July 2, 2009

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

Imagine you've just started a new job, as a college baseball coach. If you're lucky, you might inherit a future professional player or two. If you're real lucky, you might inherit a future Major Leaguer or two.

Or you could be Danny Hall and inherit four All-Americans, all of whom would go on to Major League careers which would include World Series titles, all-star games, and a probable hall-of-fame designation or two sometime in the future.

Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, Jay Payton and Brad Rigby were the four notables who greeted Hall when he left Kent State for the Georgia Tech job in the summer of 1993. But with great promise comes great expectations. Hall, who just completed his 16th season at Tech, remembers, "It definitely was exciting, but there was some pressure. We had some guys who had been in the position before and they had made their minds up that they were going to advantage of their opportunities. My attitude was `Don't screw this up. Just give them some direction and get out of the way.'"

Rigby agrees. "We were a pretty experienced team, a veteran team. It was an easy transition."

Georgia Tech entered the 1994 season as one of those what-if programs. Previously under Jim Morris, Tech had become a regular NCAA Tournament team. But somebody else was always standing in the way of Omaha. Tech fell short, sometimes agonizingly so, in its first 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, including every year from 1985 through 1993.

Morris left Tech for Miami following the 1993 season. The Hurricanes were a perennial power, with College World Series titles in 1982 and 1985. So, the move made sense for his career.

Other ACC teams were having some success advancing to Omaha. Florida State made regular visits, while Clemson advanced in 1991, North Carolina in 1989.

Clemson dominated the 1994 ACC regular season, finishing at 20-4, with Georgia Tech and Duke tied for second at 16-8. Florida State was fourth at 14-9. Clemson defeated FSU in the ACC Championship final.

Despite its second-place finish, Duke did not earn an NCAA bid. Clemson and Florida State hosted regionals, while Georgia Tech was sent to Wichita, Kansas. It was double-elimination, with no Super Regional in those days.

Clemson went into the NCAAs as the most likely ACC team to keep playing into June. But the Tigers had one of those weeks, giving up 8 runs to Notre Dame and 11 to Auburn in two losses that ended their season.

Florida State advanced without a loss, winning their final three games by a combined score of 17-3.

Georgia Tech had to work a bit harder. The Yellow Jackets won three times, lost in extra innings to Washington but rebounded with an 18-7 rout of the Huskies that wrapped up the regional. Tech scored 53 runs in the 5 games, a not atypical performance for a team that batted .337, with 93 home runs.

The NCAA was using the bracket system in the 1994 College World Series but with only a one-game title match between the two bracket winners. Bracket one had Georgia Tech, LSU, Florida State, and Cal-State Fullerton (then called Fullerton State). Bracket two had Miami, Oklahoma, Auburn, and Arizona State.

Future ACC member Miami was the top seed after winning its regional with relative ease.

A looming tragedy hung over the week. Arizona State coach Jim Brock had terminal liver and colon cancer. He managed to make it through his team's first game before leaving Omaha. He died a few days later.

Florida State coach Mike Martin recalls "playing Brock was a good way to gauge your team. If you weren't prepared, you would pay for it. Seeing Jim struggle through the press conference at the beginning of the College World Series was very difficult."

Brock's last game was a 4-0 win over Miami. The Hurricanes suffered a major blow when star pitcher Danny Graves suffered a ankle injury in a run-down, ending what was left of his season. Graves had entered the game with 21 saves, one shy of the NCAA record. Billy Neal pitched the shutout for the Sun Devils, who added a pair of home runs.

Florida State and Georgia Tech had better luck. Rigby faced CSF in the opener. Rigby gives some insight into his pitching repertoire. "I had a pretty good fastball but couldn't always throw it where I wanted to. I had better command of my breaking ball, my out pitch."

Having Varitek behind the plate didn't hurt. Rigby and Varitek had been high school teammates in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Varitek was that rarest of species in NCAA baseball, a senior who was the best college player at his position. Varitek had been drafted 21st in the first round of the 1993 draft by Minnesota but elected to return. Rigby says Tech had such confidence in Varitek that they let him call most of the pitches. His pitch-blocking skills behind the plate were invaluable to breaking-ball pitchers like Rigby and opposing base runners rarely ran on the Tech catcher.

Shortstop Garciaparra, second baseman Scott McIntyre, and center fielder Payton completed an up-the-middle-defense that few college teams could match. Rigby says Payton "got the best jump of any outfielder I ever saw."

Rigby was in fine form in the opener, striking out 10 and allowing only three hits in a 2-0 win. CSF star Mark Kotsay's double was the Titans' only extra-base hit, while DH Michael Sparrow had a solo home run for Tech. Rigby went to 14-4.

