LUBBOCK, Texas (June 6, 1983) - Ah, the Championship game. It was supposed to be no contest, as Lewis-Clark would finish the series with a .388 team batting average, compared to a modest .302 effort for the Chaps. And L-C would again finish in double-figures in hits, 16, and end the tournament with 95 hits, including 27 doubles, two triples and 13 homers. 

The Warriors scored twice off Kirk Dudley in the second. But in the bottom of the frame, Mike Rivera doubled home a run and Gary Hix's squeeze bunt knotted the score at two. L-C made it 3-2 in the fifth on an error, but the Chaps exploded for five runs in the sixth. Bob Fannin's bases-loaded double off the first baseman's mitt put LCC up 4-3. Then a throwing error allowed two more runs to score nd the fifth also scored on an error. 

L-C reached the elder Dudley in th top of the seventh for two singles and a walk. Hays marched to the mound, turned to the bullpen and summon in -- David Bulls! Bulls took advantage of the dramatic, tense moment, quickly striking out the side. The larges crowd ever to witness an LCC home baseball game erupted. The countdown to the national championship was only six outs away! 

But the adrenalin that Bulls had going in the seventh departed in the eight when the Warriors proved to be human. Quickly, a double, RBI single, walk, and David Martinez' 18th homer of the year -- which stunned and silenced the throng -- tied the game at 7-7. 

However, as LCC came to bat in the last of the eight, the crowd came to life again. It was a repeat performance of what happened in the 18-17 game four nights earlier. In that tilt, after the chaps had come back to tie, the leadoff batter in the next inning homered. 

To be truthful, it wasn't the leadoff batter, who homered, but No. 2 man, senior catcher Ed Jeffrey in his last collegiate at-bat. He lined a shot to right field which glanced off Allan Peterson's glove an into the many fans just outside the fence. 

That ignited another five-run inning, as pinch-hitter Rich Wieligman had an RBI single -- his first hit since March 2 and only his third hit of the season. Then Randy Velarde followed with an RBI single, Randy Ledbetter's sacrifice bunt went for a single when the pitcher fell down and it was 11-7. Coleman's RBI sacrifice fly finished out the scoring. 

The Chaps would need every one of those five runs, for L-C did not go out easily in the ninth. The Warriors had six times scored five or more runs in a Series inning and 10 times scored either three or for runs, so the ninth would be just another "ordinary" inning. 

It started that way, with a single and a walk. Hays lifted Bulls in favor of southpaw Travis Walden, Walked faced two lefty hitters, walking one, wild-pitching home a run before getting the second to bounce out to first and then walked the bases full again. 

That brought Dillman out of the pen for his third Series appearance. The freshman surrendered a single to narrow the margin to 12-9. He then struck out Martinez on an 0-2 pitch. 

The next batter was Jim O'Dell, the NAIA Player of the Year and a Golden Spikes finalists. O'Dell had set a national collegiate mark for runs batted in with 137 (still the NAIA record) and was 11-for-26 in the tournament with two homers, three doubles, eight RBI and no strikeouts in 32 plate appearances. 

After working the count full, Dillman came up-and-in with a fastball, which O'Dell took for a called third strike at 11:09 p.m. and the celebration erupted. It marked the third time -- and the second in two years -- that Lewis-Clark had finished as runner-up. 

The crowd graciously showered both teams with applause during the awards ceremonies which followed and it was well after 1 a.m. before the lights at Chaparral Field were turned off that night. 

But the scorebook bearing the results of the finals -- LCC 12, Lewis-Clark 9, burned throughout the night and will be etched forever in the hearts of Chaparral baseball fans.