Wake Forest’s Morgan McSweeney at a crossroads

Wake Forest junior Morgan McSweeney of Hudson, Mass. (Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images)

Wake Forest pitcher Morgan McSweeney was in the midst of the worst slump of his college career in mid-April — a four-start stretch in which he logged an 0-2 record with a 10.43 ERA.

In an effort to settle himself before his next start, McSweeney (Hudson, Mass.) took himself to an even lower point in his baseball career. That moment came as a high school sophomore at St. John’s Shrewsbury, when he was cut from the varsity baseball program, leaving him as nothing more than a spectator to his baseball buddies for the spring season.

McSweeney got off the mat then, working relentlessly at Cressey Sports Performance that spring and summer before transferring to Worcester Academy. Within a year, McSweeney’s fastball velocity jumped to the low-90s, and he was being recruited by Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest, where he’s played a key role for the past three seasons.

If McSweeney could work his way back from that low point, he surely could turn this season around in time for the 2019 MLB draft in June.