On March 11, 2020, Southwestern baseball defeated New Jersey City 17-7 to improve to 7-6. While things were finally coming together on the field for the Pirates, the rest of the sports world began to unravel. 

While Southwestern played, the NBA announced it would be shutting down its season due to the pandemic. Over the next 24 hours, nearly every professional sports league and collegiate conference followed suit.

It was the last night Rockwell Family Field hosted a Southwestern baseball game. 

Since that moment, the amount of baseball played on the field has been limited. As time limits now constrained the timeless game due to COVID protocols, head coach JC Bunch leaned into the circumstances. If Southwestern couldn't consistently play baseball on the field, he'd ask the team to play the game out in their minds. 

"We spent some time going through a book about the mental side of baseball, and they've bought in," Bunch said. "It's about controlling what you can control, and truthfully, in baseball, there's little you have control over." 

That's true enough under normal conditions, where statistically, the best hitters fail more often than they succeed, and even the most perfectly executed pitch can backfire. 

"As a hitter, I can hit four line drives at people, and I'm 0-for-4. Do you take that as a bad day, or do you acknowledge you did everything you could," Bunch said. "You can control your attitude, you can control your effort, but you can't always control results. It's cliche, but cliches are that for a reason; they're true." 

Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, "baseball is 90 percent mental, the other half is physical." Southwestern has a pair of athletically gifted seniors who could make that wonky match work in Daniel Montgomery Jr. and Bryce Debbs. 

For Montgomery, this season is a reset on his senior year. After earning All-American status in 2019, Montgomery struggled through 13 games last season, hitting a career-low .208 a year after leading the SCAC in almost every hitting statistical category. 

"It happens for seniors. They think because it's their last year, they have to be the guy. He put the weight of the world on his shoulders and had some self-inflicted struggles because of it," Bunch explained. "I had him read the book this summer, and he's a completely different player. It's going to be great to watch him just enjoy the season." 

At 6-foot-7, 230 pounds with great athleticism, Debbs has every tool at his disposal. Through his first three seasons, it has just been a matter of putting it all together. This year, he's shown enough glimpses to expand his role this season. 

"He has an unbelievably high ceiling. He could be a pro with his talent," Bunch said. "Has he done it yet? No. Is it there? Yes. We've seen steps and progression where he's asked the right questions and taken the right approach in games. Now he just has to do it in games."

Another ceiling raiser for the Southwestern offense is sophomore Lance Kruse. A three-sport star in high school, Kruse was primarily recruited by the football team. Still, he quickly proved himself to be one of baseball's top offensive threats with his combination of power and speed at his size, hitting .320 with three doubles, two triples, two home runs, and a team-high 17 RBIs. 

"He didn't start with us until January, so we weren't quite sure what we were going to get, but then he showed up and was arguably our best hitter," Bunch said. "He's very self-confident in a good way. He's quiet but believes in how good he can be. He doesn't overthink things." 

If those three represent the highest ceiling for the Pirates, senior centerfielder Hayden Craig and junior shortstop Chase Thinger represent a high floor with their consistent play. Since their first season, both have started, providing stabilizing forces in the lineup and middle of the defense.

"Hayden often gets overlooked because he's just so steady. You know he's going to make the play in the outfield, and he's good for getting on base at least twice a game," Bunch said. "And Chase has been our starting shortstop since his freshman season. He makes all the routine plays. It's probably my fault for overlooking them because they're just so reliable you can kind of take them for granted." 

Preston Witt, a promising sophomore first baseman, provides another left-handed hitter who can reliably get on base, provides another steady everyday player. The strength of the rest of the lineup is the amount of depth the program has built over the past three seasons with proven players like Ted Lobkowicz, and Ryan Baranowski, along with a slew of incoming players. 

"Our depth, leadership, and resiliency are the strengths of this team," Bunch said. "I doubt we'll have more than a few players who will start 40 games. With the uncertainty of this season, I need to get my backups experience. I have to get a lot of people innings." 

That approach is the same on the mound, where Southwestern will have to replace two all-conference workhorse pitchers with depth. 

"We lost our top two pitchers from the past three years, but we do have some guys with experience who will be stepping into different roles," Bunch said. "Travis Harvey has thrown a lot of innings for us, and he's going to be counted on to be a leader. Benjamin Ludwig is going to have a bigger role. We have plenty of depth; it's just very unproven. Because we are playing Trinity and Texas Lutheran, both nationally ranked, as part of our non-conference schedule, we'll quickly find out how good we are." 

After months of preparing themselves mentally, Southwestern will finally get an opportunity this weekend to see how it all plays out in the field. 

"Ultimately, we're getting an opportunity to play. I sent an email to the team in August saying my only focus was doing whatever we could to play baseball this season," Bunch said. "So much will be out of our hands, but we'll control what we can, how we react to everything. We'll start against Trinity and see where it all ends up."