CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — J.P. Stevenson’s baseball past and and future rubbed elbows at the recent Sport P.E.I. awards at Holland College in Charlottetown.
His past - he won his second intercollegiate male athlete of the year award (the first came in 2016) for his 2018 season at Canisius College - and his future, a shot with a pro baseball team (Dohren Wild Farmers) in Germany, hung out at the Florence Simmons Performance Hall.
But the big lefty’s future comes fast as he leaves for Europe in mid-March. The season starts in early April.
“They saw my college stats and reached out to me,” Stevenson said after winning the award. “I have a pretty good idea what to expect. Each team is allowed three imports. I’ll start once a week in the specific games only imports can pitch in.”
By all rights Stevenson had a monster 2018 for the Golden Griffins as he led the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in wins (10), innings (95.2), strikeouts (92) and earned run average (2.54) and claimed the conference pitcher of the year. He was also named to the MAAC tournament all-star team and earned the MVP award.
With Stevenson, the Griffs staff became just the third squad in MAAC history, and first since Marist College in 2015, to be awarded the pitcher and relief pitcher of the year honours (that went to Tyler Smith).
Canisius went on to win its second MAAC title since 2015 as Stevenson, normally a starter, closed out an 11-0 title-clincher against Monmouth University with a three up-three down, one-strikeout ninth inning.
The Griffins lost to Gonzaga in the regionals in last year’s NCAA Division I baseball championship.
After Canisius and armed with a physical education degree, Stevenson signed with the Quebec Capitales but never stuck with the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball club.
Then the Wild Farmers, which play in Germany’s highest league, the First Bundesliga, came calling. Stevenson took the chance and soon heads to the village of a little over 1,200 people in the northern reaches of the country.
But Stevenson won’t forget his past nor what it means to top the list for the 2018 intercollegiate award. It included Holland College volleyballer Brett Butler, an all-conference and national all-Canadian, and Brock University wrestler Ligrit Sadiku, who went undefeated in 2018 en route to a national university championship.
“It’s a great honour. A pretty impressive group of guys, a lot of work goes into that for a lot of years,” Stevenson said.
