University of Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall, left, celebrates with Chip Hale after Arizona beat Florida State, 10-2, on June 9, 1986 to win the NCAA College World Series in Omaha. Photo by Bruce McClelland / Arizona Daily Star
June 9, 1986: Arizona wins its third College World Series title
On the day Arizona reached Omaha to play in the 1986 College World Series, reserve outfielder Dave Shermet injured his thumb while catching a line drive in batting practice.
“I took a couple of cuts that day (Wednesday) and was barely able to hold the bat,” Shermet said. “I was not swinging with any authority and was scared to death of an inside pitch.”
Shermet’s sore thumb wasn’t regarded as big news because the No. 5 Wildcats hadn’t used Shermet as a starting outfielder for two months. He had batted just seven times since April 2.
“I iced my thumb all day Friday,” he said. “You could still see seam marks from the ball.”
In their CWS opener against Maine that night, the Wildcats weren’t likely to need Shermet anyway. The starting pitcher was Nogales junior Gil Heredia, 15-3, who had tied the school record for victories. The Wildcats had a team batting average of .337, highest at the school since 1957, and, behind 15 home runs from first baseman Todd Trafton, the most team home runs in school history.
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Further, behind second baseman Tommy Hinzo’s 45 stolen bases, the Wildcats led the nation in steals, setting another school record (with 147).
And no one was glassy-eyed by the competition. Arizona returned eight starters from the 1985 CWS, including future MLB infielders Chip Hale and Dave Rohde.
“Last year, we were looking at everybody,” Hale said before the opener against Maine. “We were going ‘hey, there’s Texas, hey, there’s Oklahoma State.’ We were just content to be there. We didn’t have the type of team that could win it. This year we do.”
And then Maine climbed all over Heredia and took a 7-0 lead.
It remained that way going to the bottom of the seventh.
“I was very doubtful we could come back,” said right fielder Gar Millay. “I thought we’d get some runs, but not eight.”
Millay and Trafton both hit two-run homers in the eighth to chop Maine’s lead to 7-5. The UA was in such a stressful situation that it had to pinch-hit for star catcher Steve Strong, who had a broken knuckle. Strong hit .423 in the regular season, leading the Pac-10, but couldn’t properly grip the bat in Omaha. He was replaced by seldom-used Dave Taylor.
When Taylor was announced as the UA hitter in the bottom of the ninth – two outs, with outfielder Mike Senne on second base – it was a 7-6 game. Arizona coach Jerry Kindall told Shermet to get a bat.
It was serendipity, or something like that.
On a 3-2 pitch, Shermet hit a home run over the left-field fence. Arizona won 8-7. Most of the writers wrote lead paragraphs that said something about “Remember Maine.”
Maine has mostly been forgotten, but Shermet’s dramatic, walk-off home run remains the most singular at-bat in UA baseball history.
“The pitch was right down the middle,” he said that night. “You couldn’t have walked the ball to the plate and put it in a better spot.”
Given such a great escape, Arizona rolled to the national championship. It beat Loyola-Marymount 7-5 two days later and then mashed No. 1 Florida State 9-5 as Heredia won his school-record 16th game. After losing to Miami 4-2, the Wildcats clobbered Florida State in a rematch, 10-2 in the title game.
The team that began the season No. 3 nationally, was No. 1.
Where are they now: Shermet, who spent 22 years as a cruise director of 20 different ships, traveling the world, now works near his hometown, in Laguna Beach, California. He is co-founder of Laguna Beach Free Walking Tours, an art, history and culture company. Millay, who played six years of minor-league baseball, died of brain cancer in his hometown, San Diego, in 2011.
How they did it: Kindall’s third CWS championship team was so talented that Rohde, a future MLB shortstop, batted ninth. Rohde is now a vice-president of an accounting/auditing firm in Denver.
Senne, who was the MVP of the 1986 World Series, hit .476 in Omaha and .521 in the postseason. Sahuaro High grad Joel Estes, who became the school’s career saves leader, was so effective in the postseason that he pitched 8ª innings of relief to beat No. 4 Texas in the regional held in Austin, Texas.
Photo: University of Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall, left, celebrates with Chip Hale after Arizona beat Florida State, 10-2, on June 9, 1986 to win the NCAA College World Series in Omaha. Photo by Bruce McClelland / Arizona Daily Star
