Family Matters In Xavier Baseball

 

Grad student Natale Monastra or Nate to his teammates was to the point, “It’s about more than baseball with us.”

Luke Bell had a horrible year full of heartache. His father, Mike Bell,  was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January. He died on March 26 at the age of 46.  Billy O'Connor adopted Bell into his Xavier Musketeer family, entrusting the young man with the deciding game of the Big East Conference Baseball Tournament, just two months after losing his dad.

Bell pitched three scoreless innings in his first collegiate start against the University of Connecticut Huskies in what ended up a losing effort.  The Huskies earned the conferences automatic bid to the College World Series with a 10-6 win.

"It made too much sense not to do it," said O'Connor, who lost his mother to brain cancer August 8, 2020 at the age of 60, "That wasn't the only reason.  He's a competitive kid. He thrives in the big moment. I knew he'd give us the best opportunity.  He would have stayed in there but his pitch count getting a little high but to go out there and give us three scoreless was incredible.  I told him after the game his dad would have been so proud of him. I can't even imagine what he's been through the last couple months.

Bell appeared in four games for the Musketeers.  He battled injury as well as the death of his father, he pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings, including 1 2/3 innings on Thursday night in a mop up job in Xavier's 11-1 loss.   He allowed four hits and six walks, striking out seven.

There was doubt that Luke would return to the team with his father's illness and nagging injuries.  He pitched in his first game on April 17 barely three weeks after his father passed, then didn't pitch again for a month.  His last three outings came in the last 15 days.

"I missed the first few weeks because of injury and I missed another half the season because of my dad," Bell said.  "I didn't even think I was going to be back.  To come back and get to throw I was able to throw and start this last game was special for me."

He began to break down when he explained his return.  "We thought he had more time and so I wanted to spend more time with him," said Bell fighting back tears, like he fought the Huskies.

The setback forced Xavier to come through the loser's bracket of the double elimination tournament.  Xavier waited over seven hours before taking out the Seton Hall Pirates on Friday night, the 2-1 game ended close to 1:00 AM.  On Saturday, they defeated the Creighton Blue Jays, 2-1.  That pit them against UConn which was the number one seed, needing to beat them twice on Sunday.  They defeated the Huskies 5-4 with 6 2/3 innings of one-run pitching by Trevor Olson to set up Bell's start in the nightcap.

It was a long hard road condensed into four days.  O'Connor credited the family togetherness for the courage to weather the ordeal.

"It's easy to not care.  It's easy to not invest. Our guys competed like crazy," O'Connor said.  "What these gone through the last 15 months against what they're used to, no spring practice, no season last year, the travel, the protocols, everything.  They did everything we asked them and the final thing we asked them is to come out here and compete like crazy. They did that. I told them I love them. There were guys here five or six years in the program.  They're like my brothers. It's a family.  To have to part ways is tough."

When Bell left the game the Musketeers had a 1-0 lead but the weary bullpen just couldn't hold it.  The hard hitting Huskies built a 10-3 lead heading into the ninth.

Andrew Sexton from LaSalle High School in Cincinnati and Natale Monastra, a catcher from Lewis Center, Ohio opted to come back as graduates students, an offer the NCAA made to the players who had their senior season cancelled by Covid.

Trailing by seven going into the ninth, Sexton struck out swinging in his last at bat as a Musketeer. Monastra, who answers to Nate, closed his collegiate career with a two-run home run to make the final margin 10-6.

"As soon as I made the decision to come back, I didn't regret it for a minute.  These are my brothers here. It was unbelievable," said Monastra, who has professional baseball aspirations.  "I love the new guys here and I love getting another year with my brothers. It didn't end the way we wanted but I wouldn't trade this last year for anything."

His last at bat illustrated what O'Connor was talking about when he said the was no quit in his squad.

"That's what I love about our guys they fight to the end," O'Connor said.

When someone noted that whether Monastra played another game or not, he would always have the home run in his last collegiate at bat.

"He's way to good to let his career end right now.  Someone will give him a shot to play professionally," O'Connor said.

Sexton had just a strikeout to show for his last at bat but his father Chris was a teammate of Bell's father with the Reds in 2000

"He had fun and got an education," Chris Sexton said.  "He went through some injuries but he competed here for five years.  It was all worth it."https://youtu.be/0WcirMXObik?t=65The late Mike Bell hit his first major league home run off Steve Kline of the Montreal Expos in . He was greeted at home plate by fellow Cincinnati native, Chris Sexton.  Sexton started the game at shortstop and was on deck when Mike Bell hit one of his two career home runs.  He was there to congratulate Bell when he arrived at home plate.  Twenty-one years later their sons competed together.  See the following video.

Buddy Bell,, the grandfather of the Musketeer played for the Reds in the 80's.  Buddy's father, Gus, played for the Reds' in the 50's.  His uncle David is the current Reds' manager.

Luke Bell couldn't help but have baseball in his blood.  His grandfather played, managed and now works in player development for the Reds.  His father Mike spent 13 years in the player development department of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  His uncle, David, was in the player development department of the San Franciso Giants before taking the manager's job with the Reds.

He will miss his father forever, but his new Xavier family is determined to mitigate his loss.

Wade Miley Shut Up And Pitch

 

Wade Miley loves to talk.

