'No one is in the same category as him:' The story of Bren Taylor's hitting brilliance

With Millersville leading by two runs in the top of the seventh inning and a runner on second base, Mansfield could ill afford to surrender another run. The second baseman lingered close to the bag, limiting Keegan Soltis’ lead off second base. With his ever-relaxed hitting stance—legs straight but ready, hands low and close to his chest with the head of his bat rhythmically ticking like the pendulum of a clock, Bren Taylor eyed the empty expanse on the right side of the infield. It was too easy. 

With expert bat control and situational awareness, Taylor guided a fastball precisely where the second baseman should have been, allowing Soltis to score.  While it was just one single on another Sunday afternoon at Cooper Park, that hit epitomized the rarity of Taylor’s hitting talent. That ground ball joined Taylor to West Chester's Matt Cotellese (2005-09) and Millersville's Chas McCormick (2014-17) as the only players in PSAC history with 300 career hits. 

Taylor has spent his career making the impossibly difficult seem impossibly easy. He enters the weekend series with archrival West Chester just four hits shy of breaking McCormick’s record of 306 despite having played in 16 fewer games with 74 fewer at-bats. Taylor’s already set the Millersville career runs record and stands seven from the PSAC mark. He reached 300 career hits faster than Cotellese and McCormick, boasting a career .406 batting average to the .379 of Cotellese and .373 of McCormick. 

Taylor came to Millersville as an unheralded recruit with average tools. He honed his swing not in the competitive travel ball circuit or with private hitting lessons, but as a teenager playing 20-, 30-, and 40-year-old men in the York men’s league. No one can figure out where or how Taylor developed his off-the-charts baseball IQ, but everyone agrees—Taylor is a hitting genius. It is his uncanny ability to adjust in a moment, to seemingly telepathically understand the catcher-pitcher’s silent back-and-forth, to see the twist of the pitcher’s hand, the spin of the ball, a late shift by the fielders, all in a blink, process that, and use a baseball bat to redirect a baseball precisely where he wants it to go. Taylor is the most unlikely of record-breaking hitters, and his brilliance in the box can only be understood (even then only somewhat) by the coaches and teammates who’ve seen and marveled at his every swing. 

THE STORYTELLERS

Jon Shehan, Millersville head coach in his 18th season, who has led the Marauders to more than 600 wins and 11 consecutive NCAA regional appearances. 

David Baker, Millersville’s longtime assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, who has been a part of the program since 2009. 

Jimmy Losh, now an assistant coach but once Taylor’s teammate and leadoff hitter whose career records for runs and triples Taylor broke this season. 

Dan Devinney, Millersville’s FCA leader and former baseball coach who attends nearly every practice and sits in the dugout every game for the last eight years. 

Conor Cook, a pitcher and teammate of Taylor’s for four years, who has often tried and often failed to retire Taylor in intrasquad scrimmages. 

Evan Rishell, a Millersville pitcher for the last four seasons and a high school teammate of Taylor. Taylor helped Rishell get noticed by Shehan, and Rishell has become an all-region reliever. 

‘WHO IS THIS KID?’

Bren Taylor’s first game as a Marauder displayed the skills that brought him to the brink of history. Playing at the Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park, Taylor worked a full-count in his first at-bat, doubled and scored his second time through the lineup, then earned a six-pitch walk and scored again. He saw 20 pitches in four plate appearances. He’s since recorded at least one hit in 164 of 202 starts and two or more hits 86 times. Taylor is about to become the first player in Millersville history to lead the team in batting average three times. Taylor, Losh, Luke Trainer (2018-22), and Tyler Orris (2013-16) are the only Marauders to record at least 230 hits and 100 walks. Taylor has the best career batting average among the 17 active Division II players with at least 400 at-bats and 160 hits. Across all levels of NCAA baseball, only Augustana’s Jack Hines (307) and Virginia Tech’s Ben Watson (310) have more hits, but Taylor has played in fewer games and has a higher batting average than both. Taylor’s career, from game one, has been the stuff of legend.   

Shehan: “His high school coach called me and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a guy who had one strikeout his junior year, and it was on a foul tip.’ I said, ‘OK, I need to see this kid.’ I said, ‘What travel team does he play for?’ His coach said, ‘He doesn’t play travel ball. He plays in the men’s league, and he’s been doing it since his freshman year.’ I took my lawn chair, sat in center field, and there were no other coaches there because it’s a men’s league game. He missed one barrel in three games.”

