David Shell, manager; Players Harry Troyer, Bob Cardenas, Chris Murray, Greg Taylor, Dale Bennis, Bill McNew, John Johnson, Damien DiPillo, Dean Yeotis, Allen Weatherford. Coach Marv Rettenmund.
Kneeling from left: Ruben Luna, Gary Lee, T.W.Cox, Risto Nicevski, Ron Scott, Dennis Sargent, Matt Diment, Joe Fischer.
One of the losses was a fluke, an early season debacle in the snow at Saginaw, where a fly ball was misplayed into a costly double.
It might have been the kick Southwestern needed in 1978.
When the Colts got back to Flint that day, “we ran until we couldn’t walk,” recalled outfielder Damien DiPillo. “Rett was yelling, ‘This team should never lose a game the whole season.”‘
Coach Marv Rettenmund wasn’t just ranting. His Southwestern baseball team in 1978 did have the personnel to go undefeated – two pitchers who threw 90 mph, a lineup of .300 hitters who could bunt and hit-and-run, and a fundamentally sound defense.
“Sometimes,” Rettenmund said, “you have pretty good players, and when you have them, you’d better cash in.”
Southwestern did just that in 1978, smashing the school’s win record with a 32-3 mark and winning what is still the only Class A baseball title in Flint-area history.
All three losses were by one run, including less surprising defeats to Central and Midland in the Saginaw Valley Conference. The Colts shared the city title with Central, won the Valley’s East Division and captured the Greater Flint invitational for the second straight year.
They finished the season on a 16-game win streak, capped by five close games in the state tournament and a 7-0 rout of East Kentwood in the final.
The foundation was the 1 -2 punch of senior left-hander Ruben Luna (14-0 with a 0.82 earned-run average) and senior right-hander Risto Nicevski (9-1, 0.72).
“When you have two kids, one from the left and one from the right, throwing high 80s and 90, we were tough to beat,” said Nicevski. The infielders were John Johnson (first base) Bill McNew (second), Matt Diment (shortstop) and Bob Cardenas (third). DiPillo, Gary Lee and Dale Bennis played the outfield, Dennis Sargent caught and Al Weatherford was the designated hitter.
Luna, who played center field when not pitching, led the team in hitting, taking a .383 average into the final two games. Diment batted .378 and the left-handed DiPillo .372. Lee and DiPillo each had 22 RBI. Lee had five homers. Weatherford hit.328 and Johnson .324.
“And we could all move the runners over,” said DiPillo, the cleanup hitter. “There were no prima donnas on that team. You bunted. You executed.”
Nicevski called the early loss in Saginaw a wakeup call and