In his fifth year with the Waynesburg baseball team, Mike Bell had to start over.

A grad student coming off a season in which he earned his first Presidents’ Athletic Conference postseason award — honorable mention — Bell and the rest of his returning teammates had to adapt to a new coaching staff. In July, Perry Cunningham, who had spent the past three seasons as head coach — and 17 overall with the program — stepped down.

A month later, Michael Impellittiere was hired after coaching at Hood College in Maryland for seven years. For the Yellow Jackets, it was, in a manner of speaking, a whole new ballgame.

“It was definitely different,” Bell, a Yough grad, said. “Anytime you get a new coach, you have to kind of rebuild that relationship and kind of figure out what they want and what they want to do with the team.

“But ‘Coach I,’ he made it pretty easy coming in. He set good boundaries for us, set very good goals that kind of flowed in for the most part. It wasn’t too bad of a transfer, if I’m being honest.”

Said Impellittiere: “I think the biggest thing coming into a new team is just building their trust and understanding where their heads are at. … I haven’t been around such a great team environment from a culture perspective in a long time. … We have eight or nine grad students and seniors who are established and definitely pulling their weight when they need to.”

One of those is Bell, who has been one of Waynesburg’s most consistent players over the past two seasons. In 2023, he hit .302, driving in 14 runs and scoring 22 then followed that by hitting .303 with 23 RBIs and 22 runs last season.

The 2024 season also included his first collegiate home run. It came in the second game of a doubleheader against Bethany with the Yellow Jackets down 7-1 going into the bottom of the eighth. Bell’s three-run homer helped Waynesburg pull within 7-6 going to the ninth.

After the Bison tacked on another run in their half of the ninth, Bell hit a one-out single with Todd Burner on base. Bell was lifted for pinch runner Connor Hamrick, but it turned out Bell wouldn’t have needed to run as Seth Burgdolt ended the game with a three-run homer.

“That was definitely a pretty cool one,” Bell said about his homer. “I didn’t think it was out when I hit it. It was kind of a momentum booster for us at that point. It was definitely one of the better feelings I’ve had in my career.”

It certainly was a better feeling than what Bell had throughout his sophomore season. After starting all but one of the Jackets’ games during his freshman year, when he hit .289 and drove in 22 runs, Bell’s average dipped 50 points the following season, and he struck out 14 times compared to only five the season before.

The dreaded sophomore slump had hit him.

“I was trying to change a few things that year, trying to work on things to maybe get a little more power,” he said. “I changed bats, what length of bat I used. I went from a 32 (inch) to 33, and I think that might have had a big part in it.

“I really didn’t feel any different. Just things weren’t really working out for me that year.”

Bell, who has started all but one game in his time at Waynesburg, bounced back nicely the following year. Though his strikeout total went up again, his batting average increased to .302.

He took an even bigger stride last season. Though his average went up only slightly, it was his personal best. So, too, was his RBI total, slugging percentage (.438) and on-base percentage (.471). His slugging percentage was a full 100 points higher than his previous best.

He also reduced his strikeouts to a mere four in 89 at-bats. In the field, he was solid at third base, posting a personal-best .957 fielding percentage and a career-low four errors. All those numbers helped him earn his first PAC postseason recognition.

“It was definitely cool,” he said. “I mean, that’s what you work for. You work hard to win games and get recognized.”

This was the player Impellittiere inherited, and, the new coach said, Bell has been helpful in leading the team into the new era.

“Mike has tremendous leadership,” Impellittiere said. “He’s very even-keeled. Never too high, never too low, and I think in baseball you have to have that personality because some days you go 0 for 4, and the next day you’re 3 for 4.

“When he does speak up, he says the right things to make guys tick.”

For much of last season, the Yellow Jackets ticked like a Swiss watch, going 15-5 in the PAC and tying for second place with Grove City. It was the program’s most PAC wins since 2019, and the .750 winning percentage matched the program’s best of the PAC era.

With a number of players back from that team, hopes are high for another solid season. PAC play doesn’t begin until Saturday, and heading into this past weekend’s nonconference games, Waynesburg stood at 3-7.

Bell was hitting .259, but he expects his performance will ramp up as the season progresses. Impellittiere is confident Bell will play a big role in any success the Jackets have.

“From a defensive perspective, I think Mike is one of the premier players over at third base from a glove perspective,” Impellittiere said. “He puts really great at-bats together. … He has those certain at-bats that can really shift the momentum of the game.”

Bell is hoping to make the most of what likely will be his final year of competitive baseball. A PAC championship would be the best way to go out.

“We’re all kind of committed to doing that, and I’m definitely committed to doing that,” he said. “We brought in some guys, and the guys that stayed, they all worked hard and they didn’t get complacent. So I think we have the pieces we need to win the PAC championship.”

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