Bulldogs celebrated our alumni with the presentation of the 2018 Hall of Fame class – Ty Williams, Ryan Willen (represented by his grandfather), and the State Champion Baseball team of 1993.
It had been six years since the Bulldogs tasted success at the state level. This group of seniors had never been a part of a district crown, let alone a state title. The spring of 1993 capped off a long journey for a group of eleven seniors, three juniors, one sophomore, and three freshmen.
The upperclassmen of this group had narrowly missed out on a district title the year before with a team that was arguably better balanced and the ‘93 season was anything but dominating. The previous year, the bulldogs had managed a 13 game winning streak. Yet, this year’s team entered districts 10-7.
The wake-up point on the season came at Dexter High School after the Bulldogs lost 3-4 to the Bearcats after beating the same team 23-7 a week earlier. Veteran coach Jim Glastetter had a “pep” talk with the boys after the game which served as motivation for the rest of the season. The Bulldogs went 8-1 the rest of the way en route to a State title.
The district tournament saw the Bulldogs defeat Kelly 3-2, and then junior Jeff Graviett and the Chaffee Red Devils 5-1 in the district championship.
The Bulldogs hosted the sectional game against Valley Caledonia and won 9-5 with Shawn Huston powering home two home runs and Ryan Gosche adding one.
The quarterfinal game began with a rocky start as the team bus never arrived to take the team to Hayti, Mo. Players, coaches, and parents piled into vehicles to head to the game which saw the bulldogs win 6-5. In the game also had three homers with Seniors Jeff Augustine, Ryan Gosche, and Tim Garner all going long. This victory booked their ticket to the state final four.
In the state semifinals, Senior Greg Rubel pitched a complete game 3-hitter to secure a 5-3 win over Wright City with Travis Helwege supplying 3 hits and Shawn Huston, Phil Johnson, and Greg Rubel all providing 2 hits.
In the championship game, Senior Tim Garner pitched a 3-hitter and Travis Helwege belted a 2-run double in the 3rd, scoring Johnson and Garner to give ND the lead and the Bulldogs defeated Mansfield, 3-1. Also in that game, Senior Phil Johnson set a record with 3 stolen bases. It may not be an official record, but this team might have been the only team to not only play with but win state with a left-handed third basemen in Junior, Brian Spence.
At the time, Coach Glastetter said in regards to the team, “The guys really hung together, they’ve been talking about winning a state championship since they were freshmen…and they not only hung together on the field, they really hung together off the field. They were a really close bunch, which was nice to see.”
Thank you Tim Garner for the recap and Congratulations to the 1993 State Champions!