ORONO, Maine — Fifty years ago, the University of Maine’s baseball team earned the school’s second ever trip to the College World Series in Omaha.
The team set a school record for wins by going 29-9, and the Black Bears posted wins over Auburn (9-8) and Washington State (6-3) in the CWS after losing to eventual runnerup Eastern Michigan 3-2 in their opener and eventually being eliminated by an Arizona State team (7-0) that had 13 future Major Leaguers on its roster.
The Eastern Michigan pitchers who teamed up to seven-hit UMaine in the opener were future 17-year Major Leaguer and 1990 American League Cy Young Award winner Bob Welch and 10-year Major Leaguer Bob Owchinko.
The 1976 UMaine team and the other six College World Series teams were honored before Saturday’s regular season-ending 11-6 win over Albany at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
The 1976 team strung together two 10-game winning streaks including seven consecutive post-season victories in the ECAC New England and Northeast Regional tournaments after winning its final three regular season games.
If you include two wins in its first three CWS games, that was a stretch of 12 wins in 13 games with nine coming in the post-season.
After getting swept in its second series of the season at Miami of Florida, 3-1, 8-2 and 7-5, head coach John Winkin’s Black Bears never lost multiple games in a row after that.
Shortstop Russ Quetti was chosen to the CWS all-tournament team; UMaine Sports Hall of Famers Eddie Flaherty, Jack Leggett and future Major League pitcher Bert Roberge were among the team leaders. Tony DiBiase (.339), John Dumont (311) and Leggett (.307) were the top hitters, and Roberge (9-2), Steve Conley (7-2) and Barry Lacasse (7-1) headlined a deep pitching staff.
The recognition Saturday was special for the former teammates as they reminisced and got caught up on current activities.
“It’s like you never left,” said Skowhegan’s Lacasse, who was a sophomore that season.
“The guys haven’t changed that much. We’re just older,” said Lacasse who added that they like to share the same stories that they recalled from their playing days at UMaine.
“It’s pretty amazing. They’re baseball guys. A lot of them coached college ball. A bunch have coached in high school. You’d see their names in the newspaper all the time coaching different places. It was a baseball group, for sure,” added Lacasse, who noted the impressive long-time college coaching resumes compiled by teammates Leggett (Vermont, Western Carolina, Clemson), Flaherty (University of Southern Maine) and Bobby Whalen (UMaine assistant, Dartmouth head coach).
The three of them have combined for 3,118 career coaching wins: Leggett has 1,332, Flaherty 1,133 and Whalen 653.
Among others who coached were Brian Butterfield, a veteran Major League assistant; Lacasse, an American Legion and high school coach in Maine; and longtime Maine high school coaches DiBiase and Dumont.
The players from the 1976 team remembered the close bond they had.
Pitcher John Sawyer said their camaraderie was special.
“We played for each other. It was just an honor to be a part of that,” said Sawyer. “You see how successful all the people that were on that team were afterwards over a 50-year span. They’ve helped so many kids. What’s amazing is we haven’t lost anybody and we had 16 out of 20 that showed up. That says a lot about the team, I think.”
Leggett concurred.
“We had great team chemistry. We had some really good starting pitching and had some hitters. We had a really good combination,” said Leggett. “We all liked each other as you can tell. There’s 16 of us here together after 50 years. We have great memories, we had fun playing and we had really good fundamental coaching.”
He agreed with Lacasse in that the get-togethers transcend time.
“It seems like yesterday in some ways although we all look a little different,” said Leggett.
Flaherty said he “loves” getting together with his former teammates and said the club was “as well-balanced a team as you could put together between pitching, hitting and defense.”
“You don’t think how good you are when you’re playing,” Flaherty said. “But when you look back on it now, you’d say ‘Wow, that’s a good club.’”
“It was a cohesive group,” said LaCasse. “We put in a lot of time in the [UMaine] fieldhouse and that’s where we came together before we got on the field. The southern trips helped, obviously, and we just kind of put it all together.”
The players talked about how college baseball has changed over the years with much better facilities, artificial turf surfaces and the fact players can now earn lots of money through NIL deals or being paid by the schools themselves.
And the free transfer rule has allowed players to transfer to a different school every year without having to sit out.
“It’s a tremendous product,” said Flaherty who doesn’t care for the way it has become so professionalized. “Everybody can say what they want but do the guys deserve to get paid that much? But the coaches are making big money, too.”
“The game is a lot different than when we played,” said Sawyer. “We commented, Roberge and I and Butterfield, on what it would be like to play on the turf like this as opposed to the dirt. But I’m from the old school. I would prefer the dirt.”
Leggett liked what he saw from the current UMaine team.
“The team is talented. They really look good. Their record isn’t indicative of what they’ve got,” said Leggett, who has spent the past four seasons working in player, staff and program development with Clemson’s baseball program.
“They’ve played a tough schedule, they’ve traveled a lot. They’re playing their best baseball right now,” said Leggett. “They have great leadership. I like [head coach] Nick Derba a lot. I like his coaching staff and his players. It seems like they are playing for Maine, they’re hungry and they’re playing well at the right time.”
Whalen thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with players who were at UMaine before he was here, guys he played with, ones he coached at UMaine and ones who came after he left for Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire.
“It has been a great day, a great weekend and a great atmosphere,” said Whalen on Saturday.
