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| Southern Maine's 1991 title came in the first eight-team Division III World Series. Southern Maine athletics photo |
Ed Flaherty's Southern Maine Huskies won the 1991 Division III baseball national championship, bringing an NCAA title to the state of Maine for the first time. Southern Maine blanked Trenton State 9-0 in the final game.
It was a dominate series for the Huskies and the title game was no different as Southern Maine opened with a four run first. With three runs in the third for a 7-0 lead and their ace pitcher spinning a shutout, Trenton State never had a chance. The Huskies added two runs in the fourth inning to finish up the scoring.
Series MVP, Gary Williamson (.563, 2 home runs, 9 RBIs in four games) was one of four players that had two hits in the title tilt. Bob Prince, Scott Dutton, and Mark Caron also had multiple hits with Caron and Geoff Georgedriving in two apiece. The rest of the starting nine also got in the action with every starter getting a hit.
Bob Aceto pitched a complete game for his second win of the tournament. He allowed six hits and a single walk, striking out five.
The pitching for Southern Maine was lights out all weekend but it was the offense that outshone the pitchers. Four players hit .400 or better for the Huskies as they outscoredtheir opposition 42-10.
USM tailed just once in the series as Simpson took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opening game for both teams. USM scored twice in the bottom of the first inning and never traile the rest of the tournament.
1991 All Tournament Team
MVP - Gary Williamson, Southern Maine
Catcher - Jay Kirkpatrick, Methodist
First Base - Jeff Bigler, UW-Oshkosh
Second Base - Jim Broughton, Southern Maine
Third Base - Ken Wainczak, Trenton State
Shortstop - Tom Gardner, UW-Oshkosh
Outfield - Gary Williamson, Southern Maine; David Lebak, Trenton State; Bob Prince, Southern Maine
Pitcher - Whitney McCurdy, UW-Oshkosh; Robert Aceto, Southern Maine.
Trenton State is now known as TCNJ.