COLLEGE BASEBALL: NCAA DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIP : Cal Lutheran ‘Rats’ Form Devilish Bond

It began with filthy practice pants, including a pair worn by Cal Lutheran outfielder Pete Martin that have never been washed.

Inspired by the way his players dived into the dirt, Coach Rich Hill started calling them “rats.”

One day, he brought a rat to practice. It became the team mascot and was dubbed “Freddy,” after the horror-film character Freddy Krueger.

Krueger is a favorite of the No. 1-ranked Kingsmen, who will play in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament tonight against Methodist (N.C.) College, because he finishes off his victims.

“You gotta go after the jugular of your opponents,” Cal Lutheran left-hander Pat Norville said.

Added right-hander Steve Dempsey, “Once you’re up, you can’t let anyone bounce back. You gotta slice ‘em.”

As a constant reminder, the Kingsmen travel with a poster of Krueger that they hang in the dugout.

The original Freddy died after just one week of service and is buried in the mound of their home field in Thousand Oaks.

Norville and Dempsey visited Freddy’s grave with catcher Eddie Lample the night before Cal Lutheran clinched the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with a win over Redlands. The players slept in a tent pitched over Freddy’s grave in an attempt to “confine all our energy on the mound,” according to Norville.

Infielder Jason Wilcox and outfielder Darrell McMillin tried to scare them from the sacred burial ground with a 2 a.m. visit that spooked Dempsey into throwing a rake into the visiting dugout, but the battery mates lasted the night.

They were slightly more comfortable than Martin, Wilcox, pitcher Louis Birdt, shortstop Dan Smith and first baseman Jay Lucas.

That group slept on the locker-room floor in full uniform the night after one of their rare losses, a defeat to La Verne. Lucas slept with one hand in his glove and the other clutching his bat.

The players hatched the idea earlier that evening at a gathering of the 35-member team in a tiny dorm room to hash over the loss and vow that it would not be repeated.

The Kingsmen, 40-4 and in the hunt for a national championship, have a shared--if warped--mind-set, but it stems from sweat and sacrifice.

Three-a-day practices in January and intense mental training sessions have united the players.

“Everyone wants to win, but we’re in a microwave society,” Hill said. “Everyone wants instant gratification. There’s no doubt in my mind that these guys have paid the price and more.”