Wildcats eye national title
In Scott Brosius' first year as Linfield head coach
Former major league star Scott Brosius, in his first year as head coach at Linfield College, has the Wildcats in the NCAA Division III national tournament.
COURTESY OF LINFIELD COLLEGE
McMINNVILLE — Linfield will be what amounts to the road team when it opens the Division III national baseball tournament Friday at Appleton, Wis., against Wisconsin-Whitewater. That shouldn’t faze the Wildcats.
“We’re kind of at our best with our backs to the wall,” Linfield left fielder Cory Ellis says. Wisconsin-Whitewater “will have a lot of fans on hand, but we’ll go in there just like we always do and expect to win.”
Linfield (34-11) has come through when it had to in reaching the D-3 World Series for the first time since joining that classification in 1998. The Wildcats won NAIA national championships under Roy Helser in 1966 and Ad Rutschman in 1971.
The Wildcats earned their first regional crown since ‘71 with a 4-3, 10-inning victory over Webster College of St. Louis Saturday in the Central Regional final at Moline, Ill. After losing the regional opener to Wisconsin-Stevens Point 2-1 in 10 innings, the ‘Cats beat Illinois Wesleyan; Wartburg College of Waverly, Iowa; Augustana College of Rock Island, Ill., and Webster in succession to advance to the eight-team tourney in Appleton.
Linfield almost didn’t make it to the Central regional. The Wildcats closed the regular season by losing the first three games of a four-game series with George Fox. With the postseason riding on the finale, Linfield won 8-3 to gain the opportunity to move on.
“We’ve never taken the easy way,” says first-year head coach Scott Brosius, the former All-Star third baseman who was MVP of the 1998 World Series while with the New York Yankees. “It started with the George Fox series. We had a winner-take-all type of game and reacted well to adversity. Same thing at Regionals. We lost a heartbreaking game and then played our best after that.
“I expect we’ll compete hard (in Appleton). To get to this point, there’s no such thing as an easy way. It takes grit to get here.”
Brosius wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be a head coach after retiring following his big-league playing career in 2001, but he knew he wanted to live in McMinnville and he knew he wanted to be help out his alma mater in whatever way possible. Brosius — a .332 hitter at Linfield from 1985 to ‘87 — served as a volunteer coach at both Linfield and McMinnville High in 2002, worked with the Wildcats exclusively in 2003 but didn’t travel, then gradually took on more responsibility under long-time coach Scott Carnahan.
Over the next three years, Brosius coached first base, worked with the Linfield infielders and hitters and took a more active role in recruiting. When Carnahan stepped down after 24 years (with a 562-377 record, 11 Northwest Conference titles and regional appearances in 2004 and ‘05), he turned the program over to his former player.
Brosius, 41, had relished coaching his three children — Allison, 16; Megan, 14, and David, 11 — in various sports the previous five years, but now was ready for a new challenge.
“The more I was around (coaching), the more I enjoyed it,” Brosius says. “You want to do what you love. The first couple of years after I retired, I was committed to coaching my kids and being around the family as much as I could. Then you hit 37 and realize it’s too young to be retired. You want to do something productive. This was a natural progression.”
Brosius and his wife, Jennifer, had conversations about taking on a full-time responsibility.
“A couple of years ago, she came out to a game against Whitworth and said, ‘You have that bounce in your step again,’ “ Brosius says, grinning. “She’s all for me doing this. We knew it was time to get a job, and this was the No. 1 choice.”
Carnahan had not left the cupboard bare for his successor. Linfield returned 10 seniors from a team that finished 22-16 overall and 17-7 while finishing third in the NWC a year ago.
“I inherited a good team,” Brosius says. “For a first-year coach, it was a dream situation. We had a lot of experience with some guys who were battle-tested and have been through it before. This program was in very good hands with (Carnahan), and it was just a passing of the torch.”
Linfield has a solid offensive club, with a .303 team batting average, led by junior right fielder/designated hitter Stew Davis (.359 with five home runs and 27 RBIs), senior shortstop David Bachofner (.341, 40 runs, six HRs, 35 RBIs) and senior catcher Drew Van Cleave (.338, 36 runs, four HRs, 42 RBIs). Ellis (.310 with 17 stolen bases) and senior right fielder Jordan Boustead (.294, 20 steals) wreak havoc on the basepaths.
Sophomore third baseman Rhett Fenton was also a major weapon at the Regionals, hitting .421 with seven RBIs while swatting two homers against Augustana.
The Wildcats’ calling card, however, has been with a defense that ranks second in the nation in fielding percentage (.972) and a pitching staff that ranks third nationally in ERA (2.81). Under Carnahan — who has stayed on as pitching coach — senior Brian Clark (10-1, 2.60 ERA), junior Cameron Larson (5-4, 3.18) and sophomores Garrett Dorn (8-3, 2.86) and Reese McCulley (7-1, 2.95) have formed perhaps the nation’s top staff of starters. And freshman closer Robert Vaughn (2.08 with seven saves) has made his actor namesake proud.
Clark, Van Cleave and Bachofner were all named to the all-west region first team.
“This team has been very focused,” Brosius says. “It’s a strong-willed group that has set its goals high. We watched the softball team win the national championship last year, and that made this whole idea of pursuing a championship more real. There’s the ideal and the reality. Few teams really commit to what it takes to win a championship, but this team has worked hard toward that.
“We’ve had very good pitching all year long. Scott has done a great job with the pitchers. Pitching and defense wins. I really believe that. I spoke with (Oregon State coach) Pat Casey in the offseason, and that’s one of the first things he mentioned, too. When you can pitch it and catch it, that provides a great foundation.”
Camaraderie has played a role, too, says Davis, a three-year starter who transferred after a redshirt season at Washington.
“We mesh so well together,” he says. “Off the field, we all hang out together. On the field, we communicate. Last year, we had a lot of the same guys, but the maturity level this year has definitely impacted us. Everybody is mentally into it. We’re more determined.”
And excited.
“I’m still flying on Cloud Nine,” Davis says. “This whole week has been pretty sweet. I roomed with Cory at the regionals, and every five minutes after the final game, we kept saying, ‘We’re going to Appleton.’ It’s just crazy. I’ve never experienced anything like this. This is quite the opportunity.”
Brosius won three World Series titles while with the Yankees.
“In a lot of ways, this is more fulfilling,” he says. “Playing in the World Series was something I had dreamed about as a kid. After all the hard work, to be able to jump on the dogpile after the final game was so exciting.
“As a coach, you want your players to experience that. To see the excitement in our players and coaches after the last game at regionals was a different kind of special. It felt every bit as good, to know we’re headed to the (D-3 College) World Series.”