St. Paul’s head baseball coach Paul Bernstorf traveled to the Division III baseball World Series, last weekend, in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, to watch his son Stephen play for Trinity College (CT), which captured the national title, and had the opportuntity to see three other former baseball players compete.
In fact, all four players appeared in the tournament finals, as Bernstorf’s Bantams battled Johns Hopkins, which featured Chris Huisman of Archbishop Spalding and a pair of Gilman Greyhounds – Marco Simmons and Tim Rappazzo, for the title.
Trinity came into the final of the double-elimination undefeated, not only in the tournament, but for the season. The Bantams were 44-0. Hopkins, however, nearly pulled off what would have been a stunning double-dip, as the Blue Jays (42-7) won the opening game, 4-3, and fought to the end in before dropping a 5-4 decision in the “if game.”
According to coach Bernstorf, “All four players had limited roles on their teams, but it still says a great deal about the league to have four players playing on teams who are competing for the D3 national championship.”
Huisman had the key hit for Johns Hopkins in the first game of the championship, when he doubled down the right field line to lead off the ninth inning. JHU pinch ran for him and the runner scored the winning run to stop Trinity’s undefeated streak.
Huisman got just 21 at bats this spring, but he hit .429 with three doubles, a home run and 8 RBI. Simmons made 13 appearances on the mound for the Blue Jays, including one start and struck out 19 batters, while Rappasso scored six runs and contributed three RBI.
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