What Western Nevada College baseball fan can ever forget the special sports moment provided by Chad Bell?
After all, he delivered the most dramatic home run in the decade-long history of the Wildcats baseball program.
In 2016, Bell, then a freshman at WNC, smacked a two-run homer with one out in the ninth inning to take down rival College of Southern Nevada, 11-9, in a tense championship game in the Region 18 baseball tournament. Bells homer capped a WNC comeback from a 5-0 deficit and sent the Wildcats to the Western District Tournament in Trinidad, Colo.
Anyone who witnessed the clutch home run realized the enormity of it since it was the final game in the Northern and Southern Nevada rivalry and it came on the Coyotes home field.
Man, one of the greatest moments of my life, said Bell in 2016. I knew the wind was blowing out to left field and most of my hits go to left-center field, so I was just looking for a fastball over the plate that I could stay on. I thought it had a pretty good chance of going out.
Once it cleared the left-center-field fence, Bell soaked up the once-in-a-lifetime moment and saw all of his teammates waiting for him at home plate to begin their championship celebration. He then chucked his helmet 20 feet into the air before he was mobbed by his teammates.
It was absolutely breathtaking. When I got home, I could barely breathe, Bell said.
To no surprise to Wildcat fans, Bell is still playing the game he loves. He played three seasons of NCAA Division I baseball for Louisiana Monroe and was selected by the New York Yankees in the 19th round of the 2019 Amateur Baseball Draft.
In fact, Bell has continued hitting home runs and has climbed in the Yankees minor leagues ranks to Double-A Somerset. This summer, he is tied for second on the Somerset Patriots with 12 homers and has knocked in 34 runs, giving him a real possibility of eventually wearing pinstripes in New York.
For more on what Bell is thinking and doing for Somerset, read the insightful story provided by Trentonian reporter Greg Johnson:
HTTPS://WWW.TRENTONIAN.COM/2022/07/07/CHAD-BELL-HARNESSING-DIVERSE-BASEBALL-EXPERIENCES-TO-FLOURISH-WITH-SOMERSET-PATRIOTS/