Lansing’s Bell guides Ithaca College to super regionals

The Ithaca College baseball team had another strong season, making it to the NCAA Division III Super Regionals for the second consecutive season. This year’s run would not have been possible without the reliable pitching from one local player.

Lansing’s Garrett Bell has impressed as one of the three main starting pitchers for the Bombers alongside Kyle Lambert and Colin Leyner. While he has the highest earned run average out of the trio (with a still-respectable 3.94 ERA), he saved his best performance of the campaign for last—on their biggest rival’s field, no less.

In late May, the Bombers made the quick trip to SUNY Cortland for regional play following a second straight Liberty League title. After beating defending national champions Eastern Connecticut State in the opener 11-2, they then moved to the winners bracket to take on the Red Dragons. The Bombers advanced to the regional championship with a 5-3 win, where they would take on their rivals once again the following day knowing that another victory would seal another regional title. Enter Garrett Bell.

The senior dazzled on the mound for the Bombers, throwing a three-hit shutout through eight innings while recording no walks and four strikeouts en route to a 15-0 blowout win. It was the first time all season that he didn’t concede any runs and the longest outing of his Bombers’ career. Heading into such a pivotal game, there was a mixture of nerves and confidence for Bell.

“I was really nervous going into the game,” Bell said. “I came home that night [before] and talked to my roommates. I was just like, ‘This is crazy. This is what we wanted.’ And then I woke up the next day and I was just amped and really ready to go. Come gametime, we got locked in and then got through that first inning. After that, we started scoring and I was able to relax and just do my thing and pitch to my defense like I normally do. I was able to get a couple of strikeouts too, which was nice.”

One big reason why Bell’s nerves were mainly calmed entering the game was because of former longtime head coach George Valesente. While his son David has led the Bombers since 2019, Valesente still helps the team out at practices, and he helped out Bell immensely with some words of advice before he took the mound.

“He came up to me right before the game and he said, ‘This is going to be the biggest game of your life. Don’t worry about mechanics. Don’t worry about all the little things. Just stay sight-oriented. Make sure you hit your spots and just worry about that,’” Bell said. “That’s what I went out and did. Everything was working that day and I wasn’t overthinking. I think that’s what really made me succeed, and that’s why I did so awesome.”

Bell’s masterful pitching was complemented by some explosive hitting from the Bombers. They put up at least one run in each of the first five innings, including a five-run second inning. They then tagged on six more runs in the eighth inning to wrap up the demolition. This was the norm for Ithaca’s bats this season, averaging just under nine runs per game with everybody in the starting lineup batting over .300. Such a powerful offense has provided Bell and the rest of the Bombers’ pitching staff plenty of insurance this season.

“It definitely takes a lot of pressure off your shoulders as a pitcher knowing that if you give up a few runs, your offense is most likely going to back you up and outscore their team,” Bell said. “If you look back in our Liberty League conference tournament, in two days we had like 41 hits. It was crazy.”

One of the standout players in the lineup is catcher Gil Merod, who also hails from Tompkins County. The Ithaca High alum thrived both at the plate (with a .302 batting average) and behind it by throwing out 14 runners. While Bell and Merod never played against each other competitively in high school, their relationship goes back all the way to Little League ball. All these years later at the collegiate level, they’ve rejoined forces to help continue the Bombers’ consistent success.

“When we were 10 or 11, I was playing with Gil on travel teams,” Bell said. “I was pitching and he was catching me. It was kind of cool to be doing that 10-12 years later in a college Super Regional. It’s just stuff you don’t dream about… These last four years, we’ve been playing together and have built that friendship and relationship. It’s so much easier because he knows how I want to pitch, and we don’t really have that argument or this disconnection on the mound and behind the plate, which is really cool. We’re always on the same page.”

While the Bombers’ run came to a close in the Super Regionals against Endicott College (located near Boston, Mass.), it was yet another outstanding campaign, especially for Bell. He was selected to the Liberty League Second Team and the Cortland Regional All-Tournament Team in what was a stellar senior season.