Saints Baseball of the Past: 2000

There are now only 12 days until the Saints Scholastica Baseball team opens the season against Buena Vista in the Metrodome. To keep the excitement rolling towards that opening pitch at the home of the Minnesota Twins let’s jump into the CSS Baseball Blog patented time machine and go travel back five years for a look at the 2000 Saint Scholastica Saints season.

The 2000 season was John Baggs’ ninth season as head coach and turned out to be his most successful up to that time. The 2000 season also saw the Saints Baseball program reach a milestone with the program’s 250th win coming on April 1 after a 2-0 victory of UW-Stevens Point in LaCrosse, WI. The Saints entered the 2000 season with high expectations following the 1999 appearance in the NCAA Midwest Regional. They did not disappoint.

The 2000 Saints received many honors including:

NAIA All-America First Team: Justin Harriman
NAIA All-America Second Team: Leland Swenson
NAIA All-America Honorable Mention: Chris LePine and Corey Kemp
NAIA Region 3 Player-of-the-Year: Leland Swenson
NAIA All-Region First Team: Leland Swenson, Justin Harriman, Chris LePine, Corey Kemp
NAIA All-Region Second Team: Greg Young
UMAC Player-of-the-Year: Leland Swenson
UMAC Pitcher-of-the-Year: Corey Kemp
UMAC Rookie-of-the-Year: Nick Bjerken
All-UMAC First Team: Leland Swenson, Justin Harriman, Corey Kemp, Greg Young, Chris LePine, Nick Bjerken, Derek Bilben, Joey Wood
All-UMAC Second Team: Josh Lamppa, Kevin Kuklis, Nathan Ahlberg, Joe Wicklund
Academic All-Americans: Greg Young, Dave Schlangen, Tom Berrisford, Joe Wicklund, Derek Bilben, Nathan Ahlberg, Phil Giesen

The 2000 Saints as a team set many team records including the record for the most wins with 41, highest team batting average with .372, most runs scored with 540, most stolen bases with 137 (broke by the 2001 team), and the best winning percentage with .788. The 2000 Saints also came in second all-time with a .961 fielding percentage and a 3.07 earned run average and third in homeruns with 38. Many individual records were set during the 2000 season Leland Swenson and Chris LePine set the record for hits in a season with 83. Chris LePine also set the record for the most runs scored with 80 and stolen bases with 32. Leland Swenson also set the record for RBIs in a season with 77 and batting average by hitting .464. Two pitching records were also set by the 2000 team. Corey Kemp tied Ben Sickler’s 1996 record with 11 wins and Dan Birkholz set the record for appearances in a season with 15.

The winners of the annual team awards for the 2000 season are as follows:

Tullberg Trophy (MVP): Justin Harriman
Tim Anderson Academic Award: Greg Young
Joe Pearson Blue-Gold Award: Joe Wicklund
Justin Harriman Outstanding Hitter: Justin Harriman
John Giefer Award (Gold Glove): Leland Swenson
Nick Bjerken Rookie of the Year: Nick Bjerken
Ben Sickler Captain Award: Joe Wicklund – Justin Harriman – Chris LePine – Leland Swenson
Corey Kemp Outstanding Pitcher: Corey Kemp
(Inaugural) Lahti Award: Greg Young

The 2000 season ended with the Saints taking home the 2000 NAIA Regional Championship. They entered the tournament on a 20-game win streak and kept rolling into the NAIA tournament. The winning streak got up to 23 in a row before falling to #2 seed and tournament host Briar Cliff University by a score of 18-11. The Saints then went on to beat Briar Cliff by a score of 15-9 in the regional championship elimination game. The Saints then moved on the Super Regional game in which they hosted former national champion Bellevue University at Wade Stadium in Duluth. The opening game of the best-of-three series had 1,420 fans on hand and saw the Saints win the series opener by a score of 13-8 in 10 innings. The Bruins of Bellevue then toppled the Saints in the second game by a score of 14-7, forcing a third and final game. The third game featured a record breaking 1,630 fans on hand, but the Saints fell to Bellevue by a score of 13-4 and sent the Bruins to their fourth straight NAIA World Series and ended the Saints season with a record of 41-11.

Coach Baggs summed up the Saints 2000 season following the tough loss to Bellevue in the Super Regional by saying, “I don’t know what’s harder, seeing the seniors lose this game after all the hard work they’ve put in over the last four years, or knowing that next year I won’t have Justin Harriman catching, and I won’t have Leland Swenson starting at shortstop or Chris LePine in center field – or Joe Wicklund or Josh Lamppa in the pitching rotation. That’s what’s going to be tough. I’ll miss these seniors like no other class.”