Baker: “He’s the only guy I’ve ever heard of (playing men’s league). Everyone is playing travel ball. He was a junior in high school and came to camp. He showed up in Sperry’s and Rec Specs, no shoe laces, and you are just like, ‘Who is this kid?’ It was interesting. Even with the shoes and the glasses, he just barreled everything. You don’t see that kind of bat-to-ball skills.” 

Shehan: “There were a bunch of college coaches who missed him at that camp. He ran a 7.1 60. He didn’t throw it great from the outfield, but he squared up every single ball in batting practice. He’s very quiet, so it was a hard read from a recruiting side of things. But when I watched him for a couple of games, I could tell he was really competitive, and that’s why we offered him.”

Rishell: “He was a junior when I was a freshman. I was on JV, and you’d always hear about how many hits he had in a game. When I moved up to varsity, it just seemed like every time he went to the plate, he got a hit. I love to tell the story of when he hit for the cycle in the same game where he had his worst pitching performance. But I don’t know if it is possible to be as good a pitcher as he is a hitter.”

Baker: “We had an intrasquad at Keystone in the preseason of his freshman year. He was facing Aidan Welch. Aidan made him look really bad on a change-up. The next pitch was a fastball right down the middle, and Bren just took it. The next pitch, Welch went back to the change-up, and Bren hit it a line drive that almost knocked his hat off. Bren was setting him up to get back to that change-up.”

Losh: “He hit a laser back at Aidan—knocked him off the mound. That’s the adjustability and learning from his swing and misses, attacking a pitch he got fooled on is what makes him really good.”

Cook: “The first time I saw him was on my junior visit in the fall of 2019. He was a freshman. The way he was built, wearing glasses and the sideburns, you wouldn’t think of him as a player. Fast forward to when I was here in the 2021 season, we were in the intrasquad phase at Keystone, and he was hitting line drive after line drive. That’s when I realized he can play.” 

Losh: “My first clear memory of him was in Houston at the start of the 2020 season, first weekend of the year. He struck out, came into the dugout, and said, ‘That’s the last time I’m striking out the rest of the year.’ Everyone was like, ‘Alright, who is this freshman?’ Turns out, he’s one of the best strikeout rate guys we’ve had in the program.”

'HE’S BASEBALL BRILLIANT'

Taylor’s career stacks up against the best of the best, and every swing of the bat and every time he touches home plate puts Taylor in more select company. Taylor and Cotellese are the only players in PSAC history with two 90-hit seasons. Taylor set the PSAC’s single-season runs record in 2022, and he is one of four players in PSAC history with two seasons of 60 or more runs scored. That group includes West Chester’s Nick Spisak, Nick Ward, and Joey Wendle. Ward, who played his final season at West Chester in 2018, is currently playing his eighth season of pro ball. Wendle played nine seasons in Major League Baseball with an All-Star selection in 2021. 

Since 1970, the PSAC has produced six Major League position players. Of that group, only McCormick, Shepherd’s Brenton Doyle (currently the Colorado Rockies center fielder), and Slippery Rock’s Matt Adams hit .400 even once as a collegiate hitter. Taylor accomplished the feat twice, batting .426 in 56 games (216 at-bats) in 2023 and .425 in 55 games (214 at-bats) in 2022. Oh, and Taylor hit .399 as a sophomore in 2021 and is currently hitting .387 after a full year away from the game. Adams hit the mark three times at The Rock before hitting .258 in 10 seasons in the big leagues and playing in two World Series. 

Taylor was not blessed with the incredible bat speed and elite athleticism possessed by McCormick and Doyle or the imposing stature and sheer strength of Adams (listed at 6-3 and 263 pounds on Baseball Reference). Taylor is a hitting savant—a baseball detective, solving pitchers using a variety of clues gathered through careful and tedious observation. He analyzes his approach and fixes his swing through countless hours in the cage.   

Baker: “It’s his intelligence and the things he sees that others don’t, finding tips off of pitchers. It’s so far more advanced than the other great hitters who have come through here. I’ve been here 15 years, and there is no one in the same category as him when it comes to intelligence, what he sees, and how he sees it.”

Shehan: Baker called (Millersville alum and former All-American) Zach Stone up and said, ‘This kid’s going to be a .400 hitter. He’s the real deal.’ You could see it early. Most guys who play early have a lot of physical talent. Bren has one of the slowest bats on our team when you look at the raw data. But the mind is so much more advanced than most.” 

Devinney: “He’s baseball brilliant. He’s so even-keeled. He never bangs his helmet. You would never know if he hit a home run or struck out. There are no highs and lows. Very steady.”

