Guilford College Baseball

1998 Season Recap

First-year head coach Gene Baker took over the Guilford nine in January and guided the Quakers to their best season since 1994. The Quakers finished second in the regular-season conference standings and gained one of four berths in the ODAC Tournament. Making its first tournament appearance in four years, Guilford overcame a first-round loss to reach the finals of the double-elimination tournament. Top-seeded Virginia Wesleyan scored an unearned run in the eighth inning to squeak out a 5-4 win in the final.

Offense and a pair of dominant pitchers carried the Quakers through the season. The team set seven school offensive standards, including records for hits (442), runs (342) and slugging percentage (.502) in a season. Third baseman Kevin Moore '00 earned honorable mention All-South honors and first team All-ODAC recognition after batting .329 with 12 home runs and 47 runs batted in. He ranked among the ODAC per game leaders in RBIs (7th), doubles (5th), home runs (5th) and slugging percentage (4th). His 16 two-base hits broke Scott Stier’s '93 former Guilford mark of 13.

Seniors Toshinori Sakamoto '98 and William Rochelle '98 closed out their collegiate careers by finishing second and third, respectively, among the club’s batting leaders. Sakamoto received second team all-league recognition after finishing the season with a career-high .387 batting average. A first team All-ODAC shortstop in 1997, Sakamoto set new Guilford standards for runs (53) and hits (63) in a season. Rochelle hit .382 with a team-best 14 stolen bases and a career-high five home runs. He hit .333 in four ODAC tourney games to earn all-tournament honors.

Right-handers Chad Coward '00 and K.C. Chambers '00 led the Quakers’ hurlers by combining for 17 of the club’s 21 victories. Coward went 7-6 with a team-best 3.78 earned run average and 86 strike outs in 85 2/3 innings. He ranked among the ODAC pitching leaders in ERA and strikeouts per nine innings. Chambers won his first six decisions of the year en route to a 10-3 record. His 10 victories marked the most in single season by a Guilford hurler since 1976 and ranked 10th among all Division III pitchers.