GRINNELL, Iowa - Today, Grinnell College's Jake Chavez '01 is being honored as one of the Midwest Conference's Top 100 Student-Athletes as part of the league's centennial celebration.
Twenty years after graduating, Chavez remains the lone Pioneer to achieve a very rare baseball feat. Chavez, a 2014 inductee into Grinnell College's Athletics Hall of Fame, tossed the first and only perfect game in GC baseball program history. The feat was achieved on May 2, 1999, in the second game of a home twin bill against Coe College. In the 6-0 victory, Chavez struck out 13 batters. He went on to earn D3baseball.com All-America third-team honors that season while leading all divisions of NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings with 15.6. That mark currently ranks fifth all-time at the NCAA-III level, a category where two entries are by former Major League Baseball star Billy Wagner.
For his career, Chavez ranks eighth all-time in D-III in fewest hits per nine innings with 5.71. Chavez's name appears eight times in the MWC record book, and he still holds the league mark for strikeouts in a season and career with 115 in 1999 and 315, respectively. He had 16 strikeouts against Macalester College in 1999 and 15 against Knox College that same year, figures that rank second and ninth in conference history. His 1.09 ERA in 1999 is seventh-lowest in MWC history as his 2.17 career ERA. Chavez's consistency is remarkable, as he was named to the All-MWC first team all four of his seasons and tabbed the MWC South Division Pitcher of the Year his sophomore through senior years.
Chavez is listed 29 times in the Grinnell record book and is the leader in 10 categories – strikeouts in a game; ERA, lowest opponent batting average (.181 in 2001), wins (eight in 2000) and strikeouts in a season; and strikeouts per nine innings (12.42), wins (22), complete games (13), innings pitched (228.1) and strikeouts (315) in a career. After graduation, Chavez went on to play professional baseball in the Frontier League and Mexican League.
About the MWC Top 100 selections
Individual schools were given an allotment of selections based number of years in the conference and length of time sports were offered to males and females. Grinnell was given nine slots, five for men's sports and four for women's. A committee at the College was presented an initial group of nominees created by the Sports Information Director, and that list was expanded upon by committee members. Through a number of meetings, the nominations were carefully whittled down to the final nine selections. More on the MWC Centennial program can be found here.
