MSUB SPORTS – The 2018 baseball season beckoned Montana State University Billings senior Kade Hall like a long lost friend being reintroduced after years apart.
 
It had only been seven months since the Pocatello, Idaho native had last suited up for the Yellowjackets, but a 2017 season cut short by injury and the added anticipation of playing his final collegiate campaign elevated his eagerness. It felt like an eternity since his last time at bat.
 
On Feb. 8 the Yellowjackets opened their 2018 season at No. 15 Dixie State University, with a game under the lights at Bruce Hurst Field in St. George, Utah. Hall was at the top of the lineup, where MSUB head coach Aaron Sutton looked to the senior to start what has become a historic season with a bang.
 
For Hall, an added element of drama was the chance to face DSU left-hander Aaron Pope, the Trailblazers' Game 1 starter who had grown up friends with Hall just 10 minutes down the road in Chubbuck, Idaho.

At 6 p.m. Pope delivered the first pitch of the year, a ball outside. The lefty's next delivery traveled in excess of 400 feet, as Hall smashed a towering drive over the center-field fence. "It was exhilarating stepping into the box, starting the season as the leadoff man," Hall said. "He came back with a fastball over the plate, and I just tried to put a good swing on it. That was the craziest moment of my career."
 


Sutton couldn't help but smile, as his star made a loud and clear statement that he was back and better than ever. "That was a special moment for him, and there was a lot of buildup going into that game," Sutton said. "After he went through all that adversity last year, for him to start the season for us like that made me really proud."
 
Hall's leadoff home run was an omen during a year in which the Yellowjackets have already surpassed the school home run record with 51, and are 12 home runs away from matching Northwest Nazarene University's Great Northwest Athletic Conference record of 63 home runs established last season.
 
Individually, Hall has been among the most integral pieces to the Yellowjackets' record-breaking lineup. He is the only MSUB player to have started all 38 games, and as of April 23 he is in the top-five in the GNAC in hits, runs, home runs, doubles, RBIs, total bases, and slugging percentage.
 
With 18 doubles on the season, Hall is two away from matching the MSUB single-season record of 20 held by Brody Miller (2015). He was named the GNAC and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association West Region Player of the Week after a three-home run weekend at Central Washington, and has helped the Yellowjackets into the top spot in the GNAC standings at 26-12 overall and 25-7 in league play.
 
"It has been an exciting year, and everything is coming together," Hall said. "We can all see the potential that we have to go a long way, and it is exciting to know we are in first place right now."
 
LEADING OFF
"Baseball has changed in the last three or four years, and now you don't necessarily see a guy whose strengths are to run well and take pitches at the top as much. We are just trying to get our best hitters the most opportunities to help us build big innings." – MSUB head coach Aaron Sutton on building the GNAC's most potent offense with Hall at the top.
 
With eight regular-season games left to play, Hall is already in elite territory with the conference's best-ever leadoff hitters. Among players to hit in the leadoff spot in the lineup in at least two-thirds of their team's games during a season, Hall is one of just three players in GNAC history to have at least eight home runs and at least 36 RBIs in a season.
 
It has been a decade since the GNAC has seen a true slugger as a leadoff hitter, with the 2008 season featuring a pair of the rare top-spot men who boasted power. Jamie Nilsen of Central Washington, who many consider to be the best player in GNAC history with a career batting average of .399, set the standard with back-to-back seasons of eight or more home runs and 36-plus RBIs in 2007-08. In his final season, Nilsen hit .470 with 10 home runs, 20 doubles, and 59 RBIs while leading CWU to a 30-21 record in 51 games as the leadoff man.


 
The only other player besides Hall in that tier of leadoff sluggers also played in the 2008 season, when Shane Schoeneberg of Saint Martin's University had nine long balls and 39 RBIs in 41 games as the leadoff man. Schoeneberg added a dozen doubles and batted .390 that season, while stealing 23 bases in 28 attempts for the 18-24 Saints.
 
Top Slugging Leadoff Hitters, GNAC History

Player	Team	Season	G	Leadoff	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	TB	AVG	SLG	OBP
Kade Hall	MSU Billings	2018	38	31	160	42	59	36	18	0	8	101	0.369	0.631	0.436
Jamie Nilsen	Central Washington	2007	48	48	184	63	72	42	15	2	8	115	0.391	0.625	0.470
Jamie Nilsen	Central Washington	2008	51	51	186	65	87	59	20	4	10	145	0.468	0.780	0.557
Shane Schoeneberg	Saint Martin's	2008	42	41	166	46	65	39	12	5	9	114	0.392	0.687	0.447

 *Chart includes all players in GNAC history with at least 8 HR and 36 RBI while batting leadoff in 2/3 or more games in a season.
 
While hitting out of the leadoff spot, Hall is slugging .631 which ranks fourth in the conference, and his 18 doubles are the second-most in the league. "It is a lot of fun being at the front setting the table, and all of the guys in our lineup are so consistent," Hall said. "There are no weak spots, and we all have so much confidence which makes our team dangerous. Our mentality is that you can't put anybody out there (on the mound) who is going to physically beat us."
 
