After a long and winding 17 years, Head Baseball Coach George Powell has reached a milestone that only seven men had reached before him, his 400th win. On April 5 in Berea, the Cardinals blitzed the host Yellow Jackets for eight runs in the second inning and cruised the rest of the way to a 12-4 victory.
In his career with the Cardinals, Powell has experienced a great amount of success, as he has averaged almost 24 wins a season. He has also taken the team to 10 OAC tournaments, as well as 4 NCAA tournament appearances. The highlight of Powell's tenure at Otterbein came in 2007 when the team won a school record 34 games en route to an OAC regular season championship to go along with an OAC tournament title. The team's magical postseason run came to an end just one game short of the Division III World Series, falling by a single run to eventual National Champion Marietta. That momentum, however, carried the team to a number one national ranking the following year.
When asked about the tremendous achievement, Powell was humble in his response, "If you're at a place long enough, you're going to accumulate wins, hopefully, if you're doing things the right way and I believe we do and we have since I've been here."
He went on to give credit to his players and coaches for their part in the achievement, "You have to have very good players and really cohesive coaches, guys who are good at what they do, to develop that culture to transcend to the players. If anything, that's what the 400 wins speaks to."
Looking back on all the games and wins, he reflected on what he thinks about most.
"What's stood out to me in the past 24 hours is that whenever I had an accomplishment, whether I won my 100th game or 200th game or 300th game, my dad would always say something similar, 'I wasn't sure if when you started out you were a head coach, but as I've watched you've done a really good job and I'm proud of you,' and I miss that," Powell said.
The milestone win for Powell against the Yellow Jackets comes four years, 11 months and 28 days after he reached his last milestone, the 300-win mark. That victory came against Division I opponent, Cincinnati. This win, while not against as glamorous an opponent, is just as meaningful, considering the team's tight competition in the OAC.
Now, with 406 wins under his belt, we can look forward to many more wins with Powell at the helm.
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