He won’t be wearing the red and white of Bridgeport High School when school starts Tuesday, but there’s a good chance many will remember the last time he donned the colors for quite some time. Count Alderson-Broaddus as among those already remembering what Gordon Swiger did when sporting an Indians uniform on the baseball field.

 

Swiger, who helped lead the Tribe to an unprecedented fourth straight Class AA state baseball championship in June, officially signed to become a member of the Battlers’ program this afternoon. The signing ceremony took place in the BHS library with family, coaches and teammates by his side.

 

“I’ve been excited about this ever since I went there and visited and really liked the coaching staff,” said Swiger, who plans on studying environmental science. “When I was visiting, they were practicing and I noticed how organized and focused everyone was and that was something I liked. What really made it unique is at the same time they were having fun and joking around. The atmosphere was positive.”

 

Positive has been around Swiger, who has seen nothing but championships during his BHS time, since joining the varsity program. All of his time with the Indians was under BHS Coach Robert Shields, who was also on hand at the signing. He was thrilled for his departed senior.

 

“He meant a lot to the team and he was a pleasure to coach,” said Shields. “A-B is getting a good one.”

 

While Swiger was solid in the field and at the plate, it was on the mound where he helped pace the Indians to another title and another 30-win season. Despite being the starter against many of the top teams in and out of the state, Swiger finished with an 8-2 record that landed him on the “AA” all-state second team and on the all-Big 10 Conference first team.

 

Just how strong was Swiger on the mound?

 

By season’s end, Swiger pitched 62 and 2/3 innings during the 2017 season striking out 71 batters and walking just 19 and allowing 45 hits. For the season, he yielded just 25 runs.

 

While all the overall numbers were critical, Swiger may have saved his best game for the biggest game he would appear in. In the Class AA semifinal contest at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, he tossed a two-hit gem with 12 strikeouts against three walks in a 4-0 win over James Monroe that propelled BHS into the title game.

 

“He’s going to get bigger and stronger and with that added strength you’ll see an even better fastball. With him concentrating on one sport, I also think it will help,” said Shields of Swiger, who was the Indians’ starting quarterback and defensive back in football. “I think the one thing Gordon can and will improve on is locating his pitches when he has a batter down in the count. He’s going to become difficult to hit when he really figures out how to make batters swing at bad pitches, which I’m confident will happen.”

 

Swiger agreed with his former coach’s assessment.

 

“It’s definitely something I need to work at. It comes down to being focused when you’re up 0-2 on a batter because when you’re up in the count you’re grooving along so you don’t even think about not throwing a strike,” said Swiger.  “ … I know I need to make pitchers swing at stuff out of the zone, off-speed stuff, to improve my game on the mound.”

 

Swiger was also a standout in the outfield and was no slouch at the plate. Shields said he could cover plenty of ground in the outfield and ended up driving in 23 this season along with five doubles.

 

Shields, who emphasized Swiger wanted the ball in the big games, said a lot of people didn’t realize that Swiger started the year at less than 100 percent. An injury, the coach said, led to a somewhat shaky start.

 

“He was sluggish early, but that was because of a twisted ankle and not because he wasn’t ready. Once he got going, I think he won six or seven in a row,” said Shields. “As the season wore down, he was just phenomenal. He’s also good enough in the outfield that I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility of him being a two-way player.”

 

Swiger said he believes early on that he’ll be used in Philippi as a pitcher. He said he’d like to work his way into an everyday player as well.

 

“Primarily, I’ll be a pitcher when I get started. Hopefully, I’ll work hard enough and improve enough that as time goes on that I’ll see time in the outfield,” said Swiger. “We’ll see what happens.”

 

At Alderson-Broaddus, Swiger will play for Coach Matt Yurish. It’s likely Yurish and the Battlers were also impressed with Swiger during the most recent American Legion season where Swiger was a key player on the Post 68 squad that made it to the state title game.

 

The Tribe standout also considered West Virginia Wesleyan, Fairmont State and Salem International. He also visited Marietta College for football.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Gordon Swiger surrounded by his mother Alicia Swiger and father Bubby in the front row and sister Fallyn on the far left. Back row, from left, is teamate Brayden Lesher, Coach Robert Shields, Wes Brown and teammate Drew Hefner. Bottom two photos, by www.benqueenphotography.com, were taken during and after the win over James Monroe.