| Whitworth celebrated the West
Regional championship in traditional baseball
fashion. Whitworth athletics photo |
By Jason Galleske
D3sports.com
At the beginning of the season Whitworth baseball coach Dan Ramsay presented three dogpiles to his team. The dogpiles are symbolic of what the goals were for the team. The first dogpile in front of the team was the Northwest Conference championship. The second was to win the regional.
Two goals down and one to go. The Pirates (30-14-1) will take on defending national champion Marietta (40-7) at 7:45 p.m. in the first round of the NCAA Division III College Baseball World Series in Grand Chute, Wis., for a chance at the final dogpile - a national championship.
"We allowed our guys to dream and dream big," Ramsay said. "Eventually we wanted to be known regionally and known nationally. At the time, we emphasized, 'Set the bar as high as you can. When you get there, bump it up a little higher.'"
The Pirates have already made a historic run this season as they are making an inaugural trip to the Division III "World Series" and won the NWC for the first time since 1991. It's also the first time the Pirates have been to the playoffs since 1992 when they made the NAIA district playoffs.
"They just hate losing, which fits really well with the personality of coaching staff," Ramsay said. "We were picked to finish sixth in the conference. Our guys took that a little personal."
Getting to the Championships round didn't happen overnight for the Pirates. In fact, a lot of early mornings sparked the success of the Pirates.
"We would get up at 5:30 practice in field house from six to eight for the first two months then go to class," said sophomore second baseman Gerhard Muelheims. "There were a lot early mornings, a lot of grumpy people in the mornings, (but) getting our work done."
The idea was brought up by first-year assistant coach Cody Reeves to have the Pirates 'grind' out success while rising early.
"He had a bring-the-grind mentality to the season," Muelheims said. "It was the getting up at 5:30 grind. We had to eat healthy, going to bed, get enough rest, go to school and looking at whole season, grinding out games and wins. Whatever we had to do to be successful."
Having the D3baseball.com West Region Player of the Year in sophomore outfielder Tyler Pfeffer hasn't hurt matters either. Pfeffer has been tearing apart opposing pitchers with 12 home runs, 58 RBIs and a batting average of .377. The success partly comes from Pfeffer's daily sessions at the batting cage in the offseason to perfect his swing. He said the individual achievements don't matter: It's the success of the team and the dogpiles that drives him.
"It's just a great feeling been successful," Pfeffer said. "The three dogpiles, made us all dream big, made us realize had a shot. When we won the NWC, it was an eye-opener on how good we are and how we can compete at the national level. We show up to ballpark knowing the opponent has taken something from us. We're there to keep it and we're running away with the title.
"It all started at the beginning of season; we realized we had what it takes to go all the way."
The dream of making the Championship round and having the chance to win it began four years ago for Ramsay, a Whitworth graduate, who took over the program. It was quite the progression for a coach that always kept the faith and believed in his program.
The Pirates started out the Ramsay era with a 10-win season. Three senior starters from that team: designated hitter Landon Scott, centerfielder Kevin Valerio, who was this year's regional MVP and first baseman J.R. Jarrell and also pitcher C.J. Perry, who has a 3.06 ERA and a 3-1 mark,. Other seniors who have stuck out from the beginning of Ramsay's tenure include: Brandon Ellendt, Ryan Beecroft, James King, Nick Combo, Tommy Banta and Michael Takemura.
"We focus on the process not the result," Ramsay said. "You do that enough again and again, you can take something good from any negative situation. It was at-bat to at-bat. You focus on process, not the result. If you do that enough it adds up to something special."
| Nick Motsinger is part of a
Pirates freshman class that features four everyday
starters. Whitworth athletics photo |
The next season the Pirates won 13 games. Ramsay found a new pitching coach in Brandon Harmon and in turn the Pirates trimmed their ERA from above seven to below five and Whitworth added seven more wins to its arsenal, the first time the school won 20 in a season. A buzz was being created outside of the Pirates program for the 20-win plateau, but not too many high-fives were being doled out in the locker room.
"The guys were like 'Man we're only .500, that's not our expectation,' " Ramsay said. "That made them a little more hungry. It allowed us to sell more recruits and before you know it we bring in a pretty studly freshman class."
The Pirates have four frosh starters in shortstop Nick Motsinger (first team All-NWC), third baseman Paul Miller, catcher Joshua Davis and right fielder Erik Nikssarian. Along with Muelheims and Pfeffer, the Pirates have six of nine everyday players in the two youth classes. Included in that frosh class is ace pitcher Dan Scheibe, who has a 7-2 record and a stellar 2.49 ERA.
"Sometimes you don't know any better when you are young," Ramsay quipped.
Now the confident and loose Pirates will aim for the top of the final pile.
"There are teams that are more talented than us," Muelheims said. "We believe that we work harder and confidence that comes from that and that looseness, you can’t really force anything in baseball. It doesn't work too well."