The Final Season
It has been one of the greatest professional privileges of my life to build and coach this baseball program over the last 5+ years. I am extremely proud of this group of players, the last roster for Rosemont College Baseball. Thank you to our coaches: Thomas George, who is here, Pete Fuller, James Martin, and Jake Stoller. We had three terrific managers this year as well Maya, Laure, and TK. Thank you all for your time and care for this team.
Finally, a huge thank you to our Chaplain Professor Roseann Rissmiller for her incredible commitment to our team. She is the best baseball chaplain in the country.
Every season has challenges, but this one came with unique ones. This team stepped up when these hurdles presented themselves in the form of injuries, crazy weather, and a 5 game in 3 day weekend, all this while knowing the history of Rosemont Baseball ends with them. In my 20+ years of coaching, I cannot remember a team of players collectively being willing to step up and play no matter the circumstances. Position players took the field when they were hurt and tired, and pitchers took the mound when they were sore and had very little left in the tank. They all did this to support their team.
I will speak more about each individual player at a team function later this week. For today, I'll just recognize our individual award winners. Our coaches award goes to Senior pitcher, now designated hitter, Tim Shell. Timmy has earned this award for two reasons. The first is his unwavering commitment to doing whatever the team needed on practice and game days. He does not ask questions about what he can do to help, rather he does what needs to be done.
He was a senior chasing down foul balls, lining the field, and keeping the chart. He has done this all four years at Rosemont. This season however, Tim had a season ending injury to his pitching arm in our opening weekend. He expected to throw 50 innings this spring, but instead only through two. Rather than chalk the season up to a lost cause, Tim redefined himself as a college baseball player to become a designated hitter and a very good one at that. This second reason, his desire to find a way to help his team on gameday is what makes Tim this year's coaches award winner. Congratulations Tim.
Our most valuable player goes to our catcher and leadoff hitter Chase Masten. Chase took on the catcher position, which is one of the most difficult positions in all sports to play after not playing there during his entire college career. He managed our pitching staff and controlled the running game of our opponents. Additionally, he sparked our offense as our lead off hitter. Chase led or was nearly the team leader in several offensive categories including runs scored, stolen bases, walks and on-base percentage. Congratulations Chase.
