The rumors were circulating that the 2020 Brandeis baseball season was about to become a victim of the coronavirus.
Senior left-hander Greg Tobin of Medway had resigned himself to the fact that he had thrown his last pitch of the campaign. Still, it didn’t make it any easier when head coach Derek Carlson broke the news to his team in mid-March.
“I was napping when coach Carlson texted us to meet at the field,” Tobin said. “I kind of knew what was going to happen, but when you hear it, the reality kicked in. It was a pretty emotional moment for a lot of us because it could be the last time I would ever play baseball with my classmates.”
Adding to the pain was the fact Brandeis was off to its best start in 18 years. For Tobin, who was a part of 6-21 and 3-25 seasons, that bothered him more than his own personal highlights (3-0 with a 2.10 ERA).
“That’s the most frustrating thing,” Tobin said. “We’ve been very close as a team from the start, this team has the best chemistry of any team I’ve ever been around. Most of us have been playing together since our freshmen year.”
Watching his son come home and deliver the news that his season and possibly his college career had been cut short was devastating to his father Denis. The highly successful basketball coach at Catholic Memorial, Tobin saw the time and effort his son put into becoming a better baseball player.
“I just hated to see it for Greg,” Tobin said. “I saw how much he dedicated himself to baseball. Hopefully things works out and Greg can go back for another season.”
The NCAA recently granted an extra year of eligibility for Div. 2 and 3 seniors who compete in spring sports and will vote Monday on doing the same for Div. 1.
The turnaround began last year where Brandeis nearly doubled its win (17) total of the previous two seasons. Tobin was the poster child for the program’s improvement. After going 2-9 in his first two seasons, Tobin blossomed into a dependable starter last season, going 4-3 with a save.
Tobin spent last summer pitching for the Watertown (N.Y.) Rapids of the Perfect Games Collegiate Baseball League and later for the Harwich Mariners in the prestigious Cape Cod League. The time spent going up against top-level competition paid dividends as Tobin returned to Brandeis as a more polished product.
In his four starts, Tobin had cut his ERA nearly in half from last year and is averaging nearly 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. He was the pitcher of record in his team’s last win of the season, 13-1, over Western New England College on March 8, a few days before the season was prematurely ended.
“I think the key to my success was being able to mix three pitches,” Tobin said. “I’ve had the fastball and change-up, but I added the slider and I was able to throw it for strikes.”
Getting a taste of personal and team success has Tobin thinking of whether to take advantage of the opportunity to come back for a fifth year.
“I’m thinking that I do want to come back,” said Tobin, who is on track to graduate in two months. “I felt like we were building something good here for the first time. All of my classmates and me felt it like was our year.”
Like many athletes at the Division 3 level, coming back isn’t quite as simple as signing up for Little League baseball. Since there are no scholarships, the Tobins would be forced to pony up for a fifth year of tuition, not exactly a drop in the hat.
“We certainly didn’t budget for any extra semesters,” Denis Tobin said. “ But if this something that Greg wants, my wife (Maura) and I will make it work.”
