Swift Ends Long Wait, Beats CLU

If patience is a virtue, Cal Baptist pitcher Ray Swift is full of it.

The senior right-hander finally won his first college game Friday at Cal Lutheran as the Lancers beat the Kingsmen, 9-5, in a nonconference game. Swift had waited for and waded through four years at the Baptist school near Riverside for the chance to win a ballgame.

After his freshman season (1983-84), it was the pitcher’s misfortune that Cal Baptist dropped its baseball program because of financial problems--until this year. Swift was the only player at the college who decided to stay around and he is the only senior on the all new, if not improved, Lancer team (7-14).

Swift was 0-1 this season and wondering if he’d ever get a win. But on Friday, not only did he beat Cal Lutheran, he came within one out of a complete game.

“He waited so long for this,” Cal Baptist Coach Larry Harper said. “This is a big win for us, but especially big for Ray Swift. He hung in there and pitched very well.”

For the first five innings, though, he just hung. It looked as if Swift was just on his way to another loss when the Kingsmen jumped to a 5-0 lead. David Hallisey unloaded a two-run homer in the second inning and CLU got three more in the fifth when Mike Kusmuk bashed a fly ball into the winds swirling around in left field. Lancer left fielder Bob Wagner did a jig trying to both negotiate the breeze and make the catch. But the ball bounced off his arm, allowing CLU baserunners Mitch Ennis and Scott Francis to score. Kusmuk then scored on catcher Kevin Wynn’s ground ball.

Things began going Swift’s way in the sixth when the Lancers rallied for four runs. Cal Lutheran starting pitcher Zachary Lundin walked the first two batters in the inning, Scott Welte and Barry Henderson. Jon Bratta lined a single to right field, scoring Welte and moving Henderson to third. Lundin then fired his next pitch into the dirt and past Wynn, allowing Henderson to score.

Two batters later, Wagner made up for his error by drilling a two-run homer into the weed patch just beyond the right-field fence. That made it 5-4 and gave Swift and the Lancers something they said they lacked up to that point--hope.

Cal Baptist took the lead on three runs in the eighth inning. Steve Newcomer’s single with the bases full keyed the rally.

CLU assistant coach Don Meinhold, who is running the team during Al Schoenberger’s annual migration to spring training in Florida, was miffed by his team’s defensive collapse.

“We don’t make the plays when we need to,” he said. “I don’t understand it. We make them in practice, but, uh, not in the games. A loss like this really hurts.”