When the fate of Keystone College was uncertain last spring, every player on the baseball team had the opportunity to leave for another school. And, 23 did enter the transfer portal.
Then, in December, when it seemed the La Plume school was a day away from shutting its doors, four more left over Christmas break.
However, 43 players took a chance and stayed. Together with the coaching staff, they formed a bond that produced the Giants’ 20th straight conference championship. Their 6-3 win over Penn State-Harrisburg in the United East final Sunday punched their ticket to the NCAA Division III tournament.
Keystone (35-9) heads to Denison University in Ohio for the regionals and faces Penn State-Behrend (30-9) in its first game at the double-elimination event Friday at 2:30 p.m.
Because of the school’s situation, this probably is the most special of the 20 consecutive conference championships.
“It has to be,” Giants head coach Jamie Shevchik said. “We could have not even gotten to that point. There could have been somewhere along the line this spring where (Sunday) never happened. We probably have one of the best groups we’ve ever had. I’m proud that those kids stayed. It probably will go down in the history of my tenure in 25 years as being one of the best teams that I’ve ever had.”
Seniors Nate Ewing and Darren Hagan are among those who stayed. They came to Keystone last season from other schools — Ewing played at Pitt-Johnstown and Cecil College in Maryland; Hagan at Coppin State. Both said they never thought twice about leaving because Keystone felt like home.
“I knew set in stone, no matter what, that I was going to trust our coaches,” said Ewing, who hails from Jersey Shore. “They told us that if you want to stick it out with us, we promise we’ll make this year special. I’m glad I did. I don’t think I would have been with a group of guys who have been this close and this well-rounded a team.”
Hagan, of Aston, said it was a ride-or-die decision and he’s glad he chose ride.
“I had my mind made up from Day 1 and I couldn’t be more happy with my decision,” Hagan said. “If this place was going to go down, we were going to go down with it. But it’s still going and the fact that it’s still going and looks like it will have a bright future means the world to us. Because we feel like we had a part in that.”
The possibility of the school closing became a rallying point for the players.
“We all knew this could be the last ride and we all wanted to make it special,” Ewing said. “We all wanted to hoist up a trophy. We all have that end goal of being in the World Series. That’s what kind of blended us together.”
Shevchik said in many ways the team embodies the college and its administration.
“They don’t quit,” Shevchik said. “The easy thing could have been shutting the doors, quitting, not fighting and that’s it. Everybody goes their separate ways. Our administration fought their (butts) off to keep the doors open. If you’re a coach, an employee or a student here, how do you not rally behind that and fight for the college as well? I think that’s what these kids did as a baseball team.”
After winning a 20th straight conference title, Ewing and Hagan said there is a sense of relief among the players that the streak didn’t end of their watch. However, Shevchik doesn’t want them to be satisfied with that and miss out on the chance to potentially make a deep postseason run.
“This is a special team that may never come around again,” Shevchik said. “It really has nothing to do with how talented they are. I don’t want to squander that opportunity. I want to spend as much time together as we possibly can on a baseball field.”
Not to worry, Hagan said. Like their school, the players have a feeling that they’re not done yet.
“That was more of a stepping stone than an end goal,” he said. “The guys want to keep playing. Every day is another day together and another day for our career. We don’t want it to end.”
Given everything off the field they’ve been through this season, Ewing said it would be fitting for the seniors to cap their careers by having Keystone be one of the eight teams to advance to the Division III World Series at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio, from May 30 to June 5 and win it all.
That might seem like too much of a fairytale ending, but Hagan wouldn’t mind.
“Everyone has a storyline,” Hagan said. “The way things have panned out for our school and this program, we might have a more interesting or Hollywood-worthy one than some other teams. At the end of the day, it would be awesome to win, I’d be on cloud nine. Is it too Hollywood? That’s not for me to decide. But it would be up there for sure.”
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