Baker: “There was one game where he took two straight curveballs right down the middle. It was 0-2, but the next pitch, he hit it out to right-center because he knew he wouldn’t get the same pitch three times in a row. He was waiting for one pitch the whole at-bat and got it.”

Devinney: “His mental game is amazing. He sets up pitchers by taking pitches, sometimes by swinging and missing so he can use it in a future at-bat. He comes back and tells all the hitters what he sees from the pitcher. He is really good at picking up grips. He shares his knowledge with his teammates.”

Losh: “One of the alums talked to the team about passing along information to the next hitter. Bren and I took that and ran with it. We got pretty good at it. We sharpened each other with that. He was looking for how the ball came out of the pitcher’s hand. How the ball was spinning, if the breaking ball pops up, if the fastball is a two-seam or four-seam, if the change-up spins the same as a fastball, or if the pitcher pronates it with side-spin. He was pretty much the guy who got that rolling…He helped me grow as a hitter in that aspect. It made me look really closely at what I was seeing.”

Rishell: “He’s really smart, and he’s a huge team guy. So he’s always looking for things that will help the team. I sit with him at the end dugout and talk about what we can pick up from a pitcher or catcher. He does it to help the team.”

‘THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT MAKE HITTERS GREAT’

The .400 batting average is the white whale for every hitter. The last major leaguer to hit .400 in a season was Ted Williams in 1941. In 1999, Erubiel Durazo hit .401 in the Double-A and Triple-A. No minor leaguer has since. While .400 seasons are more common at the collegiate level, it’s been accomplished just 23 times in Millersville history. Throw out the players who hit .400 in fewer than 40 games, and the total drops to 14. Only four Millersville hitters reached .400 in at least 200 at-bats, and that list includes three players from the national runner-up 2016 club—Dan Stoltzfus (.414), Mitch Stoltzfus (.414), and McCormick (.412). Taylor did it twice. 

For Taylor, hitting is innate. He graduated in 2023 after winning the PSAC East Athlete of the Year award for the second time and worked full-time as an educator. But he had one year of eligibility remaining, and despite already winning a PSAC Championship and NCAA Regional, he had unfinished business. He enrolled in graduate school and joined the team in January. Even after more than a year away from the game, Taylor started 2025 with a 10-game hitting streak and currently ranks seventh in the PSAC in hitting (.387) and 10th in on-base percentage (.477). He’s on his way to joining McCormick as the only four-time All-PSAC East selections in Millersville history. But more importantly to Taylor, the Marauders are ranked No. 10 in Division II with a two-game lead in the PSAC East. 

Cook: “He’s one of those guys who could not touch a bat for five years, wake up, and go find a way to get a hit.” 

Losh: “I was little skeptical about how he would come back after a year off. It’s hard when you are away from the game, and even if you are swinging it, it’s getting back into game situations. He came back in training camp, and it was about a day or two before he got right back into it. He was born to hit. You see him in the box, and it doesn’t look like he’s super hitter-ish. But he gets a barrel on everything, and that’s never going to change.”

Baker: “There might have been a weekend where he was a little behind. There’s a grace period of if he’s ready to go, having not seen live pitching in over a year. There was an intrasquad about a week in. I was standing next to Jon in the third-base coaching box. After a couple of barrels in a row, it was like, ‘He’s good to go.’ He can roll out of bed and hit.”

Devinney: “There was a game recently where Matthew (Williams) was on first base. Matthew gave a fake steal, so the shortstop broke for second. Bren, just like he was playing pool, shot it through the shortstop hole. How did he see that guy breaking? I don’t know. No one can do that.”

Shehan: “It was a two-strike count, and he hit a change-up. With some guys, you say, ‘That’s a fluke.’ But with Bren, you’ve seen it so many times that you know it’s not a fluke and that he can literally hit the ball wherever he wants to.”

Rishell: “You have to have your best when you face him. If it’s the No. 9 hitter, maybe you can get away with throwing a fastball down the middle. But with him, you can’t make one mistake pitch…you have to throw your best at all times. I feel like he’s a guy I should be able to get out, but I feel like I never can. He always finds a way to get a hit.”

Shehan: “He walked off a couple of years ago on a team that was playing him in the six-hole. He went up to the plate with a plan to hit the ball down the left-field line, and he doubled on the first fastball on the outer-half. Those are the things that make hitters great.” 

