Taken from a perch high above the first-base side of the University of Texas’ Disch-Falk Field by a local youth pastor, it depicts the precise instant that the Tigers captured the 1994 Class 4A state baseball championship.
The picture shows pitcher Brock Rumfield delivering the final pitch, the home plate umpire calling the third strike on a Big Spring batter and the rest of the Tigers with arms upraised beginning their sprint to the celebratory dogpile at the mound. The scoreboard, declaring Belton a 4-0 winner, provides the backdrop.
That was just one of many moments Tigers coach David Tidwell wanted to “freeze in time” from not only that weekend but also the magical weeks that led up to that climactic ending. There was the impromptu heroes welcome into Belton upon returning from Austin that afternoon with a police escort and people lining the streets in tribute.
There was the jubilant shot of Jason Regan with his clenched right fist in the air rounding the bases after the first of his two heroic home runs to lift the Tigers over Carthage in the state semifinal game the day before.
Tidwell has done his best to preserve those memories in the 15 years that have gone by since that sweltering but glorious June afternoon. The championship trophy sits on a mantle above the fireplace in Tidwell’s home where he can’t miss it.
“I’ve thought about it every day,” said Tidwell, who resigned as baseball coach last year and still teaches in the school district. “It’s the kind of recollection of things you never think are going to happen to you. We won a state championship. A lot of weird and lucky things happened.”
Were the 1994 Tigers a slam dunk for a state title? Hardly.
Belton was ranked near the top of the state rankings most of the year and was expected to make its usual lengthy playoff run. Tidwell thinks the 1999 team that went four rounds deep might have been better.
Obviously, the ’94 Tigers were destined to win it all. If nothing else, they were bound and determined not to lose.
“Those guys never quit on us,” Tidwell said. “They just wouldn’t quit.”
Along with Rumfield and Regan, who alternated at pitcher and shortstop, there was wily sophomore catcher Brad Turner and veteran infielders such as David Stroud at first base, Shayne Drake at second and Brad Washburn at third, with freshman Kyle Tidwell taking over down the stretch because of an injury.
Center fielder Darren Brinkley was flanked by Bobby Spradley in left and Michael Jones in right.
Not much came easily for the Tigers in the postseason following an 8-0 bi-district rout of Austin Travis. It took only four rounds to get out of the region in those days instead of the current five, but there would be the maximum nine games in the next three best-of-three series.
The Tigers rallied from a 5-1 deficit to beat Austin Westlake 6-5 at home in the first game of the area round. They were one out away from sweeping the host Chaps 3-2 the next day but slipped to a 4-3 loss on a walk-off home run.
“That loss was a knife in the gut,” Tidwell said. “I didn’t know how I was going to get them ready to play the next one.”
Turner came up with a clutch hit to drive in Washburn to pull out a 5-4 win and keep hopes alive.
Then came nemesis Corpus Christi Calallen - a battle of the two top-ranked teams and the one that knocked the Tigers out the year before. Calallen won the opener decisively, 6-2.
With timely hitting and gutsy pitching from Regan, who won both games of the doubleheader, the Tigers emerged from San Antonio with just one more series victory remaining to reach the state tournament for the first time in school history.
Regan fired a three-hitter to beat Robstown 1-0 in the opener. But a 6-5 loss in the second game the next day left Tidwell with a dilemma for the decisive third game.
“I didn’t know who to pitch,” he said. “About that time Jason Regan walked by and said, ‘Give me the ball. I’ll take you to Austin.’”
The Tigers rallied behind Regan with their biggest offensive output of the playoffs in a 13-1 rout. Rumfield had four homers to pace the Tigers during the exhaustive march through Region IV.
The state semifinal against perennial power Carthage is time capsule material.
Down 5-2 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers picked up a couple of runs to cut their deficit to one. With Belton down to its last out with nobody on in the seventh, Regan, who had struggled through five innings on the mound in near-100-degree heat, took a pitch by future major leaguer Brian Lawrence into the parking lot to tie the game and send it to extra innings.
Regan came up again in the eighth - this time with the bases loaded - and took Lawrence deep again for a walk-off grand slam and a ticket into the title game against Big Spring. Regan is one of only two players in state tournament history to hit two homers in a game.
Rumfield, who won in relief of Regan in the semis, went the distance in a five-hit shutout of Big Spring. Rumfield, Drake and Brinkley drove in all four runs to claim the state crown, the first for Belton in a team sport since the 1958 boys basketball squad. The Tigers finished 35-6. Rumfield and Regan were named co-MVPs.
Shortly after receiving the escort into town, Tidwell said, “I wish I could stop time and savor that moment forever.”
What has been savored is Belton’s tradition as a classic baseball town. A consistent winner year in and year out and a thriving youth program ensure that.
The 1994 Tigers provided the foundation.
twaits@temple-telegram.com
