Mount Olive Tribune NC

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Your home paper since 1904.
Our mailing address is PO Box 1039, Mount Olive, NC 28365.
Thursday, June 5, 2008

Serving Southern Wayne and Northern Duplin Counties

410 NW Center St. • Mount Olive, NC 28365 • Telephone 919-658-9456 • Fax 919-658-9559

Trojans Capture National Championship!

Mount Olive College baseball players celebrate on the mound Saturday after defeated Ouachita Baptist 6-2 in the NCAA Division II national championship game. The Trojans finished the season with a record of 58-6. See Page 13 for more information on the team’s title run. (Submitted photo) More Photos of the Mount Olive College Trojans

“When I took this job 22 years ago, people asked me why. I said I didn’t know. Today, I know why.”

On Saturday evening in a small town in Illinois, Mount Olive College head baseball coach Carl Lancaster, the man who wasn’t sure why he came here, and his players achieved what everyone involved with college baseball dreams of doing. And they did it in style.

Facing the same opponent that it needed a dramatic ninth-inning rally to defeat just five days earlier, Mount Olive captured its first-ever national championship in any sport with a 6-2 victory over Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) in the title game of the 2008 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals in Sauget, Ill. The Trojans swept four games in the National Finals and completed their season with the best record in the division, 58-6.

Last week at the SIU-Edwardsville baseball complex, Mount Olive checked off Ouachita Baptist (6-5), Ashland (18-7), Central Missouri (5-3) and then Ouachita again to claim the school’s first national title.

Welcome home, Trojans!

More than a thousand fans attended homecoming festivities for the Mount Olive College baseball team Monday evening at Scarborough Field. The celebration was sponsored by the Town of Mount Olive, the Mount Olive Chamber of Commerce and Mount Olive College.

At the Scarborough Field entrance, a fire truck crane held a “National Champions” banner. Led by a police escort with sirens blaring, the team bus pulled into the parking lot. The Trojan players got off the bus and followed the Spring Creek High School Marching Band through a “tunnel” of fans holding “National Champions” signs. The team took their seats behind a table with the NCAA national championship trophy as the band played the Alice Cooper classic, “School’s Out.” Director of Athletics Jeff Eisen served as master of ceremonies.

“Many student-athletes do great things during their college careers,” said Dr. J. William Byrd, President of Mount Olive College. “But very few can claim to do what you did – win a national championship.”

Town of Mount Olive Mayor Ray McDonald presented Lancaster with a proclamation.

“We proclaim today, June 2, 2008, as Mount Olive College Baseball Day,” said Mayor McDonald.

Lancaster then noted that the day was special for an additional reason.
“It was 22 years ago today that my son Jesse was born.” Jesse Lancaster, the Trojans’ starting left fielder and an All-Tournament selection at the National Finals, was serenaded with a chorus of “Happy Birthday To You.”
Senior shortstop David Cooper spoke on the players’ behalf.

“The reception at the airport yesterday and the turnout here is just overwhelming,” said Cooper, also an All-Tournament selection at the National Finals. “We were spending a good part of the day signing baseballs to give away and it made us smile.”

After the ceremony, fans poured onto the field to take pictures while kids of all ages got autographs from the players and coaches. Among those in attendance was Beverly Blackwelder, daughter of the late Ray Scarborough. Scarborough, for whom Scarborough Field was named, was largely responsible for the return of baseball at MOC in 1980.