By Chris Haddeland:
National champion. The idea hadn’t sunk in until a plethora of community members, faculty and fans joined the Linfield baseball team at Roy Helser Field in McMinnville to celebrate the accomplishment. While everyone celebrated I couldn’t help but think back to the past two years that led up winning a national title.
The 2012 season at Linfield College was my freshman campaign. Unlike other players, who came from all over the state and northwest, I was from McMinnville. Being the hometown player, I knew of all the success that the Linfield program had in previous years. Unfortunately, our team did not have a successful year, finishing tied for fourth in the Northwest Conference after being ranked as high as second in the nation early in the year.
Although finishing the year with over 20 wins may seem like an accomplishment for most teams, we were disappointed with our performance. Without a postseason bid, an obvious motivator was set in place for the upcoming season, to leave no doubt that we were a post season caliber team.
As the 2013 season rolled around we knew we had a solid group, but a national title team was not a thought, at least not for me. We essentially had our entire starting lineup coming back aside from one infielder. As practices continued we found out that Zach Boskovich, one of the best power hitters in program history was not going to be able to play. Boskovich had been one of the top performers and a force to be reckoned with in the middle of our line up. Another area that was a concern was the pitching staff. Although we had plenty of talented arms there was not much experience. Zach Manley (who would tear his UCL two weeks into the season) and Zach Brandon were experienced starters, Justin Huckins and myself had some experience and Garett Speyer and Aaron Thomassen had seen a few innings as well. The rest of the pitching staff would be seeing their first collegiate varsity innings.
Although experience was limited, injuries would not be a factor, as the young, inexperienced players would step up.
Our season started with a loss in Arizona. I got the start, and threw my worst game of the year, allowing four runs, two earned in nine innings. We were shut out in the contest, although we had 11 hits. From that point on our team would catch fire winning our next 10 games before dropping a mid week game to Division II Montana State University Billings.
Over the next five weeks we would win all five of our league series, rising in the rankings to the number two spot.
In April we had our last out of conference Division III test in Southern California. The four games would show how we stacked up against the best competition in the west region. We took care of business handily, winning every game by four runs or more. At this point I knew we were a national contender, and all we needed to do was capture the Northwest Conference Title over George Fox University to gain our automatic berth into the NCAA postseason.
We swept the Bruins and clinched our birth in the second to last week of conference play. Our regular season run was mostly led by guys who had break out seasons. Two of our outfielders, Jake Wylie and Nick Fisher had great seasons. Their bats were never a question coming into the season, but their defensive play was a major concern. These two converted into outfielders at the end of the 2012 season, and everyone held their breath when a fly ball was hit at them last season. With a year of experience under their belts, the two became valuable defensive players in the outfield making only one error a piece in 181 opportunities. The top veteran returners improved their performance from last year, with Kramer Lindell and Tim Wilson each batting over .400 during the regular season.
The most astonishing play may have come from our young pitching staff. We had the talent, just not the experience. With five senior pitchers departing a year ago Thomassen and myself were forced to take over the number one and two slots in the rotation. Both of us flourished with the increased workload, posting sub 2 ERAs during conference play. Brandon continued his consistent play, holding down the third and final game of the weekend series. Huckins and Speyer each had remarkable years, saving 10 games between the two.
[…] continued from part 1: From McMinnville to Wisconsin, The Road to the Championship part 1 […]