Four Garnet Named to All-Centennial Conference Baseball Team; Stan Exeter Named Coach of the Year
LANCASTER, Pa. - Four members of the Swarthmore College baseball team - senior right fielder Jimmy Gill, senior designated hitter Wiley Archibald, sophomore second baseman Anthony Montalbano and sophomore third baseman Spencer Ross - have been named to the All-Centennial Conference baseball team, the Conference announced on Wednesday afternoon. Swarthmore head coach Stan Exeter was also honored, as he was named the Centennial Conference Coach of the Year.
Gill, Archibald, and Montalbano are all second-team selections, while Ross was honorable mention.
Gill's six home runs are the most since 1952.
Gill (Lewes, Del. - Cape Henlopen HS) had a breakout senior season for the Garnet, leading the team in home runs (6) and slugging percentage (.619), while finishing second in batting average (.363), RBIs (36), HBPs (10) and total bases (70). Gill's six home runs are the most in a single season by a Garnet player since Dick Hall in 1952, while his 16-game hitting streak in 2010 is the longest on record. For his career, Gill started in all but one game while at Swarthmore while compiling 126 hits.
Archibald (Berkeley, Calif. - The College Preparatory School) also had a senior season to remember, leading Swat in batting average (.383) and finishing second in 0n-base percentage (.455). Archibald recently joined Gill in the 100-hit club, now with 101 hits in his Swarthmore career. Excelling on the field and in the classroom, Archibald is just one of the three players to be named the All-Centennial team as well as the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll.
Montalbano (Edison, N.J. - John P. Stevens), a 2009 Honorable Mention selection, again proved to be one of the Garnet's most consistent hitters, finishing in the top five on the team in hits (44), slugging percentage (.448), doubles (11) and total bases (60). Montalbano also finished a perfect nine-for-nine in stolen base attempts.
Ross (Chappaqua, N.Y. - Horace Greeley) has developed in to one of the most feared hitters in
Ross led the Garnet in RBIs and total bases.
the Centennial Conference, leading the team in runs batted in (37), total bases (71) and triples (2), while finishing second on the team in home runs (5), hits (45), and slugging percentage (.542).
Exeter, in his fourth year at Swarthmore, has completely transformed a Garnet baseball program that won just four games during his first season. Under Exeter's leadership in 2010, the Garnet baseball team - picked to finish eighth in the Centennial Conference preseason poll - won its most games (19) since 1986 while reaching the Centennial Conference baseball playoffs for the first time in program history.
Exeter is the second Swarthmore coach to be named Centennial Conference Coach of the Year during the 2009-10 season; Volleyball head coach Harleigh Chwastyk also received the honor.
The three Swarthmore players named to the second team equals the entire number of Garnet baseball players named to the All-Centennial team in the entire history of the Centennial Conference.
Swarthmore travels to Haverford for the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs this Friday beginning