From McMinnville to Wisconsin, The Road to the Championship: Part 2 by Chris Haddeland

continued from part 1: From McMinnville to Wisconsin, The Road to the Championship part 1

As we embarked to Texas for regional play we were expecting a regional title. We had the bats, the arms and the defensive play that was necessary for tournament win.

We cruised through the first two games of the tournament, holding Texas Lutheran to two hits in the first game, and blowing Pamona-Pitzer out by scoring eight runs. The third game of the tournament placed us against top-10 nationally ranked Trinity University. If we won this game we would be in the drivers seat, needing only one more win to punch our ticket to Appleton, Wisc. and the Division III World Series. We jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the fourth inning, but Trinity battled back to bring the score within one run in the sixth inning. Huckins shut the door, allowing only two base runners over his two and a third innings, handing the ball off to me for the finial inning and a third. The win put us in the championship game.

Trinity had one of if not the best pitching staff in the nation, with seven or more guys with upper 80s velocity, an uncommon ability in Division III play. Needing to win two straight against us on Saturday, Trinity took the first in a 3-2 nail biter.

With a winner-take-all game Scott Brosius handed the ball off to our closer Huckins for his first start of the year. I had already thrown over 10 innings during the week and nine more was not going to happen in the 95-degree heat. Huckins held Trinity down for over three innings allowing only one run on a solo shot in the second inning. We came back in the bottom of the second to tie the game. I took over in the fourth and did my best to keep Trinity off of the scoreboard. It wasn’t pretty, allowing five hits over the final five and two thirds, but Trinity was held scoreless while we tacked on two runs in the bottom of the sixth and punched our ticket to Appleton.

The Division III World Series was an indescribable experience. Most of our players had not played in front of a crowd of 1,000 people or more. Every game in Appleton was at least 1,000 people, with the largest crowd of over 2,500 people coming in the third game against University of Wisconsin Stevenspoint. This third game would be the most emotional win I have ever been a part of, and even more emotional than the championship win.

The previous night our long-time dedicated fan and Linfield Alumni Arnold Owens passed away while in Appleton. Arnie, as we called him, came to the majority of our practices and almost all of our games. He had been there for almost every baseball event in my two years at Linfield and had made friends with most of the guys and was very close with the coaches. Arnie knew more about our team than most of the players knew. He knew all our names, high schools we attended and positions we played. He told us stories of his experiences at Linfield way back when he was a student. Arnie made the trip to Appleton with his wife and left us with great memories. He was the example of what it meant to be part of the Linfield Baseball family.

We fell behind early to Stevenspoint surrendering one in the first and two in the seventh innings. We finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh with two runs. We finally captured the lead in the bottom of the eighth with a clutch triple from Tim Wilson followed by a sacrifice fly from Wylie and a two out single from Lindell. Like the regional, I came into get the save in the third game and place us in the championship.

After losing our next game to Ithaca, we were placed in a winner-take-all championship game once again, except this would be against Southern Maine University who we had beat 10-1 in the second game of the tournament.

I got the nod on the mound. Having only thrown eight innings prior to the championship game, I was fresh and had enough in the tank for more than nine innings. Southern Maine got to me early taking advantage of a few mistakes I had made up in the zone. Luckily they only scored one run, leaving us in good position to come back and take the lead. It took four innings, but we finally got the Southern Maine starter, who had pitched 12 innings (yes 12 innings) earlier in the day. We scored four in the inning and that was all we needed, as both teams remained scoreless for the rest of the game, leaving us as the national champions.

We celebrated for a little while on the field, but were forced to rush back to our hotel, shower and pack as we had a flight leaving Appleton that night. We touched down in Portland at about 12:30 am and still had an hour drive back to McMinnville. Although it was late, our students and some faculty were there waiting for us back at campus to congratulate us on our achievement.