North Pole One of 11 Teams Left : Nicks Unbeaten, Reach Semifinal

The novelty of the North Pole Nicks may be wearing thin at the National Baseball Congress World Series.

Originally, they were the team from the top of the world. Eskimos playing baseball.

“We took a lot of rags about being Santa Claus’ team,” Manager Mike Gillespie said. “But our name arouses interest, and people are getting behind us.”

That was before Sunday night, however, when the fifth-seeded Nicks beat the Wichita Broncos, 11-5, before 7,200 Wichita partisans at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

It was the Alaskan League champions’ third straight victory in the tournament.

“It’s a good start for us,” said Gillespie, who is baseball coach at College of the Canyons in Valencia. “But to be honest, there are seven or eight teams that can win this thing.”

Originally, there were 34 teams in the tournament. Now there are 11. Only three are undefeated.

Tonight, the number of unbeaten teams will drop to two, as the Nicks play College Station, Tex., at 5:45 p.m. (PDT).

Randy Hennis, a freshman at UCLA, will be the starting pitcher for the Nicks.

College Station advanced to the semifinal game in dramatic fashion, scoring two runs in the bottom of the 15th inning in a 6-5 victory over two-time defending champion Grand Rapids, Mich., on Monday.

North Pole’s route was much easier. The Nicks (37-19) scored eight runs in the first three innings to make it easy on winning pitcher Steve French.

The former Saugus High and Canyons hurler overcame a shaky first inning to record the seven-inning victory. The game was called under the Baseball Congress run rule, which ends a contest when a team’s lead is six runs or more after seven innings.

French was supported by three-run home runs by Mark Grace (San Diego State) and Alan Stankiewicz (Cal State Fullerton).

Former Granada Hills and Canyons second baseman Jeff Hughes added a two-run single in the second inning, and Pepperdine shortstop Andy Stankiewicz had a run-scoring hit in the third.

A feeling of confidence is spreading on the team, Gillespie said.

“When we first got here, we wanted to believe that we were as good as anyone in the tournament,” he said.

“Now that they’ve won three in a row, the players are really getting a little sniff of the fact that we can win this thing.”