Springfield, Mo – With a runner at third base and one out in the second inning of Sunday afternoon’s game in San Antonio, Springfield Cardinals’ outfielder Matt Koperniak ripped a line-drive into the right-field corner.

The runner at third base – shortstop Delvin Perez – scored easily.

Koperniak raced around first base and saw San Antonio Missions’ outfielder Agustin Ruiz extend his arms above his head – a signal to the umpire that the ball was lodged under the right-field fence and Koperniak should be stopped at second base with a ground-rule double.

Koperniak – the Palm Beach Cardinals’ Player of the Year last season – had no intention of slowing down.

“After I hit it, I saw that (the ball) was kind of sticking out (of the fence), so I thought, alright I’m just going to challenge it and see what happens,” Koperniak said.

He took a flying turn around second base and with the umpire showing no signs of halting play, Ruiz panicked.

“(Ruiz) went and grabbed it – which you shouldn’t do as an outfielder,” Koperniak said, as the appeal for a ground-rule double was negated once the ball was touched.  “And then I got the wave-around from (Cardinals’ manager Jose Leger) at third so I just went all the way home.”

Koperniak’s second inside-the-park home run of the season put the Cardinals ahead 4-0 and Springfield won the game to salvage a series split on the road.

When asked to recall the last time he hit two inside-the-park home runs in one season, Koperniak smiled.

“Probably little league – I don’t even think in high school, it’s just that rare,” he said. “Got lucky a second time.”

Springfield Cardinals’ Matt Koperniak runs the bases at Hammons Field on May 3, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Springfield Cardinals.

 

An unconventional home run is something of a metaphor for Koperniak’s route to Double-A Springfield – an unlikely path also traveled by Cardinals’ teammate Nick Raposo, who singled and scored two runs in Sunday’s win over San Antonio.

And with all due respect to Koperniak for his modesty, luck has very little to with it.

Koperniak graduated with a degree in biology from Trinity College – a private liberal arts college in Connecticut that is one of the “Little Ivies”, a group of New England schools known for highly-selective admissions and small enrollments.

Raposo attended Wheaton College in Massachusetts – located about 40 miles south of Boston, the prestigious institution has a student body of less than 1,700.

Both schools boast an impressive roster of alums in politics, media, and business – including St. Louis native Danny Meyer, a Trinity College graduate and founder of the Shake Shack restaurant franchise. The King of Bhutan – a small Kingdom located between China and India – studied at Wheaton College.

But baseball is one industry the elites from the Little Ivies do not dominate. Trinity College and Wheaton College compete at the NCAA Division III level – as far removed from the professional ranks as a collegiate athlete can be.

“I really wasn’t recruited much out of high school,” Raposo said. “I actually had two friends from high school that ended up going to Wheaton – they really liked the culture and the program. The head coach there (Eric Podbelski) was straight-forward with me and an honest guy – I respected that. I just thought it would be a good place to get an education and grow as a player but more importantly as a person.”

Podbelski has led the Wheaton Lyons to four D-III College World Series appearances in 25 seasons at the helm – including the 2017 season when Raposo was a freshman standout – and he ranks seventh in winning percentage among active D-III managers.

“He started the program. I owe a lot of what I’ve accomplished today to him. He’s taught me about the game but more importantly – life. Just a great all-around guy and someone that I have the most respect for.”

Raposo hit for a .366 batting average with nine home runs and 117 RBIs in 131 games at Wheaton.

He played summer ball for the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks of the New England Collegiate Baseball League – a wooden bat league for top college players – and he was teammates with Matt Chamberlain, a University of New Haven outfielder now playing for the Cardinals’ Advanced-A affiliate in Peoria.

Koperniak stood out in the NECBL too, hitting for a .376 average and 15 doubles with the North Adams SteepleCats in 2019.

“Two of the best summers of my life,” Raposo said. “The second season (with Martha’s Vineyard) I think that’s where a lot of scouts saw me. It was just a really good competitive league and a chance for me to go out and showcase at a different level.”

On March 13, 2020 – midway through his senior season with the Lyons – Wheaton traveled to Auburndale, Florida for the Central Florida Invitational Tournament when the sports world shut down due to COVID-19 and game scheduled against Washington University in St. Louis that day was cancelled.

“It was tough, I really didn’t know what to think or do in that moment,” Raposo said. “I was feeling for my other teammates who were seniors – I thought it was the last time I was going to be playing baseball.”

Raposo didn’t know it, but he had caught the Cardinals’ attention.

“Maybe three months after I was just on the couch, and I get a call from a number from Buffalo, New York. You know how it is with prank calls – I was like, ah… I’ll answer it. Hello? It was Jim Negrych from the Cardinals – the northeast scout…it was kind of unexpected.”

Raposo became the ninth player in Wheaton baseball history to sign a professional baseball contract on June 15, 2020.

Koperniak led Trinity College with a .394 batting average in 2019 and had planned to play one more collegiate season in 2021 as a graduate transfer to Kansas State University but instead signed with the Cardinals the day after Raposo did.

Raposo bypassed Palm Beach and Peoria and reported directly to Double-A Springfield, where he hit for a .267 average with one home run and 12 RBIs in 42 games in 2021. Koperniak slashed .322 /.443 /.470 in 58 games in Palm Beach and was named a 2021 MiLB.com Organization All-Star.

The Springfield lineup that beat San Antonio on Sunday featured nine position players plus a designated hitter.

Four of them were drafted or signed as teenagers out of high school or international baseball academies. Four more came by way of NCAA Division-I baseball programs.

The other two: Koperniak and Raposo.

A famous New England poet once wrote about the road less traveled by – an apt description for the baseball journeys taken by a pair of D-III baseball stars from the northeast.

On March 28, 2019, with an announced crowd of 123 fans in attendance at Sidell Stadium on the historic campus of Wheaton College, Koperniak’s RBI-single in the ninth inning helped Trinity College top Raposo’s Lyons by a 5-4 score.

Koperniak could not have known at the time it saved him a dinner check.

Wheaton and Trinity met on the diamond again on April 24, 2022. While two of their proudest baseball alums battled together with the Cardinals, the Lyons scored three runs in the ninth inning to beat Trinity, 3-1.

“No, I don’t think so,” Raposo said when asked if Koperniak should pick up a tab to commemorate Wheaton’s victory. “When I was at school, they beat us, so no, absolutely not.”

 

 

 

 

Andy Carroll

Andy Carroll is a freelance sports writer living in the Ozarks with his wife and four great kids. He loves St. Louis, toasted ravioli and minor league baseball. You can follow him on Twitter @carroll_sgf and Instagram @andycarroll505