Five years ago, Byron Dowdell II, Colton Hunter, and Daniel Montgomery Jr. walked the campus of Southwestern University as high school recruits with little knowledge of the Pirates' historic baseball program other than the opportunity it presented to play college baseball.

For Dowdell, the alignment of academic and immediate playing time opportunities sealed his choice to be a Pirate. Hunter and Montgomery, who toured the campus together, were attracted to the campus and its close-knit community.

What didn't play a deciding factor for the three is what used to draw talent from all over: the storied history of the baseball program itself.

When the trio walked through the halls of the athletics department, the All-American plaques, the pictures of alumni in the pros, and the NAIA World Series trips were all news to them.

"I wasn't too aware of it," Dowdell said. "I knew they were good at one point but not really in my lifetime."

"I didn't really know about it either," Hunter said. "Not until I came here and walked the halls and saw the trophies and things like that. I learned the impact [former Southwestern] Coach [Jim] Mallon had on the program since he was here almost 40 years, about playing big schools like the University of Texas or the NAIA World Series."

"It wasn't until I was here for a few months that I learned about the history," Montgomery said.

At the time, the Pirates had not had a winning season since 2008 at 22-20, which in itself followed two consecutive losing seasons.

As sophomores, Dowdell, Hunter, and Montgomery helped take the Pirates back to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Tournament. Last year as juniors, they played key roles in putting together the Pirates' first winning season since that 2008 season.

This weekend, the trio will suit up for the first game of their final season of collegiate baseball. On Saturday, Southwestern will honor their accomplishments with an early season Senior Day.

"It's easy to work on changing culture when you've got guys that value what you do in a program," Bunch said. "From a work ethic standpoint, not all of them are the most vocal leaders but nobody is going to outwork them, which then sets the tone and tempo for how we're going to do things in the program."

Moving Senior Day from the end of the season to the start is one of many changes Bunch has implemented with the baseball program in a clear prioritization of goals, getting pomp and circumstance out of the way early so once Southwestern gets into conference play, it can focus exclusively on winning a conference championship and making it to the NCAA Regionals.

Bunch took over the baseball team during the seniors' sophomore season and the changes made have been a welcome departure from the program they entered.

"It was a different culture when we first got here in terms of how the team ran itself, how the older guys ran the team," Hunter said. "There wasn't a lot of stress on winning, it was more about having fun and a party atmosphere."

"There was a low achievement, low goal setting," Dowdell added.

"Coach Bunch brought a totally different mentality," Montgomery said. "It was huge, he was all about winning and that's all we care about. We emphasize winning."

This senior class is the final group inherited by Bunch, the vestiges of a previous era. But they've also been the fertile soil in which a new way of doing things at Southwestern has grown from.

Dowdell, Hunter, and Montgomery came to the program in a class of nine first years. After Ian Towle's early graduation last season, the trio are all that remain.

"We've seen a lot of things change, guys come and go," Hunter said. "Some had excuses, some just flat out didn't want to be here. Now that we've seen our hard work start to come to fruition, we can look back and see some of the challenges we've had and how it brought us closer as a group.

"We are all trying to pull the same way, which really helps what we're trying to do."

The group is small in terms of numbers but grand in overall impact, featuring All-SCAC, All-Region, and All-American recipients. Magnifying their influence is the diversity of skill sets and personalities among the trio, covering all bases.

"It helps that we play three different positions," Montgomery said. "Colton works with the pitchers, Byron with the outfielders, and me with the infielders. So, there's influence on the entire roster."

Dowdell isn't always vocal but has set a standard for all to follow, spending hours in the batting cages, honing his craft.

"Byron is a big lead by example guy," Hunter said. "You see him hitting in the cages for hours and you know he's All-Region, so it's not hard to put two and two together. When one of your best players works that hard, there's no excuse for anyone else to slack."

Dowdell has improved in each of his three seasons, earning All-SCAC Second Team honors as a sophomore and having a breakout year last year, hitting .320 with 47 RBIs and 9 home runs to earn First Team All-SCAC and Third Team All-West Region honors.

"He's an awesome baseball player who knows exactly what he needs to do to be successful," Bunch said. "He has his routine down and baseball is a big-time routine sport. Elite players know what makes them good and know they have to keep working on it over and over again. 

"It's a very monotonous sport to practice but those who are truly elite embrace it and go about their work and Byron 100 percent exemplifies that."

Montgomery and Hunter are more vocal, forming an almost good cop, bad cop style of leadership.

"Both of us are vocal but I kind of take on some of the harsher responsibilities," Montgomery said.

"I'm pretty jovial and fun-loving," Hunter said. "But I know when some of the guys mess up and I need to get on them, they're going to pay attention and listen to what the problem is."

"If [Hunter] yells, you know everything just went bad," Montgomery joked. "He's never like that."

Hunter was a workhorse No. 2 pitcher last season, earning Second Team All-SCAC honors with a 7-2 record and 83 strikeouts through 80.1 innings with a 4.26 ERA. As vital as his production is, his leadership might be even more valued.

"He's the unquestioned leader of the pitching staff as far as holding guys accountable and doing the work," Bunch said. "He doesn't just tell guys what to do, he's doing it with them, which is awesome to watch."

Montgomery will work more closely with Hunter this season, moving from third base to catcher for his senior year in a career that has also seen him play shortstop and pitch.

Last season, Montgomery was among the top two or three SCAC leaders in almost every offensive category, hitting .364 with a .667 slugging percentage, producing 45 RBIs with 48 runs scored, hitting 15 doubles and nine home runs. His production earned him the school's first proper All-American status in a decade. (Will Cates was Honorable Mention All-American in 2015).

But for all the individual accolades this class has, they know by their own recruiting experience how quickly the memories of plaques on the wall can fade. After claiming only one victory in the SCAC Tournament for a second consecutive year, failing to make it to the NCAA Tournament again, the group is looking for bigger team success.

"The winning season was valuable but bittersweet," Dowdell said. "It was a standard we should've met right off the bat."

"Our ultimate goal is to get into the regional tournament and that's going to take us winning the conference tournament or winning enough big games to get an at-large bid," Hunter said. "Personally, I feel like that falls on my responsibility for the pitching staff and I didn't feel like I pushed us to our limits to go out and perform."

"[The winning season] was nice, it was fun," Montgomery added. "But in the end, we didn't meet our goal."

Shortly after last season ended, the three met to discuss their senior seasons.

"We got together and talked about how we wanted to lead," Hunter said. "One of the things we wanted to put in place is the importance of what you do every day, how you're going to help the team, regardless of what it is."

The seniors have made holding each other and the team accountable on everything from putting in extra work on the field to attacking weight room sessions every morning a top priority.

"There's a whole championship mentality around it," Montgomery said. "We wanted to change the mentality of, 'I'm showing up because I have to,' to 'I'm showing up because I want to get better.'"

"It's about work ethic," Dowdell said. "The best players aren't the best players by accident. It's a process. You need to work hard to be the best."

"If we don't end up winning this year, I'm going to be upset about it," Hunter said. "But I'll be okay knowing we laid the foundations for the students behind us. We'll know we did everything we could to put the program in a good position next year and the year after that."

Five years ago, Dowdell, Hunter, and Montgomery visited the campus as high school students with no knowledge of the trophies and awards hanging on the Southwestern walls from baseball's storied past.

When they leave, they'll have added their own names and awards to the display cases. More importantly, they'll have helped move the program from a glorious past to a bright future.