From Adversity to Opportunity: Holy Cross Baseball Returns to Patriot League Playoffs

The joy from an early-season triumph shifted, quickly, into heartbreak. The Holy Cross baseball team’s solid start to 2024 was punctuated by a competitive series against nationally ranked Kansas State — including an extra-inning Saturday evening victory for the Crusaders over the No. 24 Wildcats. 

The hero in that win? A familiar name to Crusader baseball fans: junior Sean Scanlon, a two-time All-Patriot League honoree and rare two-way player who was not only one of the team’s top returning hitters, but a key weekend starter on the mound. Scanlon stood at the plate in the top of the 10th with a pair of runners on, and confidently struck a home run to right field. 

Less than 18 hours later, the mood changed drastically. Scanlon — the Sunday starter on the mound — stood up again to bat, and was hit directly in the arm with a pitch. And this was unlike any HBP he’d experienced prior: he immediately knew something was wrong when he couldn’t grip his bat or feel his hand. Later, he got an x-ray, and learned he would need surgery and that his injury was season-ending. 

“It went from the best moment of my life,” Scanlon said, “to one of the worst moments of my life.”

Scanlon’s injury certainly wasn’t the only one of the year for the Crusaders, and that weekend would not be the only roller coaster of emotion experienced by the team. But when faced with a challenge, the Crusaders remained composed. And a deep sense of trust, unique chemistry and next-man-up mentality has propelled Holy Cross to its best season in years — and an opportunity to face second-seeded Navy in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament this weekend. The best-of-three series begins on Saturday, May 11, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

“One thing we always talk about in this program,” said Holy Cross head coach Ed Kahovec, “is when there’s adversity — we have to view it as opportunity.”

Holy Cross has not been a stranger to young lineups in recent years, and this year was no different. During the 2024 regular season, freshmen and sophomores combined for nearly 60 percent of the team's at bats and 64 percent of the team's innings pitched; seniors accounted for just 5 percent of the team's at bats and 24 percent of the team's innings pitched. That’s a stark contrast to the senior-heavy lineups at other schools — and on paper, one could anticipate some serious growing pains. 

And before the 2024 season began, external expectations for the Holy Cross baseball team were just about as low as possible. In the preseason coaches’ poll, the Crusaders were voted — unanimously — to finish in last place in the league. 

So with that external skepticism, and when an older leader in Scanlon is ruled out, and as other injuries arose throughout the year, and even when only 21 players are available (as was the case at one point in the season)…it could be easy for doubt to sink in. But not for these Crusaders. 

“That just made us hungrier, honestly, throughout the whole year, to keep practicing and keep getting better and prove all other guys in the league wrong,” said junior first baseman Chris Baillargeon.

For Scanlon in particular, it opened the door for a chance to fill an emotional role from the bench — cheering on his teammates, using his experience to teach and guide. 

“We've got a lot of upperclassmen looking out for us, no matter what — if we make an error, or if we have a big moment, they're always super supportive,” said freshman catcher Colin Brown. 

“We have great team chemistry,” said sophomore right-hander Jaden Wywoda. “All the guys get along. Everybody throws jokes around. Nobody takes anything personally. The senior leadership has been phenomenal, like helping the freshmen through a tough 50-game season, and our coaching staff has just been there for everybody. We've just been one big family the whole season.”

For others, a door opened for them to make their mark on the mound and at the plate. Even if they hadn’t been in that moment before, they didn’t shy away from the moment. 

“Those younger guys knew they had to step up when Coach called their number, and they all played really, really well,” Baillargeon said. “Everyone just has a lot of confidence whenever they’re in the box. We were very well prepared in the offseason, so that's why a lot of younger guys, even though they were freshmen, didn't play like freshmen — they felt like they were out there with experience and were ready.”

Holy Cross recorded its most Patriot League wins since the 2019 season with a 14-11 mark in league action, an eight-win improvement from 2023. The Crusaders finished the regular season at 25-25, their most wins and first .500 regular season overall since 2016. The Crusaders’ six All-Patriot League honorees — Baillargeon, Brown, senior right-handed pitcher Alex Bryant, junior shortstop Jimmy King, sophomore right-hander Danny Macchiarola, and sophomore right fielder Jack Toomey — are their most in one season since 2015. For the impressive efforts of his staff, Kahovec was selected by his fellow Patriot League coaches as the conference’s Coach of the Year. 

