On his baseball recruiting visit to Cal Tech in 2013, Harrison Jacobs watched the Division III Beavers lose a game 20-0 “or something close to that,” as he recalls.
Cal Tech hadn’t won a game in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) since 1988, a streak that was closing in on 500 straight during Jacobs’ visit.
He liked the challenge of being part of a group that someday would end that streak.
Jacobs, who hit .357 as a part-time outfielder at Catalina Foothills in 2013, liked Cal Tech’s reputation as an academic leader.
“In some form, I was going to major in science and engineering,” he said last week. “The combination of baseball and academics at Cal Tech really appealed to me.”
As Jacobs moved toward a degree in mechanical engineering, he became a starting outfielder for the Beavers. It was not an overnight success.
He hit .195 as a freshman, .183 as a sophomore and then broke through last year — “something clicked,” he says — and hit .262. This year he became the Beavers’ leadoff hitter.
Unfortunately, Cal Tech had successive years of 0-28, 0-28 and 0-27 in the SCIAC. By March 31, the Beavers’ conference losing streak reached 548.
But finally, 10 days ago, Cal Tech rallied in the bottom of the ninth to beat Pomona-Pitzer, 4-3. Jacobs was in the on-deck circle as the winning run scored at the school’s baseball facility in Pasadena.
“It’s still hard to describe,” he says. “It was crazy seeing the winning run score. I wanted to bat, to win the game myself, but at the same time you can’t be too picky in a situation like that. We’ve been waiting so long.”
Cal Tech became somewhat infamous for a basketball losing streak of 228 games, broken in 2013. Its baseball team was far more futile. In Jacobs’ first three seasons, the Beavers had gone 0-83 in conference and 5-100 overall. This year they are 1-16 and 6-22 overall.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here,” he says. “I’m going to go to grad school next year, working on a master’s degree in structural engineering at Cal-Berkeley. I’ve been able to play baseball all four years and meet so many great people. My career goal is to help build stadiums, for the NFL and Major League Baseball, and things of that nature. “
Jacobs’ daily schedule at Cal Tech might not appeal to the average student. After classes and baseball practice, he studies from about 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., and sometimes later, but he makes it work.
“We’ve changed the culture here,” he says. “I’ll always remember how much fun it was to be part of it.”
