1987 Division II College World Series Recap
1987 NCAA Division II College World Series
1987 Roster
16
Rick Albers, IF Mike Alley, IF/OF Brian Bailey, OF Mike Barhorst, IF/OF Ted Blakeley, IF Deny Bleh, IF/RHP Don Bosway, RHP Craig Brill, IF Scott Carpenter, OF Fred Felton III, OF Brent Fruhwirth, IF/OF Tim Gibson, RHP Leonard Griffen, RHP Greg Karklins, RHP Greg King, RHP Bruce Kreinbrink, IF/OF Wayne LaPan, C Mike McCall, LHP Jerry Rank, C Joe Schivone, RHP Ken Schneider, C/IF Allyn Schnellinger, IF Dan Schwab, IF Roger Spaulding, IF Brian Spears, IF Curt Sutter, RHP Scott Wake, RHP Randy Zaidain, OF
Coaching Staff
Ron Nischwitz, Head Coach Bo Bilinski, Assistant Coach Tom Brunswick, Assistant Coach Bob DeLong, Assistant Coach
Support Staff
Mike Hermann, Sports Information Director Tony Ortiz, Athletic Trainer
The Raiders rolled through the 1987 regular season with a record of 36-12 overall and hosted the North Central Regional Tournament at the Wright State Field near the Student Union on the WSU campus. The Raiders were led into regional play by the North Central Region Coach of the Year, Ron Nischwitz, and a trio or All-Americans in Brian Bailey, Don Bosway and Wayne LaPan. In the Regional the Raiders used an offensive outburst and solid pitching to navigate there way past Shippensburg (PA) and Lewis University. In their opening game of the regional the Green and Gold watched as Bosway threw a complete game against the 14th-ranked Red Raiders, helping Wright Sate to an 11-3 victory. In their second game the Raiders topped Lewis by a score of 7-4. In the Championship Game, WSU faced off with Lewis for the second time, winning this meeting 9-4. WSU tallied three runs in the first inning and Scott Carpenter smacked a solo home run in the third inning to help WSU advance to the 1987 Division II College World Series. Six Players were named to the All-Regional squad, with Rick Albers, Bailey, Ted Blakely, Denny Bleh, Bosway and LaPan. LaPan was named the Most Outstanding Player of the regional after smacking a pair of home runs in the regional. The Raiders headed to Montgomery, Alabama and Peterson Field for their first appearance in the series. The Raiders entered the series as the ninth ranked team in Division II and opened play against fifth-ranked New Haven. The two teams played the first seven innings scoreless before LaPan struck with a solo home run to account for the scoring in the 1-0 WSU victory. Bosway threw 8.2 innings and allowed only five hits and Sutter recorded the final out of the game with the bases loaded. The next opponent for WSU was Columbus (GA) and WSU fell as the second-ranked Cougars took a 13-4 decision. Wright State then staved off elimination by defeating Cal-St. Dominican Hills 5-2. Bleh drove in a pair of runs and LaPan doubled and drove in an RBI as WSU rode the arm of Greg King. The Raiders dream season would end at the hands of eventual National Champions, Troy State. WSU trailed early, but took the lead in the fourth inning on a Kreinbrink two-run homer. The Trojans rallied though in the fifth, trailing for the only time in the entire World Series, and took hold of the game at 5-4. WSU couldn’t muster enough offense as each team would add a trio of runs to push the final score to 8-7 in favor of Troy State. WSU finished in a tie for second with a 2-2 record and were awarded the National RunnersUp Trophy at the conclusion of the series. The Green and Gold placed four players on the AllSeries Team as Kreinbrink joined All-Regional members Albers, Bosway, and LaPan.