Dream Season

Twenty years ago this spring, Georgia Southern rode a season-long wave of hard work and talent all the way to Omaha and the College World Series.

Todd Greene enjoyed a college baseball career that most players only dream of.

In his four seasons at Georgia Southern (1990-93), Greene earned All-America honors three times. He holds the school records for home runs (88), runs batted in (257) and total bases (640). He ranks third all-time on the NCAA Division I career home runs list.

However, Greene says, the highlight of his college career remains the team accomplishment of his freshman season. The 1990 Eagles won a school-record 50 games and advanced to the College World Series for the second time in school history.

“I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything,” said Greene, who played 11 years in the major leagues and is now a scout for the Seattle Mariners. Legendary coach Jack Stallings is 13th all-time on the NCAA Division I career wins list with 1,255, including 858 at Georgia Southern. But no team in his 39 years as a head coach won as many games as the 1990 Eagles.

“It was an outstanding group of players,” Stallings said. “From the beginning of fall practice until the end of the season, everybody worked hard.”

No role too big or small

Though only a freshman, Greene was one of the team’s leaders and hardest workers. It paid off as he led the Eagles in nearly every offensive category, including hits (100), home runs (26), runs batted in (75) and total bases (203), en route to becoming the first freshman ever named Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) Player of the Year.

Senior outfielder Thad Clayton posted much more modest statistics, batting just 12 times all season with two hits and one run batted in. However, he did play in 32 games as a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-runner.

“My utility role on the team taught me many lessons, one being that no contribution is too small to help accomplish something great,” Clayton said.

“Everybody contributed, and that’s what it takes,” said Rob Fitzpatrick, the catcher and cleanup hitter. “Absolutely, without a doubt, it was my greatest year of baseball – not just for me personally, but to be around that great group of guys and see our hard work pay off and it all come together for everybody.”

Fitzpatrick, a senior, hit a team-best .382 with 21 homers and 65 RBI. Following the season, he was selected by the Montreal Expos in the seventh round of the major league draft. Sophomore pitcher Joey Hamilton, who would go on to a 10-year major league career, led the nation with 18 wins while striking out 138 batters in a school-record 161 innings pitched.

The Eagles were much more than their All-America trio of Greene, Fitzpatrick and Hamilton, though. Junior first baseman Mike Yuro hit .358, the second-best batting average on the team. Senior center fielder Chris Abner stole a team-high 29 bases. Sophomore left fielder Mike Miller batted .324 with 15 homers and 56 RBI. Junior third baseman Chad Sumner drove in 48 runs and sophomore second baseman Doug Eder drove in 44. Freshman shortstop Chris Petersen hit .473 in conference games. Junior pitcher Scott Ryder won 11 games, saved two more and registered 128 strikeouts.

But possibly no player personified that season’s success more than senior pitcher Peter Bouma. Growing up in Statesboro, he attended Georgia Southern baseball games and dreamed of playing for the Eagles.

Bouma realized that dream, but played sparingly his first three years and entered his senior season with one career win. In that magical 1990 season, he won 10.

“I hoped to be a solid starter or come out of the bullpen and contribute as much as possible. I don’t know whether I really thought I would win 10 games,” Bouma said.

Start of something big

The Eagles began the year uneventfully, with six losses in their first eight games.

But their confidence never wavered. Greene recalls the team huddling around their head coach after losing two of three against Florida to open the season: “Coach Stallings told us, ‘We’re going to be good. You just have to believe we’re going to be good.'”

Sure enough, the Eagles returned home and reeled off 12 straight wins. The streak began with a 14-1 trouncing of Furman behind Hamilton’s two-hit, 10-strikeout gem, and senior Jay Berkner followed with a two-hitter of his own in a 4-0 shutout of the Paladins.

The Eagles then won two games apiece against Youngstown State, West Virginia and James Madison before opening conference play with a three-game sweep of Mercer, ignited by a 14-run first inning in the series-opening 15-2 win. Georgia Southern scored a season-high 16 runs against Augusta for consecutive win number 12.

The streak ended with a loss to South Carolina, but the Eagles bounced back the next day with a 14-10 win over the Gamecocks. Greene crushed three home runs in the game, a feat he would duplicate later in the season in a 14-5 rout of Centenary in the conference tournament.

So close to perfection

The 1990 Eagles were dominant in conference play, finishing with the best mark in TAAC history (17-1).

In typical coach’s fashion, Stallings remembers the one loss more than the 17 wins. So does Fitzpatrick, a head coach himself these days at Westfield School in Perry, Ga.
“Usually when you ask about a game that sticks out, it’s one that you didn’t win,” Stallings said with a laugh.

With a two-run lead and Hamilton on the mound against Samford, Georgia Southern appeared headed to another win. However, a wild pitch that allowed a batter to reach base after a strikeout – a curveball in the dirt that to this day Fitzpatrick says he should have caught – helped the Bulldogs rally for three runs in their final at-bat to steal a 4-3 win.

