Chase Swain’s full-circle journey saw him return to La Salle for his final year of college baseball
Swain committed to play for the Explorers in 2020, then the program shut down. After working his way through the ranks, which included stops at three schools, he has returned to the Explorers.
Chase Swain thought he found his future college home. Swain, who played baseball at Woodstown High School in Salem County, started receiving college interest as a sophomore.
Kansas State showed significant interest in him, but Swain also received interest from La Salle, so he decided to visit the school in northwest Philadelphia before heading to the Midwest. He quickly fell in love with he Explorers’ program and decided to make his pledge while on his visit at Kansas State.
Just before Swain was slated to start at La Salle in 2020, disaster struck. The program was shutting down, and Swain needed to find somewhere else to play. He followed head coach David Miller to Penn State-Abington, then Manhattan, before playing last year at West Virginia. Swain helped the Mountaineers reach the NCAA Super Regionals but entered the transfer portal for his final year of eligibility.
And the stars aligned when La Salle announced the return of its baseball team in 2024. Swain’s college baseball career came full circle, and now he’s living out his desire to wear an Explorers uniform as a utility player. He has played in the infield, outfield, and at designated hitter.
“La Salle was always that place of like, ‘What if,’” Swain said. “I never knew what it was like to be there. I committed there, but never spent a day on campus there as a student, and it kind of just made sense. I knew Coach Miller was doing all the right things and putting this place in the right direction. … I was like, ‘Why not?’ Let’s go play some A-10 baseball with Coach Miller, and it was kind of a no-brainer.”
Swain is off to a strong opening month with the Explorers (17-20, 4-11 Atlantic 10), who will begin a three-game series against Fordham on Friday. He leads the team with a .360 batting average, a 1.104 OPS, and 50 hits.
However, his college career got off to a rocky start.
He was committed to play baseball at La Salle for more than a year in high school. He learned from a friend that the program was going to shut down before he got there. Suddenly, his future seemed murky.
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“It was a really emotional time, like I broke down in the kitchen kind of just like in shock,” Swain said. “Because at that point I was already like a year committed. I was off the recruiting trail. I wasn’t out trying to get recruited by anybody else.”
Swain spent months fundraising in an effort to save the program. He initially committed to Rider but spent only a semester there before following Miller to Penn State-Abington.
In one season at Penn State-Abington, Swain hit .405 and earned All-United East first-team honors. He dedicated that year to developing into a college baseball player.
Swain followed Miller again to Manhattan, where he sat out the 2023 season because of transfer rules, but thrived in 2024. He batted .392 with a 1.039 OPS in 40 games for the Jaspers. Swain entered the transfer portal again and ended up at West Virginia last season, where he batted .319 with 30 RBIs in 50 starts.
Swain didn’t play in the Super Regionals. He decided to go elsewhere for his final year and gave Miller a call.
“Coaching is more than winning and losing, it’s about forming relationships with these kids,” Miller said. “Chase and I have been through so much together. Him deciding to go to a Division III to play for me when he had no business going there and then him coming back and doing his last year to revitalize this program. … I don’t have a conversation at the end of the day with Chase where I don’t say, ‘I love you, kid.’ He means that much to me as a person. I’m just tremendously grateful that he decided to give it one last ride with me.”
» READ MORE: La Salle’s loyal baseball community restored the program. Now it’s time to get it ‘back on the map.’
The twists and turns in his college career have led Swain back to the Explorers. Despite having the talent to play at other major programs, Swain ended up back where he started with La Salle.
“After the first game [against Maryland Eastern Shore] when we were all huddled up, Coach Miller got a little emotional, the sun was setting. It was almost like the perfect day,” Swain said. “We had a great day. We smashed them and Coach Miller had nothing but great things to say afterward. In the huddle, I was behind everybody, just looking around, kind of being in the moment. It’s pretty cool to say that I’m able to play here.”