La Salle’s loyal baseball community restored the program. Now it’s time to get it ‘back on the map.’

Tampa Bay Rays assistant general manager Kevin Ibach reached a coaching milestone in September 2020. The Rays defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in the wild card round, marking the first time in Ibach’s 20-year career he made it past the opening round. When the team arrived in San Diego to face the New York Yankees, Ibach received news that crushed his mood.

La Salle, his alma mater, was shutting down its baseball program after the 2020-21 school year. Ibach played middle infield for the Explorers from 1996-2000, but the program that helped forge his baseball career was suddenly on its way out.

The Rays made their first-ever World Series that year, but the success was stained for Ibach.

“I have a ring to this day from that journey and at the same time, it was the low point,” Ibach said. “A program that I cared so much about. Four years that were instrumental in my life and my development that probably led me to my job today, getting that email that they were shutting the doors was pretty disheartening.”

When Ashwin Puri took over as athletic director in July 2023, he ensured those doors did not stay closed. With a three-phase plan centered around facility upgrades, fundraising and fan experience, Explorer baseball was officially welcomed back in April 2024.

» READ MORE: With baseball team’s return, La Salle AD Ashwin Puri works on field upgrades and more

“What I soon realized after being here for two or three months was that every other conversation was about baseball,” Puri said. “I don’t know if it was fate or chance but I felt an amazing sense of pride and connection to the university. A lot of people love baseball and care about baseball.”

La Salle spent 2025 preparing to throw its first pitch in four years. Now, the program’s return is right around the corner. The Explorers will open its season against Maryland Eastern Shore on Friday (2 p.m.) at Hank DeVincent Field.

Miller constructed a roster who’s ready to write a new chapter of La Salle baseball, while remembering the history that brought them to this point.

“It’s going to be a lot of hard work that everybody collectively did to make this happen,” head coach David Miller said. “That first pitch, hopefully that first win, it’s going to be a great day for La Salle Athletics.”

The main step to getting the program off the ground was improving the stadium and facilities while raising the proper funds. The alumni advisory board, formed to lead the operation, helped focus on alumni outreach and after a few months, the progress in donations became notable.

“When baseball came back, there was a small group of us that were excited to have the program back,” said Bill Watts, who played at La Salle from 1991-94 and serves on the advisory board. “Ashwin reached out and asked, ‘Would you be willing to be part of the rising here?’ I thought about it for a while and talked it over with some of my teammates and decided if we did it, we needed to do it the right way.”

» READ MORE: For players and alumni awaiting the return of La Salle baseball, the anticipation is the hardest part

The feedback and excitement from alumni have been encouraging. More than 200 former players and alumni attended the La Salle first pitch dinner on Jan. 31 as an official welcome back for the program. While the program may have taken a few years off, the history and tradition carried on.

The Explorers held alumni games in 2023 and 2024 at Hank DeVincent Field. La Salle made its conference tournament nine times before the program shut down. In its last season, La Salle finished with 32 wins, the most in program history.

It is important, Puri said, that the program’s history is remembered in a new era.

“I think history is a big part of it, but we also want to do things a little different this time,” Puri said. “We are going to take baseball very seriously. We are going to invest and we want to compete.”

To put a team back on the field, Puri and the advisory board knew it started with one man: Miller.

Miller was named La Salle’s head coach in 2018 and had the Explorers on an upward trajectory before the program shut down. They went 14-41 in his first season, then improved to 25-31 in 2019. After a shortened 2020 season, Miller led La Salle to one of its best performances in program history in 2021, finishing 32-21. Miller earned Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and believed he was on the verge of accomplishing something special.

However, that momentum halted when the program shut down.

Miller coached at Manhattan for two years before he got the offer to return to La Salle. Despite having to take a year off from coaching in 2025, the former Penn Charter coach decided it was worth it.

“There’s just something about this place that draws me,” Miller said. “It’s like home to me. When my time is up here, I want La Salle baseball to be a destination baseball program in the northeast. And I don’t see why we can’t be.”

With Miller back at the helm, the next step was putting the roster together. It was no easy task, considering he was starting from scratch.

La Salle netted the 17th-ranked recruiting class by Perfect Game in 2025, bringing in 36 commitments. Next, its attention turned to the transfer portal.

» READ MORE: La Salle baseball, nearing its permanent end, keeps on winning and winning |From 2021

The Explorers brought in seniors who were looking for one more season to play college baseball or underclassmen seeking a fresh start. For utilityman Chase Swain, a transfer from West Virginia, playing at La Salle brings his college career full circle.

“I was committed here for like two years in high school,” Swain said. “... [The program getting cut] threw everything into a tailspin for me, recruiting-wise. So this place coming back, it was always in the back of my mind. I wonder what it would have been like there. I stayed loyal and the second that they brought it back, it was like a light bulb went off in my head, and I thought I would really enjoy playing there.”

With a completely new team, the players understand expectations from the outside are low. The Explorers know a restarted program won’t be picked as a preseason favorite, but they are using that as a chip on their shoulder and carrying an underdog mentality into the season.

Due to the weather, La Salle has been forced to travel about an hour away to find an indoor facility for practice. The team has embraced the challenges.

“I think we can take the motivation of being a gritty program because we don’t have all the facilities and everything that a lot of other schools have in Division I baseball,” said shortstop Justin Szestowicki, a transfer from Elon. “But I think we take that as an advantage. We have more of a chip on our shoulder, just knowing that, based on our opportunities to create a grittier play style, instead of just being taken care of all the time, we have to take some accountability for ourselves to be successful.”

The players and coaches are counting down the days until Friday, when they can say La Salle baseball is back and the two-year rebuilding process has come to fruition.

Miller is ready to show the college baseball world who the Explorers are.

“You’re seeing all these high-profile fans from Tennessee and LSU saying, ‘La — who?’” Miller said. “And we embrace that. That’s now my hashtag for the year. We’re going to show you who it is. These kids are more excited now than ever to play, because all the vision that we talked about, and getting them to see what’s coming, is here.”

Ibach added: “I think that a lot of players who will be playing can take that inspiration to show the world, show the city, that La Salle baseball’s back on the map.”