'Really special moment': Mount Aloysius baseball team set to host AMCC Tournament for 1st time

May 10—The Mount Aloysius College baseball players are no strangers to the NCAA Division III Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament.

With 15 appearances in the past 17 tourneys, the Mounties are quite familiar with playing in the six-team field.

Beginning Friday, Mount Aloysius (21-16) will host the tournament for the first time since clinching its initial AMCC regular-season title in program history. The Mounties posted a 11-5 mark within the nine-team league, which was a half-game better than Penn State Behrend's 10-5-1 mark.

The Lions finished in a 3-3 tie against Pitt-Greensburg April 28.

"It's taken 18 years here as the head coach for us to get the opportunity to host and to win our first-ever regular-season championship, which was really special," said Mount Aloysius baseball coach and Athletic Director Kevin Kime, a Bishop McCort Catholic graduate. "We won our first (tournament) conference championship two years ago, went to an NCAA regional. That was special in itself as well and so is this."

In 2022, the Mounties secured the No. 2 seed in the tournament and ended up beating top-seeded Penn State Behrend twice on the final day for their first AMCC title. No. 3 seed Mount Aloysius lost in a best-of-3 series to rival and eventual champion Penn State Altoona in the 2023 tourney.

Mount Aloysius hosts No. 4 seed Alfred State, which swept Penn State Altoona 5-4 in innings and 6-5 in Saturday's best-of-3 series, at 10 a.m. Friday in the double-elimination tournament.

No. 2 seed Penn State Behrend meets sixth-seeded La Roche, which swept No. 3 seed Hilbert 7-5 in 11 innings and 11-1 Friday, at 10 a.m. Friday inside Sargent's Stadium at the Point in downtown Johnstown. The losers of the two morning contests will play at 3 p.m. Friday at Mount Aloysius.

"It's a really special moment for our program, for our players and all of our alums out there," Kime said of hosting. "We've been in the conference tournament almost every year during that period of time. It's special for all of the players that have come before this group and put a lot of time and effort into it. We've gotten a lot of outreach from alums that are really excited for our team's opportunity to be the No. 1 seed and be able to host the tournament as the regular-season champ."

Over the years, Mount Aloysius has been the third seed five times and the fourth and sixth seeds on three occasions each. The Mounties were the No. 5 seed twice and the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds once each. Mount Aloysius failed to advance in 2007, Kime's first season, and 2018.

There was no 2020 tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This season's Mounties have proven their mettle over the spring.

"This group is very, very resilient and they respond very well," Kime said. "They are a 'We're going to keep coming at you' type of group no matter what the score or outcome is. Resilient and tough. We've kind of hung our hat on that.

"We're going to keep playing hard-nosed baseball."

Mount Aloysius defeated Alfred State (17-23, 9-7 AMCC) 3-2 and 10-8 March 29 in Cresson. Kime, who earned his 350th victory this season, knows every team is capable of winning Sunday's championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

"All four teams are very good," Kime said.

"There's talent on each of those teams. We've had tight games with Alfred State. Their pitching staff is very strong. Penn State Behrend's depth position player-wise and as a pitching staff is very strong. La Roche is extremely scrappy. You can't let them stay in a game because they'll find a way to beat you in the end. Any one of these teams can beat anybody on any given day. It's going to be not necessarily who the best team is, but it's going to be the team that plays the best."

Mount Aloysius split against La Roche and Penn State Behrend with 1-1 records apiece.

Area products on Mount Aloysius' roster are John Elias (Cambria Heights), Chris Hasse (Westmont Hilltop), Jackson Kozlovac (Portage Area), Cole Strick (Windber Area), Andrew Weaver (Rockwood Area) and Tyler Weber (Conemaugh Township Area). Forest Hills graduate Patrick Gully and William McCabe are assistant coaches.

Kozlovac started nine games. Weber is 5-for-13 with one double, one home run and four RBIs. Hasse has appeared in 12 games, 10 starts, and has struck out 51 batters in 44 innings pitched.

Junior Tyler Quade — who was the 2022 AMCC player, pitcher and newcomer of the year — leads the Mounties with a .417 batting average, .512 on-base percentage, .644 slugging percentage, 39 runs scored, 17 doubles, two triples and 19 stolen bases. The two-way player from Maryland has a 3.26 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 492/3 innings on the mound.

"He's the best player we've ever had here," Kime said of Quade. "We've had some really, really good ones, but his ability to go both ways consistently spearheads him. He has over a .400 career average, which is absurd at this level.

"He's been our No. 1 off the mound ever since his freshman year and he's a two-time All-American. He's an incredibly talented player, a very, very special player. His freshman year, he was the newcomer of the year in all of Division III baseball, which is almost 400 schools. He's just a super-special player that has a compete mode that most young people don't have anymore."

John Griffith has a .385 average with three home runs and 37 RBIs. Joshua Brown has four home runs, 31 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Ryan Bushey is hitting .331 with nine doubles, one triple, 10 stolen bases and 19 RBIs.

Jake Oswalt is a copy editor for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TheWizOfOz11.