College baseball: Max Bryant, Jackson McDonald making big impact at SWIC

Southwestern Illinois Community College baseball coach Dave Garcia, formerly head coach at Putnam County High School, has found two more gems from the Illinois Valley this spring for the Blue Storm.

Freshman Max Bryant of Hall and sophomore Jackson McDonald of Putnam County have each made six starts for SWIC, pitching in to help the Blue Storm earn a No. 24 ranking in the nation.

Bryant, the 2024 BCR Player of the Year, started the year as a high-leverage reliever and has solidified himself as a big-game starter for the Blue Storm. He sports a sparkling 2.34 ERA with 38 strikeouts over 42 1/3 innings, holding hitters to a minuscule .186 batting average.

McDonald has found himself in a prominent role for the Blue Storm leading into the playoffs. He is averaging more than a strikeout an inning with 31 punchouts in 26 1/3 innings to go with a 5.47 ERA.

“Jackson and Max have done great job for us this year. As the season progresses, they keep getting better,” Garcia said. “I’m really excited to see where their careers go after junior college. They both come from great families with strong local support in the Illinois Valley. They’re doing great on the field, but they’re great teammates and have helped redefine our culture for our pitching staff.

“Personally having grown up in Putnam County, it’s been great to have these young men represent not only SWIC, but the Illinois Valley down here.”

Other Hall players to play for Garcia at SWIC have been Jimmy DeAngelo, Trez Rybarczyk and Alec Bulak. Garcia has brought in no fewer than 14 players from the Illinois Valley over the course of his coaching stops at SWIC and Parkland College.

Rybarczyk, the 2021 BCR player of the Year, is now a senior pitcher at Illinois State, posting a 3-1 record and 4.42 ERA in seven relief appearances for the Redbirds.

Hall has 11 former players playing collegiately this spring, including:

Chance Resetich, who transferred to Harding University in Searcy, Ark. from Southeast Missouri State for his extra COVID year. The fifth-year senior utility player has played in 26 games with 18 starts for the Bisons (34-12).

Kyler Lapp, a sophomore infielder for Ohio Northern University, batting .328 for the Polar Bears (25-10) with 24 RBIs and a .424 on-base percentage. He went 3 for 5 with three RBIs in Monday’s 11-4 win over Wittenburg.

Junior pitcher Jack Savitch (2021), who has made five relief appearances for NAIA powerhouse LSU-Shreveport, which is undefeated in 47 games this spring.

Senior Payton Plym (2021), who has made 10 appearances with two starts for the University of Indianapolis. He previously pitched at Black Hawk.

The list also includes former Red Devils Luke Kelty, a senior pitcher at Monmouth College, Riley Coble, a sophomore pitcher at Spoon River Junior College in Canton, and sophomores Ashton Pecher, Ethan Plym and Payton Dye at IVCC. Coble plans to transfer to St. Ambrose next year.

Princeton’s Danny Cihocki is pitching for Northern Illinois University. He is 1-3 with a 6.40 ERA in 17 appearances, including one start.

Cihocki is the second Tiger to play at NIU, following Tony Myers in 1995. Cihocki, who transferred to NIU from Lake Land College, will pitch for the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp this summer.

Drew Woolley, a 2021 Princeton product, is a senior catcher/outfielder for Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights.

Another former Tiger, Ryan Brucker is a redshirt freshman shortstop for Illinois Central College. He had a single in ICC’s first game of a doubleheader Saturday in a 11-6 loss to Lewis & Clark at Jim Thome Field.

St. Bede is represented on the collegiate diamond by freshmen Ryan Slingsby and Alex Ankiewicz at IVCC and freshman Nathan Husser for the College of Lake County.

The two Sams from Bureau Valley – Sam Wright and Sam Rouse – are sophomores at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the alma mater of Storm coach Ryan Schisler. They have been playing for the Kohawks JV this spring.

Sophomores Isaac Attig of Bureau Valley and Austin Mattingtly of Putnam County are playing for Sauk Valley. Mattingly has committed to play at Missouri Southern State University next year.

PC product Luke Olson used up his D1 eligibility at Ohio University, but was granted an extra COVID year and is playing at Angelo State University, the top-ranked D2 program in the nation.

Former PC teammate Luke Carlson is also playing Division II ball at Lewis University with his extra COVID season.

Other PC products in the college game are Andrew Pyszka (St. Charles, Mo. Community College), Nicholas Currie (University of Missouri Science & Technology) and Troy Petty (Elgin College).