'HE’S A PRO'

Taylor’s remarkable consistency is what separates him from the rest. Before Taylor, three Marauders graduated with a .400 batting average. Mike McCarter (1990-91) hit .410 in 210 at-bats, Mike Van Gavree (1988-90) hit .405 in 398 at-bats, and Bob Rossi (1974-77) hit .401 in 232 at-bats. Taylor is hitting .406 with nearly as many at-bats (747) as the other three hitters combined. Taylor will likely be one of five PSAC hitters in the last 25 years to finish his career with a .400 batting average. Two of those hitters played only three seasons. In baseball, a sport in which failure visits more frequently than success, more chances rarely equate to higher success rates. 

More to Taylor’s consistency…

• Average with runners on base: .417
• Average with bases loaded: .406
• Average with runners in scoring position: .409
• Average vs. left-handed pitchers: .395
• Average vs. right-handed pitchers: .418

Rishell: “That consistency takes a lot of mental strength, physical toughness, and making a lot of adjustments from year to year. It’s a lot.”

Shehan: “It’s the whole body of work. His ability to adjust pitch to pitch with his swing is different. Most guys try to make an adjustment, and they’ll think about it for a week, and then it will take a week or two to stick. He’ll make a pre-game adjustment, and it will stick on the first at-bat on the first swing. He’s confident even when his swing doesn’t feel great.”

Baker: “He puts in a lot of time. There isn’t a day before the game that he isn’t getting early work in. The time he has put in the cage--it’s impressive. It doesn’t matter if he’s facing 98 or 82; it’s the same routine every day. He just hits.” 

Rishell: “Every day, he doesn’t go through the motions. He takes things so seriously. He talks about mistakes. He gets the extra work in the cages when no one is looking. You never had to ask him to do anything. He’s already been doing it.”

Losh: “A bad day for him is getting a couple of line drive barrels that happen to find a defender or sneaking a couple of dribblers through the infield and finding a way to still help the team. The consistency of it is unbelievable.”

Shehan: “When you hit as many barrels as he does, to hit .400 that long, you are going to line out so much. What is his hard-hit ball percentage to be that good? In this day and age, with the level of pitching, it is so hard to do. Even the bottom teams in the PSAC have starters throwing 95. He’s a pro.”

'HE’S THEIR LEAST FAVORITE GUY TO FACE'

On March 28, Millersville trailed Shippensburg 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning. Taylor stepped in with the bases loaded and one out. He lined the first pitch from Shippensburg closer Jack Robinson into center field for a walk-off, two-run single and a 4-3 Millersville win. Taylor’s been a menace to the PSAC East and simply outstanding in games that matter most. His career batting average against division opponents is .431. His on-base percentages border on absurdity: .463, .542, .531, .538. 

Taylor is clutch, delivering a walk-off hit in each of the last two seasons. He is at his best against the best, producing 40 career postseason hits and a .417 postseason batting average. In the 2022 PSAC Tournament, he went 8 for 19, leading Millersville to the championship and recorded two or more hits in five of the team’s seven postseason games. In 2023, he hit .500 (18 for 36) in nine tournament games, recording five hits against Seton Hill in the NCAA Super Regional and six hits in three games at the Division II World Series. 

Cook: “He was always a pain to face. He doesn’t chase any pitches outside the zone. If you throw him a pitch inside the zone, he will hit it hard somewhere. He doesn’t swing and miss. I’ve talked to pitchers from other PSAC teams, and they always say he’s their least favorite guy to face.”

Losh: “A couple of years ago, we were down against Shippensburg. We always have tight games with them, and it can get chippy sometimes. I got hit by a pitch, and I took a little exception to it and had a couple of words with the pitcher. I went to first base, and Bren was chirping from the on-deck circle. He went up, backed me up, and hit a two-run home run to give us the lead. That’s just one of those where he has my back, talking for me and backing it up with a home run.”

Devinney: “He rarely hits home runs, and that one was perfect timing. It was almost like he just decided he was going to hit a home run.”

Cook: “You can’t tell it, but he’s super competitive—a gamer. He doesn’t show his emotions, but in a big spot, he’s a guy you want up. Every time he’s up to bat, you feel like he’s going to get a hit, but in those situations where you need to get a run in, move a guy over, there’s nobody better than him. You know he’s going to find a way to hit a ground ball to the right side or hit a fly ball, whatever it needs to be.”

Rishell: “You have 100% confidence in him. The whole team, when he steps in, goes to the front of the dugout. We believe in him.”

Often, the legend outshines reality. Not with Bren Taylor. It's all true and undeniably documented in cold, unembellished numbers: 304, 224, .406, .495… There is a story in every hit, and the legend of Bren Taylor only continues to grow.