Cougar Baseball 2016: Mission Accomplished

Somehow, through grit, dedication, and attention to detail, he’d build Collegiate’s baseball program into the power he envisioned, the power it had been back when he was leading the charge.

 

The ride would be devious and bumpy. He knew that. There’d be pitfalls and plenty of pull-your-hair-out moments. He knew that too. He’d get where he was going, though. That he knew better than anyone.

 

“Eight years ago, we were just trying to field a competitive team,” said Slater, a 1996 Collegiate graduate who returned to his alma mater as head baseball coach in the fall of 2008 after stints as an assistant at Virginia Military Institute and Western Kentucky. “The last five years, our goals have been to compete and win a state championship. To have it all culminate this year with an actual championship and the number of games we’ve won over the past two-and-a-half years has really been a special feeling.”

 

That championship came to fruition on the night of May 22 when the Cougars defeated Paul VI 5-1 to become the “last man standing” in the VISAA playoffs. They finished 22-5 and No. 2 in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Top 10, set a program record for victories, and captured the Prep League title.

 

The last time Collegiate won the state, their go-to guy was an athletic, fearless, well-skilled, ultra-competitive 6-4, 195-pound senior whom the Times-Dispatch named player of the year in Central Virginia. His name was Andrew Slater.

 

So was it a bigger deal to win as a player or as the coach?

 

“Well, certainly both were gratifying experiences,” said Slater, a charter inductee into his alma mater’s Athletic Hall of Fame. “This year’s championship means a lot to me because it shows how far our program has come.”

 

Cougar baseball picked up steam in 2014 and hasn’t slowed since. That spring, the Slater’s guys opened 5-6, then won 9-of-10 to finish 14-7 and reached the state quarterfinals.

 

In 2015, they went 21-4 and advanced to the state championship game.

 

During their dream 2016 season, the Cougars were statistically stellar. They batted .329 as a team. In 16 games after returning from a shoulder injury, University of Virginia-bound Will Allocca hit .472. Max Vaughan finished with a .422 batting average. David Angstadt, the Prep League player of the year, hit .407.

 

Collegiate pitchers’ combined earned run average was 1.851. Angstadt, who’s headed to William & Mary, was 7-0 with a 2.35 ERA, 40 strikeouts and only 12 walks in 44-1/3 innings. Lefthander Evan Justice, a junior who’s committed to N.C. State, was 5-1 with a 1.39 ERA, 68 strikeouts, and just 21 walks in 60-1/3 innings. Ben Greer, a Washington & Lee commit, was 4-1 with a 0.47 ERA. In 30 innings, he allowed only two earned runs, five hits, and four bases on balls while striking out 24. He also batted .349.

 

Allocca, Angstadt, Greer, and Justice made All-Prep. Allocca, Angstadt, and Justice made first-team All-State. Greer was named to the second team. Slater was selected Prep League and VISAA coach of the year. The Cougars will likely be well represented when the T-D’s All-Metro team is named later this month.

 

Slater was a four-sport star at Collegiate. On February 6, 1995, he was featured in “Faces in the Crowd” in Sports Illustrated for earning All-Prep League honors in football (43-yard punting average) and soccer (0.59 goals-against average as a keeper) during the fall of ’94.

 

His senior year, he was voted All-Prep in football, soccer, basketball, and baseball and, not surprisingly, was selected Outstanding Senior Athlete in his class.

 

At 6-4, 195, he played both football and baseball at the University of Richmond, but a back injury ultimately ended his career. He ultimately transferred to Auburn where his brother Tom was assistant baseball coach and graduated with a B.A. in communications. Then, as a college assistant and recruiting coordinator, he endured 80-hour workweeks and endless bus rides before accepting the challenge to build Collegiate’s program from square one following the graduation of eight starters.

 

His first squad finished 5-13-1, his second 7-10, and his third 3-16. In the next five years, as the culture solidified and youngsters like Allocca and Angstadt came of age, the Cougars have gone 80-34.

 

“Our mantra since our seniors were sophomores,” Slater said, “has been the expectation and the will to win. Assert yourself on your opponent. We talk about belief all the time.”

 

Under the lights that Sunday at Shepherd Stadium in Colonial Heights, the Cougars led Paul VI 2-1 after six innings, then scored three times in the top of the seventh. The Panthers had no answer.

 

All along, Slater has thought back to that night two decades earlier when the Cougars earned their first state title with a 2-1 victory over Nansemond-Suffolk at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex at Old Dominion University. The exhilaration, adrenaline rush of competition, and intense feeling of accomplishment remain vivid.

 

“We had a lot of good players, great guys, competitive guys,” he said. “It was a great experience and something I wanted to bring back to Collegiate.”

 

The morning after the Cougars’ triumph over Paul VI, the dogpile in the infield, trophy presentation, pictures, and congratulations all around, Slater attempted to put sentiment into words.

 

“Paul VI has a storied program: seven Division I guys and nine going to play in college,” he said. “But I knew we were going to win. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I knew it was meant to be once we added those three runs.”

 

He paused for a long moment.

 

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the past month reflecting on this group of seniors,” he continued. “The crazy thing is…I wasn’t emotional last night. I was very dialed in and under control. Today…I’m grateful for getting to coach those guys, grateful for the experience. Excited. And proud.”

             -- Weldon Bradshaw