Though he is thriving at the top of the Yellowjackets' lineup, Hall hasn't always been a leadoff hitter. Through his prep years at Highland High School he slotted into the heart of the batting order, with a powerful swing his father and former minor-league catcher Kevin Hall helped craft. "After he got off work my dad took me down to the Sandlot Hitting Academy where we spent an hour or two each night," Hall said. "We had a really strong bond, and I really enjoyed working on something that he loved doing so much. He passed the torch on to me and I wanted to become really good at hitting."
 
Hall stayed close to home after high school, attending Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore., where Sutton was the only collegiate coach to recruit him. Patiently waiting for his moment to prove himself, Hall had a solid sophomore season in 2016 with three home runs and 16 RBIs in 107 at-bats.
 
His tools as a catcher made him an attractive recruit for the Yellowjackets, and at the time of his signing with MSUB Hall bid farewell to Coach Sutton for what he thought would be the final time.
 
FIRST FOUR-YEAR MAN
"When Coach Sutton got the job, I was so excited. At the end of my sophomore year I wished TVCC was a four-year school so I could stay and play for him. No one else wanted me out of high school, so it was a dream come true to know he was coming to MSUB with me." – Kade Hall on learning that Aaron Sutton was named the MSUB head coach after he had committed to becoming a Yellowjacket.
 
With first-team all-GNAC outfielders Zach Robinson and Casey Merritt at the top of MSUB's 2017 lineup, Hall hung onto his role as a middle-of-the-order slugger. In his first year with the 'Jackets, hall hit in the cleanup spot 15 times and batted third in the lineup in four games.  

Through the first 21 games of the year, Hall held a .319 batting average with four home runs and a team-leading 20 RBIs. Just as he was beginning to thrive however, an awkward check swing in MSUB's final game against Concordia University on March 19 resulted in a devastating hand injury. Though Hall returned at the end of the year during the GNAC Championships, he hardly looked comfortable at the plate as he went 0-for-8 in his final four games.
 
"Kade was having a player-of-the-year type season last year, especially behind the dish," Sutton commented on Hall's 2017 campaign, with all of his starts coming at catcher. "We weren't surprised that he was taking off offensively, because we had seen glimpses of it at TVCC. To see him go down was really tough on our team."
 
"I wanted to be there for my teammates even when I was hurt, but I also wanted to be a guy in the lineup," Hall commented. "It was tough not being there for the guys."
 
Though he initially contemplated taking the summer of 2017 off from baseball entirely, a late call to join the Kelowna Falcons of the West Coast League wound up being crucial in helping Hall recover. He cites the timing at the plate he was able to establish through the at-bats he had with the Falcons as preparing him to hit the ground running in the fall season. The results were noticeable in his coach's eyes.
 
"Coming back this year, Kade had one of the best fall seasons I have ever seen a guy have," Sutton said. "He has shown power to all fields, and versatility with us asking him to play a new position in the outfield. He is so athletic and has such a good feel for the game, and it is special to see this season starting to come together for him."
 
On a team filled with Idahoans – 15 in total and three members of the coaching staff – Hall holds a special place with Sutton as the first collegiate player the second-year MSUB skipper has coached for four seasons. Sutton explained that the established connection with player like Hall and other TVCC transfers like Sam Wong and Chase Teter have helped lay the foundation for continued success at MSUB.
 
"In my first season it was crucial to me to get a good gauge with the guys, and Kade knew our philosophy and how we went about our business," said Sutton on taking over at MSUB prior to the 2017 season. "He was a guy who we leaned on to help with the temperament of the team, and he was always very honest with us about where guys stood. I have always appreciated that side of him from a leadership standpoint."
 
HALL DOES IT ALL
"We just embrace it. We have dealt with so much adversity this year, but it doesn't matter to us. We will play wherever, whenever, and if you put us on the field we are going to go out and give 100 percent." – Kade Hall on MSUB playing the first 34 games of its season on the road.
 
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Yellowjackets led Western Oregon 2-0 in the finale of a four-game series in Portland on March 10. MSUB was trying to seal the win and salvage the series split, but the Wolves threatened to even the score with the bases loaded.
 
Hall had dashed home from second on a double by Ryan Myers in the top of the sixth inning, and now stood creeping forward with his glove open and laser-like focus in his eyes as the final pitch of the game was delivered. "Before the pitch I was thinking to myself that if the ball was hit to me, they are going to send the guy (from second) and that I had to make a good throw," Hall said.
 
Sure enough, a base hit through the left side prompted immediate action from Hall, who scooped the ball up and channeled his former life as a catcher with a mighty heave towards home plate. Catcher Andrew Schleusner grabbed the toss on one hop, just in time to slap the tag on WOU's Griffey Halle and end the game in a 2-1 win for the 'Jackets.
 
"That was even more exciting than a walkoff hit," Hall said with a smile. "Nailing the tying run at the plate was unbelievable, and it felt so good knowing I had just helped the team win the game."
 
It didn't matter that Hall hadn't played outfield since middle school. When the ball came his way with the game on the line, he took it in stride and found a way to make a play.
 
"He is the gas to our team, and he makes everything go," Sutton said. "When he sparks something, our team ignites. We have a group of people who are great leaders, and Kade is one of those guys. They all bring out the best in each other, and when we have them cooking on all cylinders, the game is a lot of fun."