete game against Oberlin College last Thursday at Heritage Field. In the first start of his career, he allowed just a single earned run and struck out six without a walk as the Yellow Jackets beat the Yeomen 9–1.

The 1983 Yellow Jackets Work Out in Ursprung Gymnasium

Check out this photo set of the 1983 baseball team practicing in Ursprung Gymnasium to see what our indoor workouts were like before the Rec Center was built in 1986.

In addition to cramming our fielding drills onto a single basketball court, we had to lower our only batting cage and raise all of the basketball hoops with an industrial drill before every practice. There wasn’t an indoor track, so we ran laps through the gym’s open doors, down the lobby hallway and back through the gym. We finished our conditioning by sprinting up and down the steep bleacher steps.

Today’s players get to take fungoes on a field house floor that’s the size of three basketball courts. They can hit year-round in one of the Rec Center’s two batting cages, and they can run actual laps on the Harrison Dillard indoor track. They still have to hit those bleacher steps after practice, though!

You’ll find photos of hall of famers Tom Bilski and Jim Stefanik in this set, but I can’t figure out who this player in the batting cage is. If you can identify him, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail message.

Three Yellow Jackets Elected to 2009 All-OAC Baseball Team

Yellow Jackets seniors Cody Kidd, Riley Kreisher and Brandon Fredericks have been elected to the 2009 All–Ohio Athletic Conference baseball team by the league’s head coaches.

The coaches chose Kidd as a first-team outfielder, and Kreisher was chosen as the first-team first baseman. Kidd finished the regular season fourth in the OAC with a .413 batting average and led the conference with six triples and 23 stolen bases. Kreisher topped the league leaders with a school-record 58 runs batted in, was second with 10 home runs and committed just one error in 324 fielding chances.

Kidd and Kreisher were second-team picks in 2007 and 2008.

Fredericks’ 5–2 conference record, which included a win over OAC champion Heidelberg University, earned him an honorable mention from the coaches. He was one of only three pitchers on the conference leaders board who didn’t surrender a home run this season. His teammate, junior pitcher Justin Novak, was one of the other two.

You can read more about the election of Kidd, Kreisher and Fredericks to the All-OAC team in this official announcement on the B-W Baseball Home Page.

And here’s the updated roster of B-W’s All-OAC baseball players.

Three Yellow Jackets Named to Academic All-District Baseball Team

Yellow Jackets seniors Cody Kidd, Mike Brisky and Brandon Fredericks have been named to the 2009 ESPN the Magazine Academic All–District IV baseball team.

Kidd, a pre-med major with a 3.83 grade point average was named to the first team for the second straight season. Brisky, who has a 3.64 GPA in B-W’s MBA program, and Fredericks, who has a 3.93 GPA in accounting, made the second team.

You can read more about the academic and athletic achievements of Kidd, Brisky and Fredericks in this official announcement on the B-W Baseball Home Page.

According to the updated roster of B-W’s Academic All–District IV baseball players, the Jackets have had at least one player named to the Academic All-District team in every season since 2001.

Cody Kidd Breaks B-W’s Season & Career Scoring Records

Just a couple of days after he broke B-W’s career triples record, senior center fielder Cody Kidd ran away with the Yellow Jackets’ season and career scoring records during the second game of last Saturday’s doubleheader at Marietta College.

Kidd broke hall of fame center fielder Erik Young‘s 20-year-old career scoring record of 136 runs in the third inning when he scrambled home from third base on a catcher’s throwing error. Four innings later, he nabbed the season record by legging out a triple and scoring on a wild pitch. It was his 48th trip across home plate this year, moving him past the previous record holder, All–Mideast Region designated hitter Paul Farrah, who crossed the plate 47 times in 1988.

The two-out, two-run triple that put Kidd in position to pass Farrah tied the single-season triples record of five set by hall of fame pitcher Pat George in 1976 and matched by All–Mideast Region outfielder Pete Rowe in 2002.

Riley Kreisher Smashes B-W’s Single-Season RBI Record

Senior first baseman Riley Kreisher smashed the Yellow Jackets’ single-season record for runs batted in during last Saturday’s doubleheader at Marietta College.

Kreisher broke the record in his first at bat of the day with a two-run bomb to right-center field that soared over the flag poles at Don Schaly Stadium. After rounding the bases, he crossed home plate as his own 52nd RBI of the season and stepped past the previous mark set by All–Mideast Region first baseman Pat Shannon, who knocked in 50 runs in 2002.

The Ohio Athletic Conference RBI leader padded his new record with four more ribbies by smacking a couple of doubles in game two and belting another two-run homer in his last at bat of the afternoon.

He also had 17 putouts in the doubleheader, extending the career fielding record he set earlier this season to 923.

Cody Kidd Breaks B-W’s Career Triples Record

Senior center fielder Cody Kidd broke the school record for triples in a career during the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against Malone University at Heritage Field.

The Yellow Jackets trailed Malone by two runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning when Kidd drove in pinch runner Ben Stoper from first base with the 12th triple of his career. The record-breaking three-bagger put the tying run 90 feet from the plate, but the Jackets couldn’t bring it home before their last out, and they lost 13-12.

The record that Kidd eclipsed yesterday had been held for 20 years by another great center fielder, Erik Young ’89, who hustled out 11 three-base hits during his hall of fame career.

Kidd had already set one new record this year when he was hit by a pitch for the 20th time in his career during the Jackets’ spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla. Now, with four triples on the season, he’s just one shy of setting another one. The speedy leadoff hitter is also on the verge of breaking the career record for runs scored, and he’s closing in on the marks for hits, singles and stolen bases.