ALL-DECADE TEAM: Ex-Bruins Ace Hyde One of Nation’s Best during Last Decade

NEWBERG, Ore. – Former George Fox University staff ace Scott Hyde, the National Co-Pitcher of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Division III World Series for the Bruins’ 2004 national championship baseball team, has been named to the 2000’s All-Decade Second Team as chosen by D3baseball.com.

The D3baseball.com 2000's All-Decade team consists of 52 players and coaches representing the best players from 2000-09.  Among the names dotting the list of First and Second Team and honorable mention honorees are former New York Yankees pitcher and D-III all-time strikeout leader Matt DeSalvo of Marietta College and current San Diego Padres outfielder Chris Denorfia of Wheaton College (Mass.).

Hyde, a right-hander from Grants Pass, Ore., posted a 32-5 record in three seasons at George Fox (2002-04), with a 2.72 earned run average and 395 strikeouts in 304.1 innings.  His career strikeouts total is the third-highest in D-III history behind DeSalvo’s 603 and 435 by Brian Ford of Methodist University.  He is tied for 21st in career wins in D-III despite playing only three seasons for the Bruins.  He is the Bruins’ all-time leader in wins, strikeouts, innings (tied), complete games (11, tied), and starts (43), and ranks third in ERA and won-lost percentage (.865). 

Hyde was a three-time All-Northwest Conference First Team hurler, leading the Bruins to conference titles and NCAA playoff appearances in each season.  In 2002, he posted a 7-3 record with a 4.19 ERA and 88 strikeouts, leading the league in starts (13) and ranking second in wins and strikeouts.

In 2003, Hyde went 11-1 with a 2.41 ERA and 116 strikeouts, pacing the conference in wins and strikeouts and ranking second in ERA.  He tied the Bruin record for wins, set new team standards for strikeouts and innings (100.2), and ranked third nationally in both wins and strikeouts.  He was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association / Rawlings NCAA Division III All-American Second Team and the All-West Region First Team.

Projected as a pre-season All-American by both Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America magazines in 2004, Hyde more than lived up to his billing and completely re-wrote the George Fox record books.  He posted a 14-1 record with a 1.99 ERA and 191 strikeouts, breaking his own records for wins and strikeouts while leading the nation in both categories.  His strikeouts total was the second-highest in one season in D-III history to the 205 by DeSalvo in 2001. 

Hyde was named the D-III National Pitcher of the Week after throwing a no-hitter against Pacific University on April 3, striking out 14 while facing the minimum 27 batters.  The only player to reach base, on a hit by pitch in the fifth inning, was picked off by catcher Greg Dombek on the next pitch. 

Among the awards Hyde received at the end of the season were Northwest Conference Player of the Year, ABCA / Rawlings All-West Region First Team, and NCAA Division III National Co-Pitcher of the Year.

In post-season play, Hyde was 5-1.  In 2002, he lost to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the first game of the Midwest Regional in Oshkosh, Wis., but came back in 2003 to defeat Chapman University in the second game of the West Regional in Orange, Calif.  In 2004, he won the West Regional opener over Chapman in Orange, then was the starting pitcher but got no decision in the regional title game, a 6-2 win over Trinity University (Texas) that sent the Bruins to the D-III World Series in Appleton, Wis.

Hyde won the Bruins’ opener in Appleton 8-3 over Salisbury University, then picked up a 9-8 win over No. 1-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University with two relief innings to close the game in the team’s third game of the series.  In the championship game, he started and threw a complete-game five-hitter with 13 strikeouts as the Bruins upended Eastern Connecticut 6-3 to win the national championship and finish with a 40-10 record, establishing the George Fox record for wins.  The Bruins’ ace out-dueled National Co-Pitcher of the Year and another member of the All-Decade Team, Ryan DiPietro, handing the ECSU southpaw his only loss of the season.

Following his junior year, Hyde signed a professional contract with the New York Mets as their seventh-round pick in the 2004 major league baseball draft.  He posted a 4-3 record with the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Class A New York-Pennsylvania League that summer in his only season of pro ball, as an arm injury in spring training the following year and two subsequent surgeries cut short his career.  He is now involved with law enforcement back home in southern Oregon.

The complete list of D3baseball.com’s 2000’s All-Decade Team may be found on line at http://www.d3baseball.com/awards/all-decade-2000s.pdf.