CARY, NC — The USA Baseball National Training Complex has played host to plenty a DII baseball championship — this is the 15th to be precise. Its cavernous dimensions (it's 400 to dead center) make home runs sparse come May.
Of course, that’s all different when Lenoir-Rhyne comes to town.
🏆&Բ;Follow the tournament
📊&Բ;The previous Power 10
🔥&Բ;Kings of the hill: Breaking down some of DII baseball's best pitchers
⚾️ DII baseball finals preview
🏆&Բ;Tampa looks to set the record for most DII baseball championships
The Bears entered the DII baseball championship finals on Friday, May 30 two home runs shy of the DII single-season home run record. They left Game 1 not only setting the record, but setting it again... and again one more time.
It was actually East Stroudsburg that got the fireworks started. Chaise Albus hit a 432 bomb and Dennis Pierce sent one 406 feet to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead in the third. But then the “Bears Bomb Squad” — as the Lenoir-Rhyne faithful shirts read — came alive. Owen Blackledge launched a 429-foot home run before Eli Willen hit a no-doubter, going 410 feet with a 105 exit velocity. That gave the Bears their 132 home run of the season, breaking Quincy’s record of 131 set just two years prior in 2023.
Home run 132 by . A record and another tank by Eli Willen, 410 feet, 105 exit velo.
— Wayne Cavadi (@WayneCavadi_D2)
"I wasn't looking to go yard there, but I am happy it went out and I was able to set that record," Willen recalled after the game. "I wasn't looking for a [particular] pitch, I was looking for something up and over the plate and I had just happened to get it right there. The guys before me allowed me to get up there, so I was thankful for everybody to get me the chance to do that."
Before you knew it, it was 13-3 in the fifth. That has been the Bears’ attack all season — bide their time and unleash the Bomb Squad. Leadoff hitter Mackenzie Wainwright led the team with 25 home runs until Sal Carricato tied him with two of his own in Game 1. Cole Stanford added 20 and Blackledge hit his 14th on Friday as well. But it was Willen, who — with his 11th home run of the year — entered the Bears in the DII record book. A fun side fact: It was Willen who hit the Bears' 83rd home run of the season, setting Lenoir-Rhyne’s single-season home run record on Saturday, April 5, against Mars Hill.
"It's definitely humbling," Willen said of setting both home run records for the Bears. "It's been a journey for me, personally. I'm thankful for every opportunity I have been given, and I just want to take advantage of everything thrown at me."
Carricato added two more home runs to give the Bears 134 on the season. But there could be more on the horizon. The Bears staved off a late inning surge from the Warriors to win, 15-11, and now await the winner of Central Missouri and Northwood Friday night.
"Our lineup, they are amazing to watch," starting pitcher Andrew Harlow said. "One through nine, you never know which one is going to catch a barrel and send a ball flying. As a pitching staff, we have full faith that our offense, no matter what we do on the mound, is so electric and so fun, that they'll keep us in any game or, like today, they'll explode, and we'll come out on top even when the pitching isn't the top tier we need it to be."
"I'm a big advocate for the weight room," head coach Adam Skonieczki said. "I'm a firm believer that strong guys hit. When we talk about hitting in our program we don't talk about launch angle, we don't talk about exit velocity. We talk about hitting the ball hard in the middle of the field. When you got big, strong guys that can hit and they hit it off the barrel, sometimes that line drive just continues over the fence.
"To hit 134 home runs — that's a lot," Skonieczki continued. "It's a testament to these guys and the buy in they had for the weight room and into our hitting philosophy. And I got the best seat in the house. I've watched all 134 fly over the fence and hopefully we can hit a few more. At the end of the day, I don't care if we hit any more — we just got to keep winning baseball games."
