Mike Murphy lit up the Harris Field scoreboard the same way lightning lit up the western sky Saturday night as Lewis Clark State College thundered past Grand Canyon 9-3 to lay claim to an unprecedented fourth National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics baseball championship in the last five years.
“Nature was with us, and we were responding,” said Murphy, who drove in four runs and was one of four LCSC players to hit home runs before a festive but wet Harris Field crowd of 4,576. “Our bats were rumbling like the thunder tonight.”
The Warriors, who finished another banner season with a 45-20 record, had all facets of their game in top working order in sending the Antelopes back to
Phoenix, Ariz., with the runnerup trophy and a 49-20 record.
For one thing, the LCSC offense was up to its old tricks, cracking out 11 hits, including homers by Duane Church, Steve Decker, Pat Mackey and Murphy. Also banging out three hits and driving in a run was Joe Padilla, the hero of the ’85 Series who returned to the Lewiston school after sitting out two seasons.
In the meantime, the Warrior pitching, in the capable hands of left-hander Steve Callahan and reliever Steve Reed, combined to shut down a heavy-hitting Grand Canyon team on just seven hits.
Only Joe French's solo home runs in both the fourth and seventh innings and an RBI groundout by Kevin Schmitt in the second frame kept the Lopes from being completely short-circuiting.
“Mike (Murphy) gets those four RBIs early in the game for us, and that’s the key,” said LCSC Coach Ed Cheff, whose club exacted a large measure of revenge after losing title games to the Antelopes in both the ’82 and ’86 Series. “We jump on them early, and once we get three or four runs, cur pitchers are a little finer and don’t have to worry about bases on balls. We get just what we expect from Callahan — great stuff.”
Callahan, a junior from Clarkston, deserved his selection as the tournament’s most valuable player by shutting out Point Park on six hits last week and then coming back in Saturday night’s title game to fan nine Lopes, including six of nine during one stretch.
With his favorite pitch — the split-finger fastball — working wonders, Callahan, who walked only one and posted a sparkling 11-2 season record, scattered five hits but tired in the top of the seventh after yielding French’s second homer to right center. He followed that by walking his first and only batter.
In came Reed, who had tossed a complete-game 11-4 victory over Emporia State in the ’87 finale, and the senior right-hander from Chatsworth, Calif., again responded to the challenge by closing the door on the Antelopes. When pinch-hitter Kurt Kasik went down on strikes to end it, the partisan LCSC crowd let out its fourth victory cry in the last five years since the national tournament moved to Lewiston.
Church, one of 11 outgoing LCSC seniors, had thunder in his bat for the third straight championship game dating back to 1986 when he collected three hits, including a homer, only to have his Warriors lose to the Lopes 5-4 in 10 innings.
Last year, Church was a perfect 2-for-2 in the romp over Emporia State, and on Saturday night he was at it again, this time putting the wood to one of
reliever Don Vidmar’s sliders in the fifth for his second Series homer of the week to extend LCSC’s lead to 7-2. Two batters before, Decker had belted his 13th homer of the season over the center-field fence.
“He (Vidmar) just grooved it, so I hit it,” Church said. “Hey, it’s the last game of the year, and you go all out, and there’s nothing to hold you back.”
There was certainly nothing holding back the Warrior offense, which provided Callahan with two quick first-inning runs on Murphy’s off-field double to right that Lopes’ right-fielder French got a late start on. The two-bagger plated Reggie Brown and Padilla, who had walked and singled, respectively.
Mackey, last year’s MVP in this tournament, showed flashes of his old brilliant self by leading off the third with his fourth homer of the year, a blast he got around late on and sent on a towering drive to right. Three batters later, Murphy jumped on starter Dan Stenz’ O-and-2, pitch and belted it far over the left- field fence with a mate aboard to make it 5-1. Moments later, Stenz was gone.
“That (homer) really felt good,” Murphy said. “It was a left-handed slider breaking ball, although I was looking for a fastball. I just adjusted to it and hit it well.”
Although Warriors’ right-fielder Dennis Springenatic failed to get a hit, he walked twice plus being hit by a pitch, and it was his hustling nature that earned him the Charlie Hustle Award.
Bingo, as his mates like to call him, nearly made the final out after running down a long foul ball in the top of the ninth.
“I worked hard for this trophy — I wanted this trophy from the start,” said Springenatic, a steady .333 hitter during the regular season and Series. “Winning the championship is great, and the fans were great. It’s an exhilarating feeling, and it’s the best feeling in the four years I have been here.”
Brown, LCSC’s leadoff batter who scored twice and had a single, said playing in and winning the NAIA crown was almost what he had expected.
“But I really never realized that it would be this spectacular,” said Brown, a transfer from Fullerton, Calif., who scored on Mackey’s seventh-inning single with Mackey later checking in on Padilla’s single to center. “I’m glad to be a part of it. We came out early and knew what we had to do with the bats.”
The Warriors, who carried the lowest batting average (.294) of any of the 10 original teams, were never retired in order by four Lopes’ pitchers. In fact, LCSC stranded 13 baserunners to just three for the visitors from Phoenix.
With the victory, Lewis Clark State now joins Grand Canyon as the only NAIA schools to claim four national championships each.
“That’s what this is all about,” said Mackey, who also had a double in addition to his homer. “It was nine months of work, and it came down to this in the rain. I would give up all the hits in the world to be right here in the winner’s circle.”