“I know I should have had it,” Fitzpatrick said. “I talk about that game all the time with my players – that one small thing can be the difference in the game.”

The Eagles bounced back to beat Samford 13-6 in the series finale, the first of 16 straight wins. Georgia Southern avenged its only TAAC loss with a three-game sweep of Samford in Statesboro, and also swept the conference series against Stetson and Mercer. Eagle pitchers were dominant during the winning streak with six shutouts, including three in a row by Hamilton (8-0 versus Samford), Bouma (12-0 versus Samford) and freshman Dave Masi (10-0 versus Baptist).

After splitting a pair of non-conference games at Clemson, the Eagles swept Stetson again to complete their record-setting run through the conference.

Not done yet

After losing just one conference game all year, the Eagles dropped their opener in the TAAC Tournament. The Eagles bounced back, winning three straight to reach the championship game, but fell 15-4 to the same Stetson team they had defeated in all seven previous meetings that season.

“I remember how guys were hanging their heads after that game,” Stallings said, “but I also remember we had guys who came into the locker room and said, ‘Hey, we have work to do. We’re not through with this season.'”

But that was no guarantee. Even with 46 wins and a regular-season conference championship, the Eagles weren’t certain to receive a bid to the NCAA Regionals.

Huddled around a radio in a conference room near Stallings’ office, the players listened to the tournament field being announced. Finally, they heard they were in, and the celebration began.

“We heard our name called, and I didn’t even hear who we were going to play,” Greene said.

Their opponent was one of college baseball’s most successful programs. The Eagles were headed to the Midwest Regional, where they would open against defending national champion Wichita State – on the Shockers’ home field.

Shocking the Shockers

While Greene is best remembered for his offense, possibly his biggest play of the season was on defense.

On the strength of Hamilton’s pitching and run-scoring singles by Sumner and Yuro, the Eagles led Wichita State 2-0 entering the bottom of the ninth inning. WSU rallied for two runs in the ninth, but Greene cut down the potential winning run with a throw that nailed the Shockers’ Jim Audley at home plate.

“From the time I saw the ball coming to me, I had no doubt I was going to throw him out,” Greene said.

Greene’s play sent the game to extra innings, and Fitzpatrick belted a two-out home run in the top of the 13th. Yuro added an RBI double and Ryder pitched four innings of scoreless relief in the Eagles’ 4-2 win.

Greene had worked hard on his defense after being moved from third base to right field in pre-season practice. In fact, he said one of senior teammates “went out of his way” to help him learn to play the outfield.

That teammate? Thad Clayton, of course.

‘We’re going to Omaha!’

Following the upset of Wichita State, the Eagles split two games with South Alabama in the double-elimination tournament. Designated hitter Steve Siebert’s RBI double in the ninth lifted Georgia Southern to a 5-4 win over UCLA and a winner-take-all rematch with South Alabama.

Trailing 3-1 in the fifth inning, Georgia Southern put two runners on base. South Alabama chose to walk Greene intentionally, loading the bases for Fitzpatrick. The senior responded with a grand slam to put the Eagles ahead.

“That was absolutely the biggest home run I ever hit,” Fitzpatrick said. “They walked a freshman to pitch to a senior. It was a pressure situation, and I hit the grand slam. It was amazing.”

Miller doubled in the sixth and scored on a single by Abner to put Georgia Southern ahead 6-5, and Hamilton made the score hold up for his 18th win. Greene caught a fly ball for the final out, clinching the Eagles’ trip to the College World Series in Omaha.

“I had this split second of panic because Todd was kind of hopping as the ball headed out to him,” Bouma said. “I then realized he was jumping from the excitement of knowing he had it.”

“It was hard for me to keep my feet on the ground as I was camping under the ball,” Greene said.

“When Todd caught the ball to end the game,” Fitzpatrick said, “that was the greatest moment – realizing we’re going to Omaha!”

Tough ending

Following his clutch home runs in the regional, Fitzpatrick belted another home run in the College World Series opener against Stanford – or so everyone in an Eagle uniform thought.

Television replays showed that Fitzpatrick’s sixth-inning blast cleared the fence, but the umpires ruled it a double instead of a two-run homer. Stanford got out of the inning and held on for a 5-4 win in 10 innings.

Georgia Southern then lost to Mississippi State in an elimination game, and, just like that, the dream season was over.

“I’m very proud we got to the College World Series, but I’m not satisfied with just getting there,” Greene said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m very proud of that season and what we accomplished – but I’m still mad we lost.”

Stallings takes a softer stance, but holds the 1990 team in the same high regard.

“We had guys who really wanted to win,” he said. “But more than that, they wanted to do things the right way.”

— Paul Floeckher