La Verne Baseball Team Makes Name for Itself

Owen Wright, La Verne baseball coach, said his team was the unknown entity in this year’s NCAA Division III World Series.

Unknown?

Surely La Verne was noticed for its No. 3 national ranking and a 35-8 record. A 21-0 record in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference points to quality and consistency.

“We went out there [Salem, Va.] and the people and papers kept saying we were the underdog,” Wright said. “I think they felt, ‘Oh another West Coast team, they never do well,’ but we had a bunch of guys who just wanted to win this thing.”

By the time the Leopards beat Methodist of North Carolina, 5-3, in the World Series championship on Wednesday, everybody knew about them.

La Verne’s team isn’t dominating, just solid in every aspect: hitting, pitching and defense.

Especially pitching.

Jeff Doen, who was the winner in the first and final games of the series, was the ace of the staff, finishing 10-2. He was named to the all-tournament team. J.D. Romero (9-3) was the SCIAC’s MVP, won a game in the tournament and got a save in the final. Greg Vargas, La Verne’s third starter, had a 10-1 record and won a game in the series.

The Leopards’ offense was also solid--they batted .325 as a team--but not dominating. In the championship game, Jeff Polinsky and Mike Smith came up with the clutch hits, Polinsky hitting a two-run homer and Smith a two-run single.

Polinsky, who was named the tournament’s outstanding player, joined Smith, David Madrid and Doen on the all-tournament team.

The NCAA championship is the first in men’s sports for La Verne, which won the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics baseball championship in 1972. La Verne’s women’s volleyball team won an Assn. of Intercollegiate Women’s Athletics title in 1981 and an NCAA Division III title in 1982.

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Sweet and sour: Terry Franson has won many NAIA titles. In coaching the Azusa Pacific men’s track and field team to 11 in the last 13 years, he might even have anticipated winning a few of them.

But not last week.

Lubbock Christian of Texas looked too good. And when Azusa Pacific had jumped out to a huge lead in points at the NAIA indoor meet in February, Lubbock Christian zoomed by to win the title.

Those memories during the outdoor meet on Memorial Day weekend were inescapable as Lubbock picked up points and momentum.

Of course, it didn’t turn out the same way. Azusa Pacific won the title after Jon Davis’ heroics in the discus had provided unexpected points and a 105 1/3-104 victory.

Davis was expected to finish sixth or seventh in the event, but finished fourth. Fourth was worth five points--sixth is worth three--and that proved to be the difference.

“It’s probably as sweet as it’s ever been--to win it on a throw by a guy who’s been struggling was so great,” Franson said. “I’m going to savor this for a long time.”

Franson was happy for Davis, but Davis wasn’t happy for Davis.

When the meet was over, Davis took a folding chair out to a far corner of the track complex at Azusa Pacific and stared into space, his eyes watering. He shrugged off congratulations by school officials, coaches and teammates who told him he had won a national championship for the school.

Tears of joy? Overcome by a moment? Not exactly.

Davis was so disappointed in his performance, he was completely unconvincing when he said he was happy for the team and school.

Fellow field athlete Rene Bustamante scored 24 points for the Cougars and inexplicably was not named the meet’s top performer, but was obviously aglow when Azusa Pacific was officially announced as the winning team.