Desire to work, learn helps Penn-Trafford grad Anthony Sherwin blossom for Bucknell baseball team

Bucknell baseball coach Scott Heather remembers watching Penn-Trafford’s Anthony Sherwin at a recruiting showcase.

It was during batting practice, and Sherwin was in the outfield shagging balls with several other players. Though it wasn’t really a drill designed for fielding grounders, anytime one came to the outfield, Sherwin, Heather said, would go after it like a shortstop.

To Heather, that spoke volumes.

“That really caught my attention,” said Heather, in his 11th season as the Bisons manager. “… There were like a hundred kids there, and he was the only kid that was really trying to get better. A lot of other kids were just standing around.”

Heather’s instincts about Sherwin were confirmed when, as a freshman, Sherwin won Bucknell’s starting shortstop job. Over the past two-plus seasons (through April 12), he had started 97 of the 98 games in which he has appeared.

With the 2023 season heading into the home stretch, Sherwin’s game is beginning to take off. He entered the week of April 10 hitting .349 with 22 RBIs, 26 runs (second on the team) and a team-leading .495 on-base percentage.

The 22 RBIs already are a career high — not bad for a leadoff hitter — and he accumulated that total despite missing nine of Bucknell’s first 10 games with a hamstring injury. He earned Patriot League Player of the Week for the week of March 13 after an 8-for-15, eight-RBI showing during a four-game series against Patriot League foe Navy.

“I guess you could say the biggest change to my approach is my confidence,” Sherwin said. “Just understanding my ability and understanding what I can do with different pitches in different situations, understanding that I don’t always need to get a hit to help the team out, that I can … move people over or hit a sac fly.”

Sherwin hit .215 as a freshman, then improved that to .268 during his sophomore season. But his 2022 performance was hindered by a late-season slump that included a nine-game hitless stretch.

True to form, Sherwin took that as a learning experience.

“Last year, I got off to a good start but then I hit a rough patch,” he said, “and that’s where the immaturity and the mental game kind of starts to speed up on you. Even though I am a junior and have been starting since my freshman year, I’m still learning. You’re always learning.”

That constant desire to learn and get better is another quality that impresses Heather.

“He’s a guy that’s going to continue to look at how to get better,” Heather said. “He takes it all in and takes in what he needs. He doesn’t just try to do what someone else is saying or doing. He’ll try to evaluate it, and if he can add it to his game, he will. If he doesn’t feel like it’s going to help him he makes good decisions with that.”

Sherwin said he even is willing to talk to players younger than him if he thinks they might be able to offer something that can help him improve at the plate or in the field.

But his best education, he said, has come while playing in college wooden bat leagues over the past two summers. After his freshman season, he played in the Tidewater Premier League in North Carolina. It was a smaller league, but, Sherwin said, it gave him the opportunity to slow everything down after a whirlwind freshman season.

This past summer, he stepped up to the New England Collegiate Baseball League. There, he had the opportunity to play with and against players from Power 5 schools, and though he said he struggled, he believes that is what has helped him be successful this season.

“You have to kind of learn from failure sometimes,” he said.

Defensively, Sherwin went through some uncharacteristic struggles early in the season, committing seven errors in his first three games. Those three were directly after his return from the hamstring injury, and, Heather said, that likely affected his performance.

“Basically when he had the hamstring, he couldn’t do all his work, so all that stuff kind of got taken away from him,” the coach said. “He wasn’t quite ready in terms of all the work that is required, so he didn’t feel comfortable. All that work, all that focus he puts in, it’s what makes him comfortable on gameday.”

Added Sherwin: “It was kind of tough at the beginning kind of getting back into the swing of things, more so mentally, getting back to the speed of the game, getting comfortable again. … It’s not something I’m concerned about now. You’ve just got to roll with the punches sometimes.”

Sherwin since has righted the ship when it comes to his glove work. Heather noted that even in games he has struggled in the field, Sherwin has made plays where he “looks like a big-leaguer.”

And as far as the coach is concerned, Sherwin has a chance to play professionally if he continues on his current trajectory.

For his part, Sherwin is thinking only about bringing the Bison a Patriot League title.

“I’m not one to look too far ahead individually,” he said. “I don’t worry about all-conference or any of those awards. I feel like I kind of got caught up in that last year, and that was a thing that caused me to struggle a little bit.

“Whenever you get away from the ‘team,’ I think, is when people kind of trend downwards. … At the end of the day, all you want to do is win.”