“I'm just so proud of our team for sticking with the process, and not letting external things that are out of our control affect our preparation and our performance,” Kahovec said. “It’s a big step in the right direction, but we're still not where we want to be just yet. This is definitely a good step in the right direction, but in terms of climbing the mountain, this is just the beginning.”

As Holy Cross adjusted to its new-look lineup, players were put into unexpected situations. One player whose role evolved throughout the season was Wywoda: He entered the year expecting primarily to come out of the bullpen and fill more of a closer role, but when Scanlon went down, he transitioned into much more of a starting role alongside Macchiarola and Bryant. As a domino effect, freshmen saw consistent innings — the right-handed trio of Andrew Nesson, Nick Harnisch and Dan Mateffy totaled 92.1 of Holy Cross’ 399.1 innings pitched this season. 

Ultimately, on the offensive side, Brown emerged as a star for the Crusaders, spending time both as a designated hitter and splitting time at catcher with freshman Van Coughlin. Baillargeon was a star at first base, hitting .286 in league action. King hit .313 in conference play, starring at shortstop for the Crusaders. Junior third baseman Brendan Jones and junior outfielder Connor Cooney emerged in critical veteran roles, stepping their games up to lift the team.

“A lot of doors were left open for a lot of the young guys to show out,” Brown said. “We're pretty blessed with how well all the young guys as a whole have produced.”

Nonetheless, early-season struggles naturally came as Holy Cross adjusted. With a challenging travel schedule against tough opponents, the Crusaders weathered the storm. 

“When you're playing as many freshmen and underclassmen as we are, it's inevitable that guys are going to be put in spots that are going to be difficult matchups for them,” Kahovec said. “We always viewed it as, this may not go well for us now, but it will help us in conference play, it'll help us in two months when we want to be playing our best baseball. So we embraced it. We weren't trying to shield guys from really tough situations and challenging spots, we were trying to put him in those spots, see how they responded, sort of get it out of the way, in a sense, so that they can learn from it and move on.”

“That was the best preparation you can have — be comfortable being uncomfortable,” Wywoda said.

And the Crusaders are playing their best baseball now. A Northeast slate that featured a commanding weekend sweep of Bucknell, a doubleheader sweep at Army, a 7-0 start at home and a comfort in midweek contests propelled the Crusaders into a comfortable spot entering playoffs.

The Crusaders closed out the regular season with wins in eight of their final 10 games. In that span, Toomey — the reigning conference Rookie of the Year and now a two-time All-Patriot League selection — is batting .417 in that span. Macchiarola has 23 strikeouts in his last 13.2 innings. 

“I'm extremely impressed with our improvement all around — we're significantly better this year than last year, we're better in the spring than we were in the fall, and we're better in May 8 than we were in February, offensively, defensively, and and on the mound,” Kahovec said. “It’s just such a huge testament to our players trying to always get better. It’s year-by-year, week-by-week, day-by-day getting better. And that's never been more evident than this year.

“We're prepared to execute at a higher level than we would have had we not gone through that early season struggle.”

Kahovec points to Scanlon’s game-winning home run at Kansas State as an example of the team’s next-man-up, next-play-up philosophy. Scanlon entered that at bat in the midst of an 0-for-5, golden sombrero day — but Kahovec didn’t doubt for a moment that he could do something special. 

“As he was walking to the plate, I just had an overwhelming sense of confidence in him,” Kahovec said.

And Kahovec doesn’t point to a turning point or certain moment in the season where the team’s playoff potential became clear — he’s been confident the whole way. 

“I've always thought we've been able to do it,” he said. “I have intense and extreme confidence in our student-athletes. I've had confidence since day one with this team that we can hang and beat anyone in America on any given day.”

No. 3 Holy Cross vs. No. 2 Navy | Best-of-three semifinal series

Game 1 | Saturday, May 11 | 1 p.m. 
Game 2 | Sunday, May 12 | 1 p.m. 
Game 3 (if needed) Sunday, May 12 | following conclusion of first game