Chapman baseball off to near-perfect start to season
Middle, junior pitcher Nick Garcia in a Friday win over La Verne University. After 10 games, Panther baseball has compiled a 9-1 record on the heels of a 2019 Division III national championship. JACK CLENDENING Staff Photographer
Chapman left fielder Hank Zeisler has never had this much fun playing baseball before in his life.
Right now, Panther baseball is on fire. The team started the season by winning all four games of a tournament in Tucson, Arizona, followed that up with a three-game sweep of East Texas Baptist University and then won a three-game series against conference rival La Verne University. Now, already a quarter of the way done with the season, the Panthers are 9-1 and confident about a return to the Division III championship series.
And yet, it’s not simply how much Chapman is winning, it’s how much the team is winning by. The offense has been incredibly productive — they’re leading all of Division III baseball in hits. They’ve already hit 16 home runs in just 10 games. Last season, they hit 19 in 56.
So what exactly is happening - are there extra practices? More time at the batting cage? Magic beans? The answer to the team’s success, in reality, is much easier to explain: confidence. Their undefeated record was in jeopardy Feb. 15, when East Texas Baptist University started the game with a 7-0 lead over Chapman. But that substantial deficit didn’t shake the Panthers.
“Even when they scored first, it felt like we still knew we were going to win,” Zeisler said.
Chapman eventually won 15-13 after scoring six runs in the ninth inning.
“We don’t feel like there’s any game we can’t come back from,” said catcher and designated hitter Kevin Gregersen.
Zeisler and Gregersen are two of many on the team who have made huge strides from already-impressive performances of the prior season. The former recently won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Player of the Week award and is batting .514 with five home runs, while the latter is hitting .297 in his first prolonged stretch in the starting lineup. While both have made minor adjustments - Zeisler has a new routine while he’s on deck and Gregersen has found peace in taking time away from baseball to improve his play on the field, it may ultimately come back to the confidence that comes with having a near-pristine record on top of a SCIAC Division III national championship title.
“There is a certain feeling having done it,” head coach Scott Laverty said of the team’s championship in 2019. “Knowing what it takes, that leaves a certain calmness.”
They’re calm, all right. When The Panther spoke to players at the beginning of the year, they were cautiously optimistic about their chances of a repeat Division III championship title. Now, holding an impressive record with eye-popping numbers 10 games into the season, they’re being more direct.
“If I was the rest of the country, I’d be scared,” Gregersen said.