LC vs. L-C SHOWDOWN
The NAIA baseball ranks have been thoroughly dominated for a quarter century by Idaho’s Lewis-Clark State College. Over the 25-year period from 1984-2008, the Warriors won no fewer than 16 NAIA World Series titles—a dynasty unmatched in college athletic circles.
All of a sudden, though, Lewis-Clark State’s thunder has been usurped by another school with an intriguing profile—right down to the same L-C abbreviation.
Texas’ Lubbock Christian College is not only the reigning NAIA World Series champion, but it’s also the last school to win an NAIA title before Lewis-Clark State began its remarkable run of national championships.
The Chaparrals won their only other national tournament in 1983, beating Lewis-Clark State in the final. Effectively they have provided perfect bookends for all the titles won by their Idaho rivals, with their 2009 championship ending their own 26-year drought.
Like many NAIA teams, Lubbock Christian opens its 2010 season on Friday. It is the prohibitive favorite to win the NAIA World Series again, and tops all pre-season rankings, including a list of the top 10 teams compiled by Perfect Game Crosschecker.
Obviously, the Chaparrals have a long way to go to even be considered in the same elite class as Lewis-Clark State, but no NAIA team has assembled more impressive credentials over the last two or three years.
LCC posted a 52-8 record in winning last year’s World Series. That success may have been just vindication for 2008, when the Chaparrals finished the regular season with a No. 1 national ranking and a stunning 53-2 record. But that team never even reached the NAIA World Series as it was upset in regional play, losing two straight games to Oklahoma City, which in turn lost out to eventual champion Lewis-Clark State.
The Chaparrals chances of making it two championships in a row was bolstered with the addition of some prominent transfers from the NCAA Division I ranks. They added hard-hitting first baseman Doug Kroll and athletic outfielder Rafael Thomas from Oklahoma State, along with former University of Houston righthander Frank Corolla. They join a core that includes senior third baseman Ross Blondin (.438-25-99) and senior lefthander R.L. Eisenbath (12-1, 4.67, 91 IP/118 SO).
Corolla’s presence on the Chaps roster is noteworthy as he ended up in Lubbock after being drafted in the 19th round last June by the Washington Nationals, and agreeing to a $20,000 signing bonus. That deal was later voided when the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Corolla failed to pass a physical, stemming from a bad hip. With a 92-mph fastball, best on the staff, he steps in this spring as LCC’s ace. Thomas and Kroll will also play pivotal roles as transfers.
Lewis-Clark State has its own share of transfers who will impact this year’s roster, though none have the cache that Lubbock Christian’s transfers have. The best of the bunch appears to be former Kansas Wesleyan third baseman Brian Burke. Whereas the Chaparrals have been rankled No. 1 largely on the strength of their transfers, the Warriors begin the season ranked an uncustomary No. 4.
Befitting the somewhat maverick nature of NAIA baseball and its relaxed transfer rules and academic standards, almost all the top teams will rely on transfers to varying degrees.
Lewis-Clark State has made it a practice for years to tap liberally into transfers from junior colleges and other four-year schools. Of the 46 players on its pre-season roster, 35 came to the school as transfers.
Though the Warriors have produced 110 draft picks through the years, few end up becoming premium-round selections. The one notable exception came in 2007, when third baseman Beau Mills became academically ineligible at Fresno State and transferred to the NAIA school for his junior year.
In his one season at Lewis-Clark State, Mills had possibly the greatest season in NAIA history, hitting a single-season record 38 homers while batting .458 with 123 RBIs. He had three homers and eight RBIs in the championship game alone for a 57-5 team, leading to his selection with the 13th overall pick in the 2007 draft. He is currently a top prospect in the Cleveland Indians system, while his dad Brad was recently named manager of the Houston Astros.
There is no player in the NAIA ranks this year who even remotely approaches Mills’ talent. The best talent would appear to be California Baptist righthander Drew Madrigal, an 11th-round pick of the San Diego Padres in last year’s draft.
Madrigal, who went 9-4, 3.39 with 138 strikeouts as a sophomore at California’s San Jacinto JC while also hitting .404-7-48 as the team’s shortstop, initially planned to transfer to Auburn for the 2010 season, but later had a change of heart when eligibility concerns jeopardized his chances of playing this spring.
Madrigal ranks No. 1 on PG Crosschecker’s pre-season list of the top 30 NAIA prospects available for this year’s draft, but even he may be hard-pressed to crack the first 10 rounds.
Among the top 30 prospects, it’s interesting to note that 27 played elsewhere in college prior to enrolling at their current school. No. 2-ranked prospect Bennett Whitmore, a senior righthander at California’s Concordia University and a two-time former draft pick, is attending his fourth college. He spent his freshman year at NAIA Fresno Pacific, sophomore year at Fresno (Calif.) CC and junior year at Oregon.
All rosters of the top-ranked NAIA teams are littered with transfers. Among some of the more noteworthy this spring are No. 2-ranked Oklahoma City outfielder Matt Presley, a former Colorado high-school star who played sparingly in two seasons at Arizona; and the No. 3 Lee (Tenn.) tandem of righthanders Tyler Henry, formerly of Kentucky, and Scott Swinson, who was scheduled to be Maryland’s ace this season before being dismissed from that team.
In keeping with the transitional nature of NAIA baseball, many of the division’s former World Series champions are no longer members of the NAIA ranks. Ex-champions like East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Sam Houston State and San Diego State have all moved on to NCAA Division I membership, while four-time champion Grand Canyon (Ariz.) and three-time winner Lewis (Ill.) are now in the NCAA Division II ranks.
So the 2010 season could very well come down to the more things change, the more they stay the same. This year’s 10-team World Series is set for Lewiston, Idaho, from May 28-June 4, on L-C State’s home field, and Lewis-Clark State and Lubbock Christian, the last two champions, will again be expected to carry the torch in NAIA baseball.