Loren Torres isn’t one to rest on the laurels of his Point Park University baseball team.
The head coach, now in his 14th season at the helm of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program, instead opts to focus on the unique way each one of his teams develops throughout the course of a season.
“Every team is different and every team has their own identity and is special,” Torres said. “For me to be able to see that unfold and be able to impact their lives, that’s special. Every year is special.”
Some are maybe more so than others.
Point Park, fresh off a River States Conference tournament championship last week, has earned an automatic bid in the opening round of the NAIA’s 66th annual national championship tournament.
The Pioneers hit a school-record 74 home runs in 2023, obliterating the previous record of 55 set by the 1986 team, and feature a pitching staff with three players sporting sub 3.00 ERAs that led their program to its third consecutive and seventh total national tournament appearance under Torres.
“There’s a positive feel to where we are,” said Torres, whose team received votes in the NAIA Top 25 poll each week this season. “There is some momentum. You want to play your best baseball at the end.”
No. 4 seed Point Park (36-15) will begin its run to win its first NAIA title against No. 5 seed Fisher College, Mass., (29-22) in an opening-round game Monday at Winterholter Field in Upland, Ind.
Fisher College finished as runner-up to Georgia Gwinnett College in the Continental Athletic Conference tournament championship last week.
The opening round field of 46 teams, which were seeded into brackets at 10 sites around the country, was revealed Thursday evening during a live broadcast on YouTube. The winners of each bracket will advance to the NAIA World Series, which will be held May 26-June 3 in Lewiston, Idaho.
“It just goes to show how great coach Torres has been over the years of just getting talent in and just really building something special out here in Pittsburgh,” said Easton Klein, a 2018 Brentwood graduate who is Point Park’s ace right-hander. “We have an amazing alumni group, everybody always shows up and gives you support, and it shows. I think we can develop something extremely special this year.”
For Torres, that begins with his pitching staff, which he said is anchored by Klein.
A 6-foot, 210-pound senior, Klein has an 8-5 record in 13 starts with a 2.85 ERA, and a team-high 86 strikeouts with just 21 walks.
“He’s a competitor,” Torres said. “He’s got the steel Pittsburgh mentality. He’s a leader. He’s a team captain.”
Klein’s mentality was on display last week during the conference tournament.
After falling in the first game of the tournament, the No. 2 seed Pioneers fought through the consolation bracket and needed two wins Sunday at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillcothe, Ohio, against No. 3 seed Indiana University Southeast to win the championship.
Pitching on two days’ rest, Klein scattered two runs over eight innings to claim a 15-3 victory, the Pioneers’ first of the day.
“It was a roller coaster for sure,” Klein said. “We faced a lot of adversity. We lost the first game there and just early on didn’t play our best baseball.
“Those next few days, I think everything was just clicking offensively, defensively, pitching,” he added. “In the dugout, everybody was just locked and ready to go, just backs against the wall. We just came through. It was just a beautiful thing to see.”
Javier Cardoso, a Miami, Fla., native, won Point Park’s second game against IU Southeast, scattering one run, on four hits, over seven innings on just one day of rest.
A 6-foot, 205-pound sophomore right-hander, Cardoso has been nearly equally as dominant as Klein. He has a team-best 2.28 ERA and an 8-2 record in 13 starts with 74 strikeouts and 19 walks.
Sebastian Rodriguez — a 6-foot-2 senior right-hander who is a native of Cayey, Puerto Rico — is the Pioneers’ third dominant arm. Operating mostly out of the bullpen, he is 7-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 23 appearances, and has racked up 84 strikeouts, compared to just 22 walks.
“We’ll go as far as our pitching and defense take us,” Klein said. “You definitely have to score runs to win and it makes things a lot easier. Pitching and defense you cannot win without.”
Jared Campbell, the Rivers States Conference player of the year, has led Point Park at the plate.
A Sunrise, Fla., native, the sophomore outfielder hit a single-season school-record 16 home runs and 68 RBIs to go along with his team-best .387 batting average.
Junior infielder Isaac Santana, a Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, native, also hit .370 with 11 home runs and 53 RBIs.
The Pioneers lineup features six everyday starters hitting over .300. Senior outfielder Justin Oakley is hitting .351, while junior catcher Michali Brito is hitting .341, sophomore infielder Omar Morillo is hitting .337, and junior outfielder Carlos Burroughs is hitting .331.
“I love my offense,” Klein said. “They’ve been spectacular all season.”
That Point Park’s lineup has been so explosive has been a major source of strength, Torres said.
“Momentum in baseball shifts so rapidly,” he said. “It’s something that you have to flush it and move on to the next pitch. We can’t let our highs get too high. We are playing good baseball.”
And if the Pioneers can continue doing so they should have a good shot to be able to bring the program’s first national championship back to their Downtown Pittsburgh campus, Torres said.
“The standard is high here,” he said. “We haven’t been able to win a national championship at Point Park. We’ve been close. We’ve been in the final four a few times. We want to get back to the World Series and get to the final 10 and see how far we can go.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.