Hall says Rigby "set the tone for our entire series. I never had a pitcher as dominant as Brad was the season. He put us on his back."

FSU likewise relied on its ace, Paul Wilson. Considered the nation's top collegiate pitcher, Wilson had been the top pick in the MLB draft the same week as the College World Series.

Martin says that Wilson was one of his most gratifying recruits. "He was the epitome of the college experience. He came to Florida State as a chunky 6'3 righthander who could throw the ball hard but had no command, no breaking ball. By his second year, we thought he had a chance. By his third year, he could get anybody out."

Wilson got the start against LSU. For much of the game, he was second-fiddle to LSU starter Scott Schultz, who retired the first 13 batters he faced and allowed only one hit in the first five innings. But Steve Nedeau led off the sixth with a triple and Schultz unraveled. FSU put six runs on the board before the inning ended.

Wilson settled down after a shaky start and Florida State won 6-3. The complete-game win ran his record to 13-5.

Miami stayed alive in the loser's bracket, defeating Auburn 7-5, despite committing six errors. Danny Buxbaum's two-run double broke a 4-4 tie in the seventh. Future big leaguer Jay Tessmer took Graves' place and notched a save. Morris called it "as ugly a win as we've ever had."

Georgia Tech and Florida State met in the Bracket One winner's bracket. Al Gogolin got the start for Tech, Jonathon Johnson for FSU.

Tech had defeated Florida State two of out three in Tallahassee during the regular season. Martin recalls, "We were very fortunate to beat them in the opener and then they pounded us in the next two games [6-2, 7-5]. They were a beautiful team, with a lot of weapons."

It was 1-1 in the 5th. Varitek came up with two runners on. Martin remembers what happened next. "I turned to one of my assistants and said we should throw him anything but a change-up. So Jonathon throws him a change-up." It landed in the stands. 4-1.

But Florida State fought back, aided by a two-run error on McIntyre. A sacrifice fly tied it in the seventh. Varitek threw out three would-be-base-stealers to keep it close.

The teams went to extra innings, with both starters gone. The Florida State bullpen lost the strike zone in the top of the 10th, Tech got some hits, and right fielder Matt Saier hit a grand slam homer. Tech scored eight times, for a 12-4 win. Tech rested, while Florida State and Cal State fought to stay alive. FSU's pitching staff couldn't handle Kotsay. A sacrifice fly, a two-run double and a grand-slam gave Kotsay a CWS record-tying seven runs batted in, as the Seminoles ended their season with a 10-3 loss.

Miami's season also ended the same day. Brock had departed from Omaha by the time his ASU team defeated Miami 9-5. Jacob Cruz and Antone Williamson each hit two home runs for the Sun Devils.

Georgia Tech and Fullerton were the final two teams in Bracket One, Tech undefeated, Fullerton with that loss to Tech in the opener. Hall sent Rigby back out against Fullerton. Augie Garrido's Titans didn't have much more success against the Tech ace the second time around but they did cobble together single runs in the first and fourth after Payton's two-run homer put Tech up in the top if the first. The home run was Payton's 20th of the season.

The pitchers dominated after that, putting up goose egg after goose egg. It was 2-2 in the top of the 12th, when Garciaparra slammed his 15th home run of the season over the fence. Tech reliever Chris Myers threw his 4th shutout inning in the bottom of the 12th to preserve the 3-2 victory.

Oklahoma won the other bracket.

Tech started Gogolin (12-3), the Sooners Kevin Lovinger. Neither starter lasted very long. Oklahoma scored twice in the bottom of the first but solo homers by Garciaparra in the second and Varitek in the third tied the game and sent Lovinger to the showers.

Gogolin made it through the third inning but not the fateful fourth. Rigby says, "Every team is entitled to a bad inning or two and we picked a bad time to have ours." Three errors, a bases-loaded walk, some hits, a disputed play at the plate. Before it was all over, Oklahoma had scored five times.

DH Michael Sorrow drove in two runs with a double in the sixth to make it 7-4. But Tech only had 22 players and was playing its 67th game. According to Hall, "We did not use a lot of pitchers and it caught up with us. We had reached the point when our pitching was just hanging by a thread."

Oklahoma scored four more in the bottom of the sixth, two in the seventh. The final was 13-5.

Rigby says he'll always wonder how Tech would have fared in today's best-of-three format. "All the talent surfaced at the right time. We could always score runs but we (needed) steadier pitching. I would have liked our chances in a three-game series. We just had one of those games. We started slow and they kept us off balance."

Tech has been back to the College World Series in 2002 and 2006. Hall says that national title will come in due time. "The 1994 team set the benchmark for Georgia Tech baseball. After all, you can only get one game better."

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