BUTLER TWP— Tim Geibel couldn't stay on the field last year.

The Butler baseball team couldn't imagine this year with him off it.

Geibel, who led the Golden Tornado with a .521 batting average and a 5-2 record with a 2.53 earned run average on the mound, now will play at Wheeling Jesuit College.

"He's a quiet person, but pretty intense on the field,"Butler coach Dave Florie said. "He was always the first one to show up at the field and he did everything asked of him.

"And he put together an incredible season."

Geibel walked only 14 batters in 2008 — averaging barely two per seven innings — and struck out only five times in 56 plate appearances.

He collected 25 hits in 48 at-bats, going above .500 for the season by collecting three hits in Butler's WPIALplayoff loss to Plum.

"All the years I've been coaching, I don't think I've ever had a guy hit over .500 for an entire high school season,"Florie said. "That's amazing."

It's more amazing when one considers Geibel barely hit .200 in 16 at-bats his junior year.

"I began that season playing third base because Andy (Onufrak) was injured,"Geibel said. "He was a senior and a pretty good player, so when he came back, he got his position back."

Geibel said he became a different hitter this year because he was more aggressive at the plate.

"I went up there with a lot more confidence," he said. "I always tried to hit the first good fastball I saw and laid off the curve. That worked for me."

Wheeling Jesuit has had a baseball program for only three years. Its coach, Terry Edwards, coached high school baseball at Wheeling Central for 25 years.

Wheeling Jesuit has put together won-loss records of 11-40, 12-31 and 12-35 this far.

"The first year, we were just building numbers with virtually all freshmen,"Edwards said. "We showed some improvement in our second year and got off to a great start last year, when we could finally evaluate what we had."

Wheeling Jesuit hit .348 as a team during its Florida trip this season, but the season sank into a sea of narrow losses.

"We lost three games with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. We lost a game 2-1 in 11 innings,"Edwards said. "We lost eight games by one run, six games by two runs.

"Our pitching has struggled since we started the program."

That's where Geibel comes in. Edwards won't rule him out of his starting rotation as a freshman.

"We'll make that determination in the fall,"Edwards said. "But Tim Geibel is a big, strong pitcher who has good command and good control.

"I like the presence he shows on the mound. He's an even-keel guy and nothing seems to get to him."

A first baseman when he wasn't pitching for Butler, Geibel hopes to carry that same role in college.

"I want to be a four-year starter and an everyday player. That's my goal," he said.

"If Tim hits for us like he hit this spring, we can make a pitcher-first baseman work," Edwards said.

ADivision IIprogram, Wheeling Jesuit plays in the WVIAC's North Division.

Florie said Geibel, who carried a 3.54 grade point average in high school and plans to major in accounting, has a realistic shot to earn a starting spot next spring.

"If a kid wants to play in college right away, go to a new program,"he said.