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The Mount Vernon Nazarene College baseball team came all the way through the loser's bracket to win the 1999 National Christian College Athletic Association National Tournament with two victories over Emmanuel (GA) College on Saturday at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Despite losing their first game of the double elimination tournament, the top-seeded Cougars (40-15) ran off five straight victories to claim their unprecedented fifth NCCAA national title and their fourth in the 1990s as MVNC knocked off the fifth-seeded and previously unbeaten Lions (32-25) 7-2 and 4-1.
"We knew coming into this tournament that we could not take for granted that it would be easy to win the title," said head coach Keith Veale, who celebrated his 42nd birthday in fine fashion with a national championship and NCCAA National Coach of the Year honors. "I was proud of the way that our team stayed after it even after we lost the first game of the tournament. Winning this championship is special because we had to play five games with our backs against the wall to get it."
In Saturday's first game, the Cougars got on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning as Chris Stanifer and Scott Crawford both reached on infield singles. Chris Iceman sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Jeff Lavin lined a two-out single to center to give MVNC an early 2-0 lead.
Emmanuel knotted the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the third inning with a walk, a double, and a two-run single. However, the Cougars regained the lead in the top of the fifth when an error by the Lions' defense allowed MVNC to take a 3-2 advantage.
The Cougars tacked on three big runs in the sixth inning to take a 6-2 lead. Matt Alison walked and Jeff Wine reached on an infield single. After Jason Hall moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt, Stanifer lined a two-run single to center. Crawford followed with an RBI-single of his own to plate Stanifer from second base.
MVNC closed out the scoring in the seventh inning when Mark Coulter doubled to center to lead off the inning. Lavin followed with a single to center to score Josh Colley, who had entered the game as a pinch runner for Coulter.
Coulter (3-3) picked up the victory on the mound as he worked all seven innings and allowed just four hits, two walks, and two earned runs. He also struck out two batters.
"I thought that Mark was definitely the right person on the mound for us in the first game," said Veale. "They (Emmanuel) are a free-swinging team, and Mark throws a lot of off-speed pitches to mix things up and keep the hitters off-balance. He did a great job for us today."
Offensively, the Cougars pounded out 12 hits led by Stanifer, Crawford, Iceman, Lavin, and Wine with two hits apiece.
The win forced a second championship game since both teams no had two losses in the double elimination event. Once again, MVNC got on the scoreboard first with two unearned runs in the bottom of the third inning as the Cougars took a 2-0 lead.
MVNC added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning as Joel Laslo and Alison each singled with two outs to put runners at the first and third base. Wine followed with a single to left that scored Laslo with Alison going to third. Hall followed with an infield single to drive in Alison and give the Cougars a 4-0 lead with just one inning to play.
That lead proved to be more than enough for junior right-handed pitcher Andy Heimbach, who had a no-hitter going for 5 2/3 innings. After the first two batters were retired, Eric Motley struck out swinging but reached first base as the pitch eluded Lavin in the dirt. Marshall Brizendine followed with a double to right center to end Heimbach's bid for his 17th career shutout.
Heimbach, who rebounded from a tournament-opening defeat against Oakland City (IN) University, improved to 13-2 on the year as he set a new single-season school record for victories. The previous mark of 12 was set by Jeff Kuder in 1988 and equaled by Mike Patch in 1997. Heimbach allowed just four hits, one walk, and one earned run as he struck out eight batters to finish the season with a school-record 141 strikeouts.
Crawford paced the MVNC offense by going 3-for-3 with a run scored and a stolen base. Alison and Hall also added two hits apiece.
The Cougars finish the season with a 40-15 overall record marking the sixth straight season that the program has posted 30-plus wins and the fourth time in the past five seasons that MVNC has reached the 40-win plateau.
