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The voice of USF Athletics, Jim Louk, will routinely put down his radio headset and pick up the pen to share his perspective on the history of USF Athletics.
Louk has been broadcasting games for 27 years and is the resident historian in the Athletics Department hallways ... This week he remembers the 1986 baseball season in "Go For Broke".
Go For Broke - 1986 USF Baseball
Before the 1986 USF baseball season unfolded, the players and coaches worked to find a slogan that would fit the personality of the team. What they decided on summarized the attitude that led to arguably the greatest USF baseball season in program history.
Go For Broke.
“It had to do with being aggressive,” coach Eddie Cardieri recalls. “Taking the extra base. Making the other team make a play.”
Click here for a photo album of the 1986 season.
There were some changes surrounding USF baseball as the 1986 season began. The '85 Bulls had a solid year at 44-26, but after the season Robin Roberts retired and on June 24, 1985, the interim head job went to Cardieri, who had been an assistant the prior two seasons.
Remarkably, by the time he was named full time head coach, Cardieri's Bulls had 50 wins behind them, and were preparing to go to Tallahassee for the NCAA Tournament.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit.
As the 1986 season opened, there was cause for optimism. Starting pitching was deep with Jon Alexander, David Eiland and Mark Rose at the top of the rotation. Junior catcher Scott Hemond was rated the sixth best prospect in all of college baseball by one pre-season publication.
Baseball America had USF at No. 24 in the pre-season poll. Lou Munoz and Eddie Rush transferred in from the JC level and were expected to be key contributors.
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Scott Hemond
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Jon Alexander
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The '86 Bulls, according to Cardieri's pre-season interviews, would be about pitching and defense. They didn't lack for confidence or focus. Above the water fountain in the dugout, one word was taped to the wall.
Omaha.
It was a team full of personality and accomplishments. Closer Randy Wilson was known as “Rambo”. Todd Waggoner, a quiet leader on the team, still holds an NCAA record for hitting two grand slams in one inning. Cardieri calls Eddie Rush “the best base-hit bunter I ever saw,” and says the cerebral Mark Rose was like having another coach on the field.
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Coach Cardieri
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Lou Munoz
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Eddie Rush
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“It was high, high energy,” recalls Hemond. “Eddie did such a great job bringing those guys in. Guys were excited to play there.”
Opening Day was February 8, 1986 at Red McEwen Field. The Bulls beat the Tampa Spartans 4-3 in 11 innings behind a strong start by David Eiland and a game winning RBI from Allan Swabek. Tino Martinez hit third that day for Tampa.
1-0 for the Bulls. So far so good.
Two wins against Florida A&M followed. Then came a split against the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes at home.
Think about this. When the Bulls lost to Miami 6-5 in game five of the '86 season, it dropped their home record to 4-1. They finished 33-2 at home, meaning they only lost one home game after February 12!
By April 8, the Bulls stood at 37-6. They were rated fourth in the nation by Baseball America, fifth by Collegiate Baseball.
On May 17, the Bulls beat Jacksonville at Red McEwen Field to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and a ticket to the NCAAs. The regular season ended with a 50-14 record and a No. 7 national ranking from Collegiate Baseball. Two days later, “interim” was removed from Cardieri's title.
Then, it was off to Tallahassee for the NCAA South Regional, with Florida State, North Carolina State and Texas A&M.
Game One didn't go well, as the Bulls fell to Texas A&M 10-2. But with their season on the line, USF came back on May 23, 1986 and ripped North Carolina State 12-4 behind homeruns by Hemond, Steve Trumbull, Mark Pike and Todd Waggoner. It was the 51st win of the year, and made the Bulls 1-1 in the tournament. The team was alive for another day, but one loss would end the season.
With another chance against Texas A&M, the Bulls won 10-7 to make it to the finals.
Now it was down to one game, with the winner going to the College World Series.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be for the Bulls. Playing their second game of the day, USF faced Florida State and fell to the Seminoles 11-7. The Bulls had 12 hits off future major league pitchers Mike Loynd and Richie Lewis, but it wasn't enough. USF had a school record 52 wins, but ended one win short of a trip to Omaha.
The 1986 team broke up quickly as outstanding college baseball teams often do. A few days after the regionals, Hemond was taken 12th overall in the Major League Baseball draft by Oakland. Mark Rose went in the 21st round to the Yankees. Randy Wilson and Mark Pike were drafted too.
Eddie Cardieri coached the Bulls for two more decades. David Eiland would pitch and coach in the major leagues, including a stint with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Scott Hemond had a long major league career and years later, Mark Rose would become USF's pitching coach. Eddie Rush played minor league ball with the Reds. Others built solid careers outside of athletics, like Greg Bullard, who became an air traffic controller.
The 1987 Bulls were a fine team too, winning 36 games. But to date, the Bulls haven't cracked 50 wins in a season since that special team did it a quarter of a century ago. USF has had a few other close calls in the effort to get to Omaha, but they probably never have been as close as that 1986 team was when they were locked in a deciding game that was at 8-7 until the very late innings.
“They were so competitive,” Cardieri remembers about the 1986 team. “They played so well as a team, and they weren't afraid of anything.”
“Every night it was who could top who. Everybody went 100 miles per hour,” recalls Hemond. “Thinking back, that was as special of a team - high school, college, minor leagues, major leagues -as I've ever played on.”
Twenty five years have passed. USF's Sun Belt Conference days are long gone and so is Red McEwen Field. But members of the 1986 team are still around, many of them still in the Tampa Bay area. If you run in to one of them at the new USF baseball stadium, make sure to congratulate them on a terrific season of baseball that did USF proud.
GO BULLS!
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