St Edwards University - Tower Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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84 Till the last man is out The game wasn't over for Southwestern University in the Big State Conference Zone Playoff, and so St. Edwards’ two-year reign as Big State Champions was. Ask a lot of coaches who that one man is they need to really set their club and they ll tell you it’s the guy who can power one 400 feet. Ask Tom Hamilton in 1973 and he’d have told you the guy who could drop one down about 30 feet. Hamilton certainly needed him when a disastrous mid-season road trip brought his winging Hilltoppers crashing to earth for lack of that one timely hit or strategic bunt in the throes of an 8-game losing streak that included six one-run losses. St. Ed’s went from 10-5 to 10-13, and when three weeks of April rain washed out three doubleheaders and most of the Big State Conference South Zone schedule, Hamilton’s shell-shocked Toppers entered a crucial week of three Big State makeup doubleheaders stale and flat from their layoff. Stull, they swept the Huston-Tillotson and Texas Lutheran twin bills, and salvaged the second game at San Antonio with St. Mary’s to wrap up the South Zone and earn the right to defend their Big State title against North Zone champ Southwestern. The Pirates’ Steve Wenzel handcuffed the Toppers on 3 hits to beat Hamilton’s ace, John Boatright, in the opener of the 3-game playoff series at St. Edward’s, but Bobby Ingram went from goat to hero when his 2-run 6th inning inside-the-park homer won the afternoon’s second game. But while Hamilton could get a homer when he needed it, he still couldn’t get a 30 foot squeeze bunt in the first inning of game 3, and a big inning was choked off that could have put the Pirates away. Vance Porfirio and Ralph Ferguson drew. leadoff walks, and after a foul out, Jerry Lasponara doubled Porfirio home, leaving runners on 2nd and 3rd with one gone. Hamilton flashed the suicide squeeze sign, but the bunt was missed and Seale was a goner at the Plate. A pop out then ended the inning and Southwestern had wrigeled off the hook. St. Ed’s added a cheapie in the 4th. Pete Castle’s infield dying quail fell in for a hit, and after Castle stole second Sanso drove him home with his second hit. Meanwhile, Rick Wagner struggled through eight innings, keeping himself in trouble by falling behind batters and scattering four walks with Southwestern’s four hits, but he had shut out the Pirates, with the help of a double — i? play in the 8th inning. Then the disastrous 9th. Always an omen of trouble, Wagner walked the first man, and then an error and a base hit loaded the bases. Pete Castle’s fine pickup and throw on that hit pre- vented a run from scoring, but his effort was wasted when Wagner walked it in on four pitches to the next batter. Tony Konderla came on for Wagner and retired the next batter on a short pop to right to preserve the 2-1 edge, but where the Toppers had failed in the first inning the Pirates succeeded. Brian Hill, the substitute for starting Southwestern catcher Pat Loter who had been ejected in the 5th inning, pushed a perfect squeeze bunt toward 3rd, scoring the tying run, and then the lead run scored when Konderla threw wildly to first. Vance Porfirio kept St. Eds’ hopes alive with two out in the Topper half of the ninth, showing how smart a batter he was when he drew a walk after refusing to nible on junk with two strikes. Southwestern was ready when Porfirio broke for second, but the pickoff attempt was misplayed and St. Ed’s was very much alive. But Porfirio died there at second and the Toppers had suffered the most bitter of their one-run defeats in 1973.

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