1999 NCCAA National Tournament Results:
Overall Statistics for Mt. Vernon Nazarene
(1999 NCCAA National Tournament Sorted by Batting avg)
Record: 5-1 Home: 0-0 Away: 1-0 Neutral: 4-1 Conference: 0-0
Player AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB SLG% BB HBP SO GDP OB% SF SH SB-ATT PO A E FLD%
12 Alison, Matt..... .429 6-6 14 3 6 0 0 0 2 6 .429 4 0 0 0 .556 0 0 0-1 4 0 1 .800
2 Stanifer, Chris.. .400 6-6 20 5 8 1 1 0 4 11 .550 2 1 0 1 .478 0 0 0-3 9 1 0 1.000
5 Crawford, Scott.. .368 6-6 19 3 7 0 0 0 3 7 .368 3 0 4 0 .455 0 0 1-1 8 17 1 .962
44 Coulter, Mark.... .368 6-6 19 3 7 2 0 0 1 9 .474 3 0 1 0 .455 0 0 0-0 0 1 0 1.000
35 Lavin, Jeff...... .350 6-6 20 1 7 0 0 1 6 10 .500 0 0 2 1 .333 1 1 0-0 34 2 0 1.000
10 Iceman, Chris.... .333 6-6 21 0 7 1 0 0 4 8 .381 0 0 1 1 .333 0 1 0-0 43 1 0 1.000
4 Wine, Jeff....... .286 6-6 14 2 4 0 0 0 2 4 .286 2 0 1 0 .353 1 0 0-0 7 0 0 1.000
11 Laslo, Joel...... .278 6-6 18 3 5 0 0 0 1 5 .278 2 1 1 2 .381 0 1 0-0 6 9 2 .882
8 Hall, Jason...... .250 6-6 16 2 4 0 0 0 3 4 .250 0 0 1 0 .250 0 1 0-0 10 11 2 .913
14 Wisecup, Jon..... .000 1-0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 .000
22 Overholt, Nate... .000 4-0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0-0 3 0 0 1.000
15 Colley, Josh..... .000 4-0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2-2 0 0 0 .000
26 English, Jeremy.. .000 3-0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 .000
Totals.............. .337 6-6 163 26 55 4 1 1 26 64 .393 16 2 12 5 .399 2 4 3-7 126 49 7 .962
Opponents........... .174 6-6 149 13 26 5 0 0 13 31 .208 15 2 36 2 .257 1 0 0-1 120 59 7 .962
LOB - Team (41), Opp (28). DPs turned - Team (5), Opp (6). Picked off - Colley 2.
(1999 NCCAA National Tournament Sorted by Earned run avg)
Player ERA W-L APP GS CG SHO/CBO SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR AB B/Avg WP HBP BK SFA SHA
23 Byard, David..... 1.29 1-0 1 1 1 0/0 0 7.0 5 2 1 3 6 0 0 0 24 .208 0 0 0 0 0
39 Armstrong, Jeremi 1.29 1-0 1 1 1 0/0 0 7.0 4 1 1 4 6 1 0 0 22 .182 1 0 0 1 0
44 Coulter, Mark.... 2.57 1-0 1 1 1 0/0 0 7.0 4 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 26 .154 0 0 0 0 0
13 Triplett, Matt... 2.57 1-0 1 1 1 0/0 0 7.0 5 2 2 2 6 0 0 0 24 .208 0 1 0 0 0
32 Heimbach, Andy... 3.86 1-1 2 2 2 0/0 0 14.0 8 6 6 4 16 3 0 0 53 .151 1 1 0 0 0
Totals.............. 2.57 5-1 6 6 6 0/0 0 42.0 26 13 12 15 36 5 0 0 149 .174 2 2 0 1 0
Opponents........... 4.72 1-5 6 6 3 0/0 0 40.0 55 26 21 16 12 4 1 1 163 .337 3 2 0 2 4
Pickoffs - Team (3), Heimbach 1, Armstrong 1, Byard 1, Opp (2). SBA/ATT - Lavin (0-1), Coulter (0-1).
