We interrupt your summer beach-going (or retreat to the fireplace the last two days if you live in the Northeast) to bring you the final Player of the Month for the spring. We couldn’t figure out how to give it to just one person, so we did the easy thing and gave it to the two table setters in the Wesleyan lineup.
Andrew Yin ’15 and Donnie Cimino ’15 have been mainstays in the Wesleyan lineup from the very beginning of their freshmen year. Cimino started every single game he could in a Cardinal uniform, 163 games in all. Yin was never far behind starting 150 over his career. Until Yin had to be held out of a game against Mitchell this season, the two had started 109 games consecutively together dating back to the first game of their sophomore year. That might not seem like much next to the 2,632 consecutive games Cal Ripken Jr. played, but for the NESCAC it is quite the feat.
Both of them got off to somewhat slow starts this season, not that it mattered much considering how good the Cards’ pitching was for the first half. As Wesleyan entered the playoff section of their season, Cimino and Yin recovered and played some of their finest baseball. During the month of May they tore the cover off the ball. Combined the two hit 41-89 (.460) and had an OBP of .515. They both finished the year with 10-game hitting streaks, though Yin’s season was cut short as he missed the final two games of the Cardinals’ NCAA Regional. Their Mays were uncannily similar. Both walked five times and stole six bases while getting caught stealing once. Yin had nine runs and four RBI while Cimino had nine RBI and four runs.
They were best during the NESCAC tournament when they reached base 20 out of the 39 times they came to the plate. In the climactic winner-take-all game against Amherst, the two both had three-hit days. Yin in particular was the star with three doubles, two runs, and one RBI. That RBI came on a double down the right field line that scored Ellis Schaefer ’17 for the tying run in the Top of the 9th. In the times when runs were the most at a premium, the duo found ways to get on base at an exceptional clip.
Also, don’t overlook the defensive accomplishments of these two. Cimino covered an insane amount of ground in center, something he also did well on the football field. He also committed only one error on the year. Yin was a sure-handed second baseman who turned more double plays (23) than any other middle infielder in the league. They were two cogs in a stellar defense that was just as important a part of Wesleyan’s success as their pitching or hitting.
Cimino’s career accomplishments are significant of course. The Hartford Courant did a good job of diving deep into his entire four-year, two-sport athletic career. In terms of baseball, he leaves with 240 hits over the course of his career, the all-time record at Wesleyan. As mentioned above, he never missed a game. He came to play every single day with a passion for the game. Throughout his career he has hit anywhere from the leadoff spot to the three hole consistently. Though he never hit for a lot of power, he used his speed to be a weapon.
Yin could not quite match the gaudy statistics Cimino put up, but he was far from a slouch. His sophomore year he was first team All-NESCAC, and he hit above .300 all four years. Also, the most impressive part of Yin’s career at Wesleyan came off of the diamond. He was an absolute stud in academics garnering back-to-back CoSIDA baseball All-American First Team honors. What did he do to earn that award, you ask? Nothing much, except for TRIPLE majoring in chemistry, molecular biology & biochemistry, and neuroscience & behavior. Just completing a degree with those three majors (some of the hardest the school offers) would be noteworthy, but Yin did it with a 4.01 GPA!!! We don’t even quite understand how he got that final .01 added at the end. We do know that it is one of the most impressive accomplishments we have heard of at a NESCAC school.
Meting out individual credit for Wesleyan’s success has always been hard because different guys always seem to come up for them. And their pitching and defense has been the biggest reason why the Cardinals captured consecutive NESCAC titles. So in the end I couldn’t settle on just one player but settled on these two. They were the most dynamic top of the lineup in the league, and they were absolute constants throughout their time at Wesleyan. Down the stretch the two were instrumental in bringing another NESCAC title to Middletown, and for that they are our May Players of the Month.