| Year: | 1994 |
| Class: | 2004 |
| Team: | Baseball |
The following was printed on the 1994 Siena Heights Baseball Teams's HOF plaque:
WHAC Conference Champs & NAIA Great Lakes Region Champions & NAIA World Series Participant
The 2004 Siena Heights University Athletic Hall of Fame recognizes the 10-year anniversary of the most unlikely “Cinderella” team in the school’s athletic history—the 1994 Saints’ baseball team.
In January of 1994, assistant coach (and now head coach at Peru State College in Nebraska) Mark Bayliss was handed the reins as “interim” head coach. Bayliss and assistant coaches Adam Benschoter and Mike Kaczmarek had all played for the Saints; and they inherited a team that had a good mix of talented veterans and key underclassmen.
Not a lot was expected of the Saints when they lost their first eight games of the season and returned to Michigan with a 3-14 record at the end of their Spring trip. The Saints would not have a winning record throughout the regular season; but would manage to reach the .500 mark during the Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament in Grand Rapids.
The underdog Saints defeated top-seeded Aquinas College on Aquinas’ home field to win their first-ever WHAC league tournament championship and advance to the NAIA Great Lakes Regional Tournament in Mount Vernon, OH. What made the Saints’ WHAC tournament title even more special was the fact that Bayliss’ club fell 11-6 to Madonna University in the first round of the tournament and had to come out of the loser’s bracket. The Saints rallied for four straight victories (including two straight over Aquinas in the championship round) to clinch their first conference tournament championship and keep their dream season alive.
Seeded #4 in the four-team regional, the Saints knocked off top-seeded Mount Vernon Nazarene College (6-1) in the first round and Goshen College (7-0) in the second round; and defeated St. Xavier University (3-2) in the title game to capture their first regional crown in school history and qualify for their first trip to the NAIA World Series in Des Moines, IA.
Losses to Dallas Baptist University and Point Loma Nazarene University at the NAIA World Series did little to tarnish the Saints’ “Cinderella” season; because few expected them to get beyond the WHAC conference tournament.
The 1984 Saints were led offensively by lead-off man and centerfielder Jerry Koester and infielder Mike Giacomantonio. Koester batted .379 for the season and was named 1st-Team NAIA All-American in ’94. To date (2004), he remains the only Siena Heights baseball player ever to earn 1st-Team All-American honors. Giacomantonio batted .366 and led the Saints in home runs (10), runs batted in (67) and slugging percentage (.605); and earned honorable mention NAIA All-American honors for the Saints.
Starting pitchers Todd Boike, Tom Dombkowski and Dave Wood accounted for most of the Saints’ victories and came up huge in the postseason. Bill McCaig was also a solid starter for the Saints. He also shared catching duties with Cliff Murray. Other key contributors for the Saints were Pat Dowling, Brett Burns, Jeff Tapp, Bob Szczechowski, Todd Falkner, Glen Scherer, Josh Reeber, Jason Holton, Craig Sower, Rob Belegrin, Ryan Wolf, Tom Moore, John Munoz, Bryan Gearhart and Ed Kleinedler.
