MONMOUTH, Ill. - When the Monmouth College Fighting Scots defeated Aurora University 4-0 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA regional tournament at Glasgow Field, coach Roger Sander was asked if it was the first time that any Monmouth team in any sport had defeated a team ranked No. 3 or higher in the country.

Sander believed it was a first, but he didn’t have to wait too long for a second, as the Scots did it again on Sunday, topping Aurora 2-1 to advance to the regional championship game.

That feat was just one of many that make the 2002 baseball season at Monmouth arguably the most memorable one in school history, and those victories over Aurora enhanced a renewed national respect for Monmouth’s program.

“Because of how we played this weekend, we got a lot of respect,” said Sander. “We knew we had a good ball club, and now we’re getting some national recognition since we were one of the top 16 teams in the country at the end.”

It was very nearly the top eight in the nation with a berth in the Division III World Series, but the Scots dropped two hard-fought contests to regional champion Carthage, including a 10-7, roller coaster ride loss in 14 innings on Saturday, the longest game in MC history.

“What I told the kids after the last game was to walk tall,” said Sander. “They had a great season. On Sunday, Carthage was the better team. They deserved the championship. But I’ll argue to the day I die that we gave them the game on Saturday. We did it to ourselves.”

Saturday’s contest featured a peak moment for the Monmouth baseball program, as Beau Hellman’s grand slam homer in the bottom of the sixth inning lifted the Scots to a 7-3 lead. Had Monmouth been able to protect its lead and win in nine innings, the Scots would have a well-rested staff ready to go for Sunday’s championship game and, if necessary, another title game on Monday.

Instead, pitcher Adam Schweitzer was knocked from the rotation with a 4-2/3-inning relief stint in the marathon game, and the Scots also had to play an extra game to get back into the championship. But what a game it was, as unheralded freshman Mason Abner kept the nation’s top-hitting team in check for seven innings, and Schweitzer had enough left in the tank to get the final six outs and save Abner’s first collegiate win.

“When you get to this time in the season, every win’s special, but to beat a team of that caliber the way we did was very special,” said Sander of Abner’s performance. “Every game he’s started for us has been a quality start. He pitched a great game against a Pitt-Bradford team that was the No. 3 seed in their regional, and he pitched a great junior varsity game against ICC. That kid thinks he’s our ace.”

Sander then called on another little-used pitcher this season, sophomore Adam Carlson, and he got another great response, as Carlson - who “pitched with a lot of heart,” according to Sander - threw well enough to stay undefeated in his college career, yielding just a run in his five innings of work. Instead, though, Carlson’s MC record fell to 7-1 as his teammates could not generate any offense off Carthage’s Jason Wiertel, who pitched a four-hit shutout.

“If you look at it, we just didn’t score on any left-handed pitchers,” said Sander, whose team was also stymied by Carthage reliever Brandon Roth in the extra-inning game and by Aurora reliever George Creviston. The Scots hit a mere .148 against that trio and a healthier .244 against the right-handed pitching they saw.

Speaking of averages, here’s another contrast. Aurora entered the weekend with a .392 batting average, but in two games against the Scots, they hit just .210.

Another set of numbers that stand out is the way senior pitcher Ryan Johnson completed his career. After suffering two poor outings in March, Johnson was flat-out dominant the rest of the way, going 9-0 with a minuscule 0.90 ERA (six earned runs in his last 60-1/3 innings). His 10 wins on the season are second all-time to the 13 by assistant coach Brent Dugan in 1994, and he finished his career with 23 victories, good for fourth on the all-time list behind Todd Briggs (27), Jake Libby (27) and Arnie Gonzalez (26).

Johnson’s sensational run was just one of many highlights in 2002. Others included Hellman’s three-homer game against Concordia-River Forest in Florida; an extra-inning victory over highly-touted Illinois Wesleyan; Taylor Thiel’s late-season homer binge to make him Monmouth’s all-time single season leader; Joe Larkins and Johnson earning their 20th career victories on the same day; back-to-back shutout doubleheader sweeps on two occasions; and the Scots’ season-sweep of Knox, which included an 8-4 win in what proved to be the title game of the Midwest Conference Championship Tournament.

“On paper, it looks like we lose a lot,” said Sander. “We’re going to lose our top three pitchers (Johnson, Larkins and Schweitzer) and the middle of our order (Steve Glasgow, Thiel and Larkins). But we’ve got some guys on the bench that are waiting their turn, a la Jason Riney. I want to see what that kid can do with 100 at-bats.

“The team we’ll have next year won’t have the power that this team did, and some of the familiar names will be gone, but we expect to be a very good team,” Sander continued. “Our top two hitters, Beau Hellman and Thad King, will be back, we showed we have young pitching talent, which includes Hellman, and we’ve got some kids who are eager to prove themselves next year.

“It was a great weekend for our baseball team,” Sander concluded, “and it was a great weekend for Monmouth College. Glasgow Field is a great facility and we wanted to showcase it. We really got a lot of sincere compliments from the other coaches about our ballpark and how we ran the tournament.”

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