The 2017 Earlham College baseball team was the best in the 131-year history of the program. The Quakers won both the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference's regular season and tournament titles, defeated the College of Wooster at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional for the College's first ever victory in an NCAA Division III Tournament contest, and concluded the year with a 30-14 overall record. This is their story.
Rewinding to the 2016 season, Earlham built upon a trip to the HCAC Tournament in 2015 by finishing third in the conference and qualifying for its second straight postseason.
The Quakers, who did not win a game in the 2015 HCAC Tournament, opened the 2016 postseason with a victory over Transylvania.
Ultimately, Earlham fell to champion Rose-Hulman on championship Saturday, ending the Quakers' 2016 season with a 29-14 record.
The Quakers struggled to open the season. After sweeping Sewanee during 2016, Earlham was swept in three games in Sewanee, Tennessee, while surrendering 31 runs over the series.
After a 20-11 victory over Olivet at Sadler Stadium that featured an 8-run seventh inning, the Quakers held a 9-4 lead over Heidelberg after four innings. The Student Princes then put up a dozen runs in the fifth inning and tallied 24 hits to defeat Earlham 20-14 on March 16.
Beginning the season at 1-4, Earlham bounced back with a sweep of Wilmington including a 10-0 shutout in game one.
With the Quakers' HCAC record at 2-1, Earlham improved to 3-1 after a win over Bluffton in the midweek, but lost 2-of-3 to Franklin at Sadler Stadium. Those two losses would be the last home defeats of the year.
Earlham rebounded to defeat Bluffton for the seventh consecutive time, but a series loss at Manchester put the Quakers' conference title hopes in doubt. Standing at 6-5 in the HCAC, Earlham set to embark on nine-game road trip, and what happened on that road trip turned the entire season around.
Standing at 15-10 overall and 10-6 in the HCAC, the Quakers concluded their road swing with a series sweep of Anderson on the road. Earlham returned home for a 9-1 win over Bluffton.
Earlham opened the final regular season series with a 6-0 shutout win over Hanover, clinching the HCAC regular season title for the Quakers!
And closed the regular season with a 4-3 win over Hanover, marking Earlham's 12th straight HCAC victory.
Fittingly, Earlham opened the 2017 HCAC Baseball Tournament against the team that ended the Quakers' season in 2016 - defending champions Rose-Hulman. After Earlham plated a run in the bottom of the first, the Fightin' Engineers scored three in the top of the second. The Quakers battled back to tie the game with a run in both the second and third innings.
Neither team scored for the next four innings until Rose-Hulman got runners on the corners with one out. SophomoreWalter Talcott entered the game for Earlham and closed the door with a pop out and a strikeout.
After two more scoreless innings, senior Brennan Laird reached base via an error, and freshman Danny Dopp singled home Laird for a walk-off victory.
Earlham next faced Manchester in a winner's bracket game of the HCAC Tournament.
After losing the regular season series to the Spartans, the Quakers opened up the game with a run in the first and a three-run fourth.
Manchester got two runs back in the fifth, but a four-run sixth inning gave Earlham the win and a berth in the HCAC Tournament championship round.
This time around, Earlham won the winner's bracket, meaning the Quakers needed to defeat Mount St. Joseph once on championship Saturday.
Earlham plated a single run in the second, third, and fourth innings while MSJ scored two in the fifth. Leading 3-2, the Quakers padded their lead with and RBI-single from senior Matt Barger in the sixth and a sacrifice fly from senior Nate Lynch in the eighth. Walter Talcott then shut down the Lions in the ninth to give Earlham the 2017 HCAC Tournament title.
Freshman Colin Greve earned the victory, allowing two earned runs and striking out three in five innings of work.
Kendal Baker, a Richmond native and Richmond High School alumnus, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Head coach Steve Sakosits talks with RadioTroy on the winning the HCAC Tournament title.
Earlham opened its first NCAA Division III Mideast Regional in school history against Wooster at Washington & Jefferson (W&J) in Washington, Pennyslyvania.
Wooster, ranked No. 1 in the region, came in with the top-ranked offense in the country. Further, the Scots were 27-1 all-time against the Quakers as Wooster is a current North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) member and Earlham was in the NCAC from 1989-2010.
Earlham embraced the underdog role, defeating Wooster 6-2 for both the program and the College's first win in an NCAA Division III Tournament event. Senior Howie Smith earned the win, allowing two earned runs in seven innings.
Earlham faced host W&J in the next game, and fell to the eventual national runners-up. The following day, the Quakers ended their season with a 5-0 loss to perennial national power SUNY Cortland.
The postseason awards rolled in for the Quakers after the historic season. Earlham swept the HCAC postseason awards along with having several individuals garner recognition from the American Baseball Coaches' Association (ABCA) and D3Baseball.com.
Along with the postseason honors, the Quakers broke eight career records in 2017.