A single in the first game of the season does not seem like a big hit, but for Hopewell High School graduate and Bethany College freshman Brad Kubis, it was a grand slam.

Kubis went to Bethany in the fall of last year with a reputation as an outstanding hitter. He had a .397 batting average his senior year at Hopewell and was surprised when Bethany hitting coach Duane Lanzy started tinkering with his swing.

OK, so tinkering is the wrong word. It was more of a major overhaul and the result was a team-leading .450 average with 44 RBIs this past spring.

His batting average was one of the reasons Kubis was named a third-team All-American by D3baseball.com. He is Bethany's first baseball All-American since Jim Taylor received that honor in 1995.

Kubis was named to the third team as a utility player because he played third base and was the Bison closer, earning 12 saves to go with a 1-1 record and 1.47 ERA. More on his pitching prowess later.

"In the fall and in the winter I worked a lot with our hitting coach and he completely changed my swing around," said Kubis, who is playing for the Hopewell American Legion team that captured the Beaver County League championship Monday with a three-game sweep of Beaver Falls. Hopewell (19-1) moves on to the Region 6 tournament that is scheduled to get underway Saturday at Plum. Games will be played at the Community College of Allegheny County Boyce campus field.

"I didn't know coming into the season how it was going to work out ... but it worked. He knew what he was talking about. I listened to him and kept working hard at it."

There wasn't much in Kubis' swing that Lanzy didn't alter.

"He changed the position of my hands, my whole backside ... like the turn of my hips. Pretty much everything," Kubis said. "I worked on it mostly in the winter, but hitting in the cage and stuff I still wasn't hitting well."

All of which left him more than a little nervous as Bethany headed south to open its season in Florida.

"I was worried but [Lanzy] told me to keep sticking with it, so I listened to him. I figured he knew what he was talking about and he did," Kubis said.

Still, he needed some reinforcement. He got it in a 5-2 victory against Earlham at Fort Pierce, Fla., with a single in his first at bat. The next day in a 10-4 victory against Earlham, Kubis went 2 for 4 with two runs and an RBI.

"I didn't know coming into the season how it was going to work ... but it worked," he said. "In my first at bat I got a single and I figured 'Alright.'

"If I don't get that single, I don't know if I have the season that I did."

Kubis pounded out 68 hits, the second most in a single season in Bethany history, with 10 doubles, 2 triples and an on-base percentage of .473.

As for his pitching prowess, that came about sort of by accident.

Kubis pitched for Hopewell but was recruited by Bethany as a position player, not a pitcher. One of the reasons he decided to go to the school located in the northern panhandle of West Virginia was the opportunity to play immediately. In high school, he played third base, catcher and also pitched.

"At the beginning of the fall [at Bethany] we needed an extra pitcher," Kubis said. "I thought [Bethany coach Rick Carver] knew [I pitched], but obviously he didn't know. So, he put me in the last inning of an intrasquad [game] and I did well, and he kept me there."

The 12 saves were a Bethany record and tied him with Chris DeGroti of Tufts and Andy Lowe of Heidelberg for the most in NCAA Division III last season. He had 16 strikeouts and just five walks in 181/3 innings.

"Yeah, but I blew two saves," Kubis said, forcing a smile. "My slider was my out pitch. [Carver] let me call my own game and myself and the catcher worked well together on calling the game."

Kubis said he will remain as Bethany's closer as long as he doesn't have any arm problems, which is fine with him. He added he might be moved to first base next season, depending on the makeup of the freshman class.

One of his goals is to add more power to his swing for 2011. He did not hit a home run for Bethany.

He was excited about earning All-American honors but said he probably wouldn't have received the accolade if he had just been a third baseman.

"My stats as a hitter weren't all that great and neither were my stats as a pitcher," he said. "But the combination of the two is what did it for me."

What's surprising is that Kubis didn't get any calls from managers looking for summer league players. Hopewell American Legion manager Joe Colella welcomed him back with open arms.

"It's nice to have him back. He's got a good bat and he's a pretty good pitcher," Colella said.

"No, not really," Kubis said when asked if he had offers from other teams. "I thought I might, but I'm glad to be back here [with Hopewell] and I'm also playing for a team in the [Beaver County] Rec League. That's it."

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