College World Series : Shockers Don’t Require Sun to Win Title

The Wichita State baseball team came to the College World Series intent on proving that you don’t have to play in a state with year-round sunshine to win the national championship.

The Shockers, with all due respect to past champions from California, Arizona, Florida and Texas, were anxious to gain some national respect of their own.

“All these warm-weather schools have won the Series year in and year out,” Wichita State pitcher Greg Brummett said. “We just wanted to come in and show the people that the Midwest has got a baseball team. A baseball team that’s from Wichita.”

The Shockers defeated Texas, 5-3, Saturday before a crowd of 13,701 at Rosenblatt Stadium to win Wichita State’s first National Collegiate Athletic Assn. title in any sport.

Wichita State’s victory marks the first time since 1966, when Ohio State did it, that a Midwestern school has won the Series.

Brummett, a senior right-hander, was the dominant player Saturday. He tied a Series record by recording his third victory of the tournament, beating the four-time national champion Longhorns.

Brummett (18-2) allowed only one earned run on six hits. Mixing his fastball, slider and changeup, he struck out six and retired 16 batters on ground balls.

“He (Brummett) was everything today that I was afraid he would be,” said Texas Coach Cliff Gustafson, who tied former USC Coach Rod Dedeaux with a record 15th appearance in the World Series.

Meanwhile, Texas starter Scott Bryant (1-1) was unable to find the strike zone and was removed after just two-thirds of an inning. The senior right-hander, an All-American designated hitter who was pressed into service as a pitcher late in the season, gave up a run and a hit and issued four walks before he was replaced by Brian Dare.

Shortstop Pat Meares provided the game-winning hit in the bottom of the fifth inning when he followed a one-out single by Joey Wilson with a home run over the left-field fence to make the score 5-2.

Texas, which had made only two errors in the tournament entering the championship game, committed three in the second inning, enabling the Shockers to take a 3-0 lead.

The Longhorns were already behind, 1-0, the result of a first-inning, run-scoring single by Bryant Winslow, when third baseman Craig Newkirk’s fielding error on a ground ball allowed Mike Jones to reach first base. Later, Newkirk failed to handle a throw during a rundown between third and home plate, allowing Jones to score. The Shockers added another run on a throwing error by second baseman David Tollison.

“I really don’t know how to explain that. . . .,” Gustafson said of his team’s breakdown. “That really turned out to be the difference in the ballgame.”

Wichita State (68-18), seeded fourth in what began as an eight-team, double-elimination tournament, beat No. 5 Arkansas in the first round, then lost to top-seeded Florida State. The Shockers had to defeat Arkansas again and beat Florida State twice to win the East Division and face No. 2 Texas, which went unbeaten through the West Division.

“We faced elimination in California (in the West II Regional at Fresno) in a hostile environment on three separate occasions and overcame it,” said Wichita State Coach Gene Stephenson, who has a 681-216-3 record in 12 years with the Shockers. “We faced elimination here three separate times and overcame it. . . .We’re just as proud as we can be.”

College World Series Notes

Total attendance for this year’s World Series was a record 132,865, breaking last year’s mark of 132,698. . . .Wichita State All-American Greg Brummett, who was 3-0 against the Southwest Conference (he beat Arkansas twice and Texas once), was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. . . .Wichita State first baseman Bryant Winslow, who played the entire tournament with a stress fracture in his right leg, was forced to leave the game after a fifth-inning collision at the bag with Lance Jones. . . .Texas finished 53-18. The 18 losses are the most in Cliff Gustafson’s 22 years as head coach.