The 2000 season was a very special one indeed for Northern Ohio Baseball. It really began 10 months earlier with a 6-3 loss to the Michigan Monarchs in the 1999 Great Lakes League championship game. Over the next ten months there was a sense of duty and a need to capture the goal that had slipped through Northern Ohio’s hands.
With the same core of players returning, there was excitement from the
beginning, it started with a last inning win against the J.L.
Collegians in a non-league contest. After a rough 7-4 start the club reeled off
11 wins in a row before hitting a mid-season rash of injuries that saw Great
Lakes league MVP Rock Mills sit out a week, that was followed by a season ending
injury to the starting centerfielder and a family emergency for Jeremy Brown and
the club struggled to go 6-5 in that span.
Just as other teams in the league were gaining confidence, the club won their last 18 games behind
solid pitching, defense, and timely hitting.
The playoffs were exciting as usual, facing Youngstown in the first
round the opener was delayed due to
a thunderstorm that knocked out the lights at Mills Field, but behind the performance of Great
Lakes League Pitcher of the Year
Chris Young, the club won
four straight in the playoffs to cap a great season and their first ever Great
Lakes League Title. Their 42-9
record ranks as one of the best ever in summer collegiate baseball, and Baseball America bestowed numerous
honors on the team, including
calling them the best team in the country for the 2000 summer.