Tim Bailey wasted no time turning Cleary University into a powerhouse when he became the Cougars’ first head coach in 2013.
Howell, Michigan-based Cleary had never had a softball program before Bailey, a Columbus native, started recruiting in 2013. The first game wasn’t played until the 2014-15 season.
The Cougars made history on May 17 by becoming the program’s first USCAA Small College World Series champions in its fourth season of existence after beating St. Mary of the Woods 2-1.
Seniors Paige Eastman, Megan Baumgartner and Allie Newcomb were the only three out of 16 players left from the 2015 inaugural season. There were a handful of players from the 2015 team who were members of second-place team that lost to SMW in the championship of last year’s world series.
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Bailey said those who graduated last year were one year too early, but was glad to still have three of the original players still on the championship team. Many of the graduates traveled to Dubois, Pennsylvania, to watch the World Series in support of this year’s team.
“That was a great feeling,” Bailey said of the three seniors. “It was a big deal for those girls. These girls were at the very first practice. They’ve been here for everything.”
Bailey, a 1975 Columbus East graduate, has a 78-79-1 coaching record, but is 56-27-1 over the past two seasons. The Cougars have gotten better each year, winning nine games in the first season and, 13 games in the second before winning a program-high 32 games with last year’s World Series runner-up team.
Bailey, who also has been the head softball instructor at Michigan Sports Academy in Howell and coaches the MSA 18U travel team, puts a lot of time into his recruiting and credits much of his success as a coach to the talent he’s been able to acquire over the past four years.
“I just have been very blessed,” Bailey said. “I’ve been very fortunate I’ve been able to recruit some great athletes. I work really hard at recruiting … Our team has a great chemistry. Probably the most important thing to me is that out of 22 girls, we’ve had 17 Academic All-Americans. That’s awesome.”
The journey to winning the World Series wasn’t an easy one for the Cougars. There were a few scares along the way, including the second game of the tournament against New Hampshire Technical Institute.
The Small College World Series is a 10-team double elimination tournament. Cleary won it’s first game against Robert Morris University 9-0 in five innings, but trailed NHTI by one run heading into the bottom of the seventh. The Cougars scored two runs on two wild pitches with bases loaded to win 5-4.
“That was kind of crazy,” Bailey said. “That was an exciting game.”
Cleary also had to beat SMW twice and relied on Kaitlin Dormire’s bat on both occasions. The No. 1-seeded Cougars beat the No. 2 Pomeroys 2-0 in the final game of the winners bracket. St. Mary won the losers bracket to reach the final for a rematch.
All four runs scored by Cleary in the two games were from Dormire’s two two-run homers. Dormire and teammate Jordan Schneider were Nos. 1 and 2 in the nation for home runs, and Dormire was named the tournament MVP.
Winning the World Series by beating SMW came full circle for the Cougars because their belief that they could win it all was sparked by a doubleheader sweep of the defending champions earlier in the season. Cleary came into this season knowing that SMW still was the team to beat, and Bailey said he knew they had a good shot at winning the World Series after sweeping the Pomeroys in March. The Cougars ended up beating them three out of four times during the regular season and five out of six on the year.
“The biggest confidence builder for them was the first day that we beat St. Mary,” Bailey said. “You could see it in their face. They were getting that attitude that we can do this.”
Cleary loses some key seniors this year, including USCAA Player of the Year in pitcher Riley Thompson, whom Bailey said was an outstanding pitcher. Luckily for the Cougars, Bailey said he had a strong freshman class this year and has a strong freshman class joining next season. He thinks they will have a solid enough team to make a deep postseason run next year.
“I think the key to us returning (to the World Series) next year is going to be to make sure we get that pitching staff back to where it was at,” Bailey said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Tim Bailey” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Name: Tim Bailey
High school: Columbus East
College: Purdue
Occupation: Head softball instructor at Michigan Sports Academy in Howell. Michigan; head softball coach at Cleary University and of MSA 18U travel team
Highlights: USCAA Small College World Series champion, 2018, and runner-up, 2017
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