The NAI A 1983 World Series

Story by Rick A Cumings

Lubbock , Texas was the site of the 27th annual NAIA World Series. For the Flames, itwastheir third trip,having finished fifth intheir twoprevious visits

Coming offfive straight wins intheDistrict 29 and Area 8 play-offs,the Flames were determined toachieve their pre-season goal — bringing home the national championship.

But they got right off to an ominous start, losing toCoastal Carolina 5-2despite the strong pitching ofKyle Bryan. Bryan scattered sixhits ineight innings,striking out four.Heallowed only one run,butfive errors quenched the Flames' fire. LBC could only manage four hits, allbutoneof them a single

In game twoagainst Southwestern University from Texas, the Flames fared a little better They made each hitcount. They converted sixsingles into five runs fora5-3win.Senior David Harrispitched 8 1/3 innings before leaving to let reliever Joe Clark come infrom left field to mop up. TheFlames'vaunted offense stillonly simmered

Ingame three against Southern Arkansas, Kevin Napier went 7 2/3 innings, striking out four whileallowingonly sixhits Again, Joe Clark came infor thesave LBC'sattack finally began to stir, mostly inthe bat of senior third baseman Mark deYmaz. deYmaz belted a home run andaccounted for three RBI's. Todd Nelson and Pat Sipe also recorded two hits as the Flames opened up a 10-hit attack. deYmaz also made thedefensive play ofthegame in the ninth inning to insure thesecond victory by a run, 4-3.

Finally,ingame four,the offense woke screaming astheFlames pounded out 20 hits for 17runs Unfortunately,Union Uni- versity ofTennessee also had its offense going full out,scoring 21 runs.

Jimmy Bevins led theway, going fivefor-six and scoring three runs. deYmaz poked another homer, this one a grand slammer,ashe went three-for-three, including twosingles and three RBI's

The Flames used four pitchers trying to stem the human tide,buttono avail Joe Clark made histhird appearance infour games, butthis time wasn't the charmer

Out of21 runs scored byUnion,only 13 were earned with the rest coming from seven LBCerrors.

Both Mark deYmaz and Jimmy Bevins were named to theAll-Tournament team for their efforts Infour games deYmaz hit .500 with twohome runs, eight RBI's and one double. Bevins went five-for-nine (.556), driving in two runs and scoring three.

It wasn't quite the result the team wanted, but it gave the younger players a chance togetnational tournament experience and it brought toaclose the Flames' bestseason yet The squad proved thatthe firsttwoappearances at this World Series were noflukeand that they,perhaps,were only setting the stage for walking off with the whole thing thecoming year

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