Men of the Moment

A pair of quiet right-handers who didn’t figure to have much to say about Chapman’s fortunes are expected to have major roles this weekend when the Panthers play in the NCAA Division III baseball finals.

Chapman, making its second appearance in the finals in the last four seasons, begins play in the eight-team national championship series against Allegheny College at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Appleton, Wis.

In January, Clint Blevins and Eric Hayden were way down the list on the nine-man pitching staff at Chapman. But they persevered and made the most of their opportunities last week when Chapman swept to the title at the Western Regional in Georgetown, Texas.

Hayden pitched the Panthers’ first complete game of the season in a 4-0 victory over Cal Lutheran last week. Blevins got two victories in relief.

“Late in the season you see that some guys, their arms have slowed down a little bit because they’re tired,” Hayden said. “But for us, this is like the midseason.”

It was, in fact, the middle of Chapman’s season when Hayden got a chance to prove himself. He got a rare start against Whitman, March 18 and went seven innings in a 4-1 victory.

Chapman Coach Rex Peters was impressed but still kept Hayden in the wings because the Panthers were off to a 16-2-1 start.

But Chapman lost six of its next eight games and Peters looked for ways to stop the tailspin. Hayden got his next start on April 4 against Occidental, and he took a one-hitter into the seventh inning before being replaced in a 14-8 victory. Peters was finally convinced.

Hayden went on to start five more games and finished the regular season with a 5-0 record and a 4.03 earned-run average.

In the regional game against Cal Lutheran, Hayden gave up five hits and struck out one but got 21 ground-ball outs.

“Eric used to have problems throwing high pitches and he would get hit,” Chapman pitching coach Fred Hoover said.

“But he’s learned to throw strikes and keep the ball down and let his teammates make the outs behind him. This is the first time in three years that he’s been here that he’s been getting a lot of ground-ball outs instead of fly balls.”

Blevins had a sore arm last fall, got out of shape and wasn’t approaching his classwork or pitching with the right attitude. Academically ineligible in 1999, Blevins almost flunked out again last fall, and by the time baseball season came around, he wasn’t ready to put all of his time into pitching.

Blevins said he took a long look at himself one day and decided he needed to change his attitude from classroom to dugout.

“It was a total metamorphosis. I realized that not everyone gets to play college ball,” Blevins said. “I had to approach every game like I was going to be the starter, even if I wasn’t.”

The change in attitude worked. Blevins also saw some action during the slump as Peters continued to tinker with his lineup to get the Panthers going again.

By season’s end, Blevins joined Hayden as Chapman’s hottest pitchers. Blevins made only two starts, but he relieved in 11 others and posted a 3.66 ERA in 32 innings. It was the second-best ERA on the team.

“They’re not overpowering pitchers,” Peters said of Hayden and Blevins. “But they hit the spots with their pitches and they have a command of the baseball within the strike zone. They don’t get a lot of strikeouts, but they get a lot of ground-ball outs and that’s all we ask of them.”

Their efforts have not been lost on their teammates.

Shortly after the Panthers wrapped up the regional title last week with the victory over Cal Lutheran, a game in which Blevins pitched four solid innings in middle relief, starting pitcher Tim Huff spoke about the importance of the Panthers’ bullpen.

“We would not have won this game without Clint Blevins,” he said.

Peters echoed those sentiments earlier this week in regards to Hayden.

“He came out of nowhere in the middle of the season and now he’s starting,” Peters said. “In the regional, that’s the reason we started him. In situations like that you have to go with the guy who has the hot hand.”