Warriors sweep through Series

This story was originally published in the May 29, 1987, Tribune.

Exploding for seyen runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Lewis-Clark State College Warriors capped a memorable 1987 baseball season Thursday night by stinging the Emporia State Hornets 11-4 to capture the NAIA World Series before 4,912 screaming partisans at Harris Field.

Brett Holley’s two-run double, one of eight hits in the inning, turned out to be the game-winner in helping put LCSC’s final record ait 55-lCh

Like the Israelites of Joshua’s day, the Warriors took no prisoners in their romp to a third national championship in the last four years. A number of batting records fell by the wayside while right-hander Steve Reed provided some semblance of order in a Series that saw most pitchers’ earned run averages skyrocket.

Offensively, LCSC Coach Ed Cheff said without reservation it was “the most dominating team I've ever had here,” quite a statement considering the way his 1983 Warriors could also hit the ball. “The entire team played up to its full potential in the Series.”

It may have been the most convince ing victory in the history of the NAIA Series that started in 1957 when Sul Ross State of Texas won the first national title by scoring a grand total of 25 runs.

The; Warriors scored that many Wednesday and finished with 105 runs arid 102 hits, both Series records. Their triumphs came by scores of 16-0 over Anderson, 17-2 oyer Eton, 13-10 and 11-4 over Emporia State, 23-3 over Southern Arkansas and 25-11 over Grand Canyon.

Never held below 11 runs in any of its six games, Lewis-Clark State has now

won three NAIA World Series, tying it with Lewis, Ill., for second best. Grand Canyon, with its dramatic 10-inning win over LCSC in the ’86 finals, owns the record with four national crowns.

Even Rusty Harris, the LCSC shortstop who won both the Hustle and Golden Glove awards, had Grand Canyon in mind when he and his mates were celebrating their second Series win over the Hornets.

“Where the heck is Grand Canyon? I don’t see them around anywhere,” chided the Warrior senior after playing in his fourth straight national tournament. “Last year, the best team didn’t win the title, but this year the best team did. We deserved it.”

No one in the near-capacity crowd would doubt Harris’ statement, but for the first 6½ innings of the title game, the Warriors were not really the best team, being locked in a rare struggle after runaway victories in their first five contests.

In fact, when Emporia leadoff batter John Hernandez homered to right with a mate aboard in the top of the seventh, the Kansans had regained the lead at 4- 3, and the LCSC batters were now trying to figure out how to get to Hornet ace reliever Jaime Cuesta after haying had enough problems trying to solve starter Saul Soltero’s offerings through the first 5⅔ innings.

But then the crowd got a wave started in the bottom of the seventh at about the time twins Montie and Lonnie Phillips opened with singles.

With Pat Mackey, the Series’ most valuable player, at the plate, Soltero uncorked a wild pitch that appeared to hit Mackey on the foot as the Phillipses moved up to second and third. But plate umpire Don Slusher ruled that the ball did not touch Mackey.

But Mackey then sliced an RBI single to right to tie the game 4-4, but Steve Decker went down on strikes, leaving runners at first and third with one down. That’s when Holley stepped up and delivered the game-winning RBI, a double up the alley in left center to put the Warriors on top for good at 6-4.

That’s all Reed, 7-2, would need, but LCSC was just warming up. The southpaw Cuesta, who had 16 saves to his credit, ran into some tough luck when Ray Atkinson and Duane Church legged out infield hits to load the bases.

“The little things like infield hits are what you can’t afford to give L-C,” remarked Emporia State Coach Dave Bingham after his club finished at 55-13. “Once they are able to create situations, then a guy like Harris can blow the game wide open.”

“You can’t imagine how good that felt,” Holley said of his tiebreaking double in the seventh inning, giving L-C a 6-4 lead. “After what happened to us last year, I feel bad for Emporia because I know how they must feel now.”

“This team had togetherness and they got the job done,” Cheff said. “I’d say Holley’s hit was the clutch one of the game. And when Harris came up with the bases loaded, he was thinking about dragging a bunt. But I told him to drive the ball somewhere and he did.”

Reed said he threw a lot of fastballs late in the game after going with a steady diet of sliders early.

“When we got the lead, I made them put it in play,” said Reed, who is hoping to be drafted by a pro club. “They were taking a lot of first pitches.”

Mackey, who struck out his first two times up to break his 17-on-base streak, made two diving catches of line shots in the early innings, and Cheff said “those two catches kept us in the game at that time."