By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
One pitch in Sunday’s game was a reason why Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich wants Mason Schwalbach in the lineup all of the time.
Schwalbach, a left-handed hitter, was facing Clinton LumberKings reliever Jared Simpson, a lefty, for the first time.
Schwalbach worked a 2-1 count, then dropped a single into left field, going the opposite way against Simpson.
“His stats are almost the same, righty versus lefty,” Oreskovich said. “He’s really comfortable facing a left-hander. And that makes it easier for me to hit him every night.”
You don’t put up the numbers Schwalbach has in the last two seasons at McHenry County (Ill.) College without being able to handle everything. Schwalbach, named an NJCAA Division II first-team All-American on Monday, hit .412 this season, ranking fourth in the nation with 22 home runs, and second with 88 runs batted in. That follows a freshman season in which he hit .408 with 10 home runs and 57 RBIs.
Those kinds of numbers, including a career OPS of 1.270, make him the anchor of the Bees’ lineup in the third spot.
“Baseball’s the hardest sport,” Schwalbach, the Bees’ designated hitter, said last week. “It’s the sport of failure. To be able to have success makes all of the hard work worth it.”
Schwalbach is hitting .310 with an OPS of 1.042. He ranks in the top 10 in the Prospect League in home runs (2), runs batted in (12) and slugging percentage (.621).
He’s carried the momentum from his spring season into his time with the Bees.
“Just everything clicked, I feel like,” Schwalbach said. “I had a lot of guys around me who were helping out. We had guys always on base, which made it easy for me to knock them in. There was a lot of work in the winter that I put in, and everyone else on the team put in, and it carried over into the spring.”
Being in the batting cage is something Schwalbach enjoys. Sometimes the work takes 30 minutes, sometimes 90 — “As much as I feel is necessary,” Schwalbach said.
He had specific goals before he started his work on Friday, which was an unscheduled day off for the Bees after that night’s game had been canceled.
“A lot of times I work on bat speed,” Schwalbach said. “Today it will be off-speed pitches, breaking balls. I will try to pick one or two things to work on and really hammer them until I’m confident that I feel better.”
Oreskovich was a coach at McHenry County when Schwalbach was a freshman, so he knew what he was getting when Schwalbach committed to play for the Bees.
“He competes at the plate,” Oreskovich said. “He does things right.”
Oreskovich pointed to a first-inning at-bat on Sunday, when, with runners on second and third, Schwalbach took a ball in the first pitch from Clinton starter Graysen Drezek, then on the next pitch hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field to bring in the first of the Bees’ two runs in the inning.
Schwalbach finished the game going 2-for-4, his third multi-hit game of the season. Both hits came when the count was in Schwalbach’s favor.
“When we’ve got runners in scoring position, he’s looking to get ahead early in the count,” Oreskovich said. “He knows the game really well. He’s a smart hitter up there.”
Coming to Burlington was an easy choice for Schwalbach.
“It’s been great,” he said. “A lot of baseball, a lot of games. The guys have been awesome.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of what I expected, because I knew it would be a lot of baseball, which I was looking for. And the competition has been as good as I expected, which has been great.”
Schwalbach has signed to play at Kansas State next season, choosing the Wildcats over Michigan State, Jacksonville, and Troy.
“I was a big fan of the coaches, and their hitting philosophies there,” he said. “They were a winning program this year, so they’re going in the right direction, for sure, to becoming one of the top teams in the Big 12. And their facilities are unbelievable. I thought that gave me the best opportunity.”
This summer, Schwalbach said, is preparation for what comes next.
“I just want to be a little more mature in the box, on the field, before I get to school in the fall, because it’s going to be a big adjustment,” he said. “The best I can do is prepare more mentally. I think I have the physical stuff, but it’s just making sure I’m ready, mentally, when I get there.”
‘A SCARY SCENE’
The Bees’ game with the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes on Friday was called off after an incident in Thursday’s game between the two teams in Springfield.
Springfield pitcher Matt Cruise was hit in the head by a line drive on the second pitch of the game. Cruise was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance and that night’s game was canceled.
“It was a scary scene,” Oreskovich said.
Friday’s game forced a change in the Bees’ schedule for later this month. The June 29 game against the Horseshoes was going to be an exhibition game, one that didn’t count in the standings. Instead, it will replace the Friday game and count in the standings.
HIGH-SCORING CATFISH
The Cape Catfish are the only undefeated team left, starting the season 10-0 with the league’s most prolific offense.
The Catfish have three of the top four hitters in the league — Chris Hall (.625), Brody Chrisman (.514) and Justin Carinci (.488). They lead the Prospect League with 121 runs scored, and have a league-high .394 batting average.
The Bees play host to the Catfish on Friday.
Photo: Burlington Bees designated hitter Mason Schwalbach reacts after a double in a game against the Quincy Gems earlier this season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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