After winning their 20th consecutive conference title, the Giants are looking forward to the first round of the tournament in Ohio.
FACTORYVILLE, Pa. — Evans Hall at Keystone College was a sea of team spirit, filled with excitement and anticipation. The baseball team gathering for the NCAA Division 3 selection show. Cheers and clapping replaced the anxiousness as it was announced the Giants would be heading to Denison, Ohio to face Penn State Behrend in the first round.
“There’s a little bit of nerves there, but at the same time, we know what the job is. Ohio is not too bad, not too far away and I feel like these guys going out to Ohio, they’re going to want to go back out there for the World Series,” said senior Nate Ewing.
The Giants finished the season with a (35-9) record winning the United East Conference championship this past weekend, making it 20 straight titles with head coach Jamie Shevchik there for all of them.
“As much as I would love that streak to end at some point and go back to being normal, I think the competitor in me wants to keep this moving. But it does go to another 12 months of living through 20 and trying to get 21 I guess,” Shevchik said.
This was the season that almost didn’t happen for the Giants. Keystone College was close to shutting its doors due to financial and accreditation challenges.
“Going into the season this year, I didn’t even expect to have a season. It seemed like the school was going to shut down, and we were given the blessing to have the season and we’ve taken full advantage of it so far,” said sophomore Cooper Fesh.
The Giants fell short in the NCAA tournament last year, losing to the eventual Division 3 national champions from Misericordia.
In a year’s time, the team has battled adversity to get back to the tournament and is in a better position to win.
“I feel like the energy here has just been on another level, and I’m really excited to see what happens to the rest of the way,” Ewing said.
“We’ve got to keep playing Keystone baseball. I mean, every team’s now 0-0, so we just have to play like it’s a fresh season and just come out of the gates hard,” Fesh said.
The first round of the tournament begins on Friday.
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