In the hallways of the Southwestern University athletics department, heading out towards the fields, is roughly a hundred years of the Pirates' storied baseball program. 

Adorning the wall is plaques of All-Americans and National Player of the Year winners, from Rick Tobolka (1977) to Matt Gelotti (2000). Encased in glass are newspaper clippings of the 1984 NAIA World Series third place team, pictures of Pirates-turned-pro in their Major League Baseball uniforms, and a trophy commemorating the 1,000th coaching career victory of Jim Mallon, the former baseball coach who oversaw most of it. 

While the mementos have been preserved with care over the years, the program itself fell into disrepair since the turn of the century, posting only one winning season between 2006 and 2018. 

Head Coach J.C. Bunch was charged with restoring the modern program to its former glory in the summer of 2017. Eschewing catchy, inspirational phrases or gimmicks, Bunch has simply gone to work improving the program a practice, game, and season at a time. 

"I'm not a big goals guy. I didn't take the job thinking, 'we're going to win this many games by this timeline,'" Bunch said. "From a talent perspective, we've brought in players to push returning players, which is what you want when you build a program. 

"The returning player gets better or he gets passed by, which as a program makes you better." 

In 2018, Bunch's first season as head coach, the Pirates went 18-24; making it into the SCAC Tournament where it won a single game before bowing out. A year later, Southwestern basically flipped that regular season record, finishing 24-19 for its first winning season since going 22-20 in 2008. It also exited the SCAC Tournament early after only a single win. 

"We were pleased with the success but with that, I think we shift expectations," Bunch said. "This should be the norm. We shouldn't go a decade without a winning record or beating good teams. But in the end, we had the same result as the year before. 

"Wins are great but our players are trying to get into regionals. That's been our goal since I got here and there are two ways to do that at our level: win your conference tournament or win enough games to get an at-large bid." 

To get there this season, the Pirates will lean on a pitching staff that returns SCAC Pitcher of the Year Austin Smith and the heart of a batting lineup that returns All-Region Byron Dowdell II and All-American Daniel Montogmery Jr.

"We returned three guys who received national recognition, which is huge to have back," Bunch said. "And I think we have a much deeper team. Our pitching staff is deeper than last year and there's competition at every position now where last year, a few guys didn't really have anyone pushing them." 

The Pirates' grander hopes begin with the pitching staff, which is built around the arm of Austin Smith. In his first season as a full-time pitcher last season, Smith was a revelation. As a sophomore, he compiled a 7-2 record and finished No. 13 in Division III in strikeouts per nine innings with 12.48 and sixth in total strikeouts with 110, leading the SCAC in both categories. 

"It's comforting going into every three-game series knowing he's going to give you an opportunity to win the game," Bunch said. "He's a competitor who can go deep into games and went toe-to-toe with everyone's best. It's baseball, so you don't win every game, but knowing he's going to give you the best chance is hugely reassuring." 

Behind Smith is Colton Hunter, a senior who was named All-SCAC Second Team last season after finishing the regular season second in the SCAC in strikeouts per game (10.19) and complete games (four), and third in strikeouts (83) and innings pitched (73.1) with a 6-2 regular season record and 3.80 ERA. 

"With Colton, it's just about competitiveness," Bunch said. "From a 'stuff' standpoint, he doesn't wow you, but you look up and he's gone seven or more innings, he doesn't walk anyone, and he's the unquestioned leader of the pitching staff as far as holding guys accountable and doing the work. He doesn't just tell guys what to do, he's doing it with them, which is awesome to watch." 

Beyond that are a number of young arms with sophomores Benjamin Ludwig and Travis Harvey having the inside track due to a year experience and strong summers. 

"What we've seen so far is they've taken the next step in their progression so far as commanding the ball, learning how to pitch to get hitters out instead of getting on the mound and just throwing the ball," Bunch said. "What it takes to get quick innings and go deep in the game; the rigors of playing college baseball." 

In support of the pitching staff is a defense that finished with the highest fielding percentage in the conference last season at .968. Key to that was the middle of the defense, where centerfielder Hayden Craig, shortstop Chase Thinger, and second baseman Seth Sparks. Craig and Sparks were All-SCAC Second Team while Thinger received honorable mention. 

"We return our shortstop and our second baseman, who are both big contributors on offense and defense; just unbelievably steady defensively," Bunch said. "Then our centerfielder and leadoff hitter, Hayden Craig, is really good defensively. 

"The defense runs up the middle of the field and to return all three of those guys with a pitching staff that could be pretty good should bode well. We have to play and they have to perform but the potential is there." 

Bringing punch to the lineup is Dowdell and Montgomery. Dowdell was named Third Team All-Region, finishing the regular season tied with Montgomery for the SCAC lead with nine home runs and leading the conference in RBIs (47) while batting .320 with a .547 slugging percentage. 

"They're good and they've played a lot of baseball," Bunch said. "Dan's going to do what he does while Byron has always hit his entire career here and last year took a big step as far as run production and understanding what kind of hitter he was."

Montgomery was a D3Baseball.com All-American and returns this season as a Preseason All-American after  leading the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) in runs (48) and triples (four) while tying for the conference lead in home runs (nine). He also finished second in the SCAC in total bases (110), doubles (15), slugging percentage (.667) and on base percentage (.485), and was third in hits (60) and RBI (45) with a .354 batting average.

"He was a conference leader in just about everything, so it's hard to get better than [Montgomery] was last year," Bunch said. "He's worked hard to stay in shape, he's actually gotten faster, and he understands how to hit. 

"He's also recognizing how teams are going to pitch to him, which is huge in that he's not going to get frustrated when teams pitch around him. He'll be patient and take his base with faith the guy behind him will get the job done." 

In the years to come, players like Montgomery, Smith, and more will eventually find their names on the walls but legacies are far from Bunch's mind. His job is to make the Pirates better each season, someone else can tend to the memories in the display cases.