His teammates are drawn to the outgoing personality of this 34-year old from Hammond, Louisiana but in the sixth inning of his start against the Cleveland Indians on Friday, his friends were nowhere to be found in the dugout.

Miley shut the Indians down for six innings without allowing them to sniff a hit.

The superstition in baseball is to never talk about a no-hitter.  They all knew it and didn't be the one to jinx the pitcher.  Normally, they would be sitting next to the crafty, soft throwing left-hander but they made themselves scarce.

"In the sixth inning, all my buddies left me," said Miley, who was pestering teammate Mike Moustakas about the game being banged (postponed).  The game started late because of rain.  "I wanted to talk about something, fishing,.  I didn't want to talk about pitching."

"I goofed off during the rain delay like I usually do," Miley said.  "I tried to get David (manager David Bell) to tell Moustakas the game was banged.  He gets mad at me. That's what I do."

Tucker Barnhart his catcher had to talk to him.  Miley mentioned his name giving Barnhart credit for guiding him to an achievement accomplished just 17 times in Reds history and the first since Homer Bailey's second no-hitter on July 2, 2013 in a 3-0 game against the San Francisco.  Ironically the same final score in Miley's "no-no".

"Wade's personality is so infectious," Barnhart said.  "I've never seen an entire team be so happy for one person. He's such a good dude.  Everyone loves him."

The Reds had a problem though.

Zach Plesac, the Cleveland hurler, gave up just three hits in eight innings and kept the Reds from scoring.

It was the second time in five starts that his mound opponent spun a no-hitter.  On April 14, Carlos Rondon of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter against Cleveland but in that one Plesac gave up six runs to the White Sox in the first inning.  Two no-hitters in a span of less than three weeks is such a statistical anomaly since there have only been 254 of them since 1900.

The Reds hitters felt the pressure in the ninth inning when the fresh arm of Emmanual Clase, who has more pitches clocked at 100 mph or more than anyone in the game.

"I'll be damned if we go into the 10th inning with a no-hitter," Barnhart said.

It wasn't up to Barnharrt though.  Nick Senzel led off the top of the ninth for the Reds.  He singled off the body of Clase and Jose Ramiez at third base could not retrieve it in time to throw Senzel out. Jesse Winker singled to left as Senzel moved up to second base.  Nick Castellanos hit a slow roller that Clase picked up and threw to second but Amed Rosario, the shortstop, didn't get to the base in time and Clase's throw got away from him.  Senzel scored and Winker went to third on the play.

"I wanted to get the guy from second to third.  I was as calm as I could be in that situation," Castellanos said.

Castellanos then took off for second while Clase was going into his stretch.  Instead of stepping off the rubber, Clase stepped toward home and stopped for a run scoring balk.  "They weren't holding me on and I saw how far the shortstop was from second base, so I just took off," Castellanos said.

Moustakas singled to score Castellanos with the third run.

Miley had breezed through eight innings on fewer than 100 pitches.  He works quickly and pitches to contact so he gets quick outs. He retired the first 16 batters in order until Senzel made an error on a ground ball by Amed Rosario in the sixth inning.  It was just the third career start at second for Senzel, the former infielder who was converted to center field. Miley walked Cesar Hernandez with two outs.  Miley ended the inning by getting Jordan Luplow to fly out to Shogo Akiyama in left.

"Those three runs made my decisions easier," Bell said.  "It is important to mention the offense in the ninth inning. They had a good pitcher against us.  It seemed to make us more determined if that's possible."

"We needed one run and got three," Winker said.  "I was nervous from the sixth inning on."

Now all Miley had to do was hold on for three more batters while fighting slight fatigue.

"I was getting a little tired around the seventh," Miley said recalling the long Reds' at bat in the ninth inning. "I wanted to stay loose and thought about throwing in the cage but I didn't want to waste any bullets."

He used those bullets well in the bottom of the ninth.  He emptied his six shooter which was exactly how many pitches he used to get Rene Rivera to fly out to Castellanos in right on the first pitch.  Miley struck out Hernandez on three pitches, including a called strike three.  Luplow grounded out to Kyle Farmer at short on the second pitch to secure the gem.

The Reds' stormed the field to congratulate their favorite teammate.

"I don't know that I've been a part of anything this joyful for any one player," Bell said.

"This means the world to me personally," said Barnhart with two good gloves as a catcher.  "This is far and away the coolest thing in my career without a doubt."

"Wade is one of my favorite teammates.  He is so real.  He will always shoot you straight. That was cool.  There aren't many words to explain it," said the stoic Castellanos who noted.  "The only time he's calm is when he's pitching."

There some quirky things about the no hitter that players will remember through their thousands of games they have played since they were children.

Miley's four-year old son Jeb put a play tattoo of the incredible hulk on his dad on the off day Thursday.  He showed it to his teammates.

"I won't get a real one.  I'm afraid of needles," Miley admitted.

His teammates are insisting that he get one that is permanent.

"There were some quirky funny things about this," Barnhart said.  "We didn't have a meeting before the game.  I left card with the scouting on it in my locker.  Tyler Naquin said that he used the wrong side of his scouting card the entire game."

"We are all better for being a part of it," Bell said. "I will never forget this.  I will never forget the look on Wade's face."