4 minute read
1987 National Champions
By Tom Ensey -- Troy SID (1979-97)
In 1987, Troy State won its second straight NCAA Division II Baseball Championship. The celebration of 1986 was still in full swing when the first person asked, “Can you do it again?”
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Uh, well...
The tone was set early for the coming season. Comparisons between the two teams were inevitable and began before the 1987 squad even hit the field. The 1986 club left an all-but-impossible act to follow. They posted an eye-popping 46-8 record, utterly demolished good teams along the way and staged incredible, dramatic comebacks in championship play. It was as if Hollywood had scripted the season, as if some screenwriter had imagined the archetypical team of destiny and put them on the field in Troy uniforms.
The ‘87 team would battle the memory of ‘86 as surely as they would face hard-eyed opposing pitchers and batters who wanted nothing more than to knock the crown off the defending champions’ heads. By the time the ‘87 season started, 1986 had receded into the all-forgiving past, and typically, fans recalled something more like a highlight film than reality.
And of course, the fans also expected the new edition to pick up where the legend left off, though new faces and untested players abounded.
The season started, and the wheels came off.
Troy State split its first doubleheader, split its second and lost its third. It was like watching somebody drown. Two-and-four to start the year, enduring three shutouts. This was not against championship competition, to put it kindly. The record inched over .500 as the young season progressed, but the uphill climb was anything but pretty. The Trojans hovered between mediocrity and collapse.
Chase Riddle, the silver-haired, veteran coach, had seen a lot of ups and downs over his career. He wasn’t exactly cheerful during the rough going, but he counseled calm and patience.
April 4 was a ridiculous day for baseball, with 20 degree temperatures and stinging winds after a freakish Alabama snowstorm. At the home of arch-rival Jacksonville State, TSU’s record dipped to a chilling 12-9, 1-2 in the Gulf South Conference after losing the first game of a league doubleheader. James Wray, the ace of the staff, lasted five innings, surrendered five runs, and took the loss for an un-acely 2-3 record. After two innings of the second game, TSU trailed 8-0 and was staring down the barrel of a disgracefully early exit from league contention.
Forget about national championships and all that jazz.
It would be nice to say the wind changed directions and grew suddenly warm, or the sun broke through the frozen clouds as TSU mounted its comeback. But no omens underscored the rally. The guys finally started getting the bat on the baseball. When the game ended, TSU had banged out a 13-9 win and was still alive in the GSC race. After the game, the prevalent emotion was weak-kneed relief, the kind one would find after surviving a bad car crash.
If there was a turning point to the 1987 season, that was it. And come to think of it, the weather did warm up with TSU’s hitting and pitching. After that, nature began to burst with rebirth as Trojan hopes rose. It seemed like the rest of the team’s days were played on beautiful, shining spring days.
Things began to turn around, but slowly. The team teetered on the brink. It survived one close call after another. But TSU always managed to scrape by. Toward the end of the regular season, the Trojans were a good baseball team, fulfilling half of Riddle’s prophecy. And like the old man said, if they make up their minds...
The record was 20-10 on Easter Sunday, after Valdosta State demolished the Trojans, 10-2. It was the last loss the team would suffer. TSU caught fire and raced through the rest of the schedule undefeated, closing with a 15-game winning streak.
Wray won his last six games in a row and began a streak of 36.2 consecutive scoreless innings, four straight shutouts, winding up a firstteam All-America. Not only was Wray honored, but first baseman Jude Rinaldi ended up swinging the meanest bat in school history. During 1987, he posted a .431 batting average, with 16 home runs and 45 runs batted in in 45 games.
The team equaled all the achievements of the ‘86 squad, ripping through postseason play undefeated, collecting Gulf South Conference, South Central Region and national championships.
The opponents, for the most part, were stunned that they had lost to these guys. How did they continue winning, game after game? The fact of the matter is, the second-time national champions weren’t as overwhelmingly talented as the great team of ‘86. They did not set records, they weren’t as deep in pitching, didn’t have the stunning speed or awesome power. They sure did not make winning look easy.
But they did not fold, either. They did not break when things looked hopeless, and they delivered when it was all on the line. They fought every step of the way. They left claw marks all the way to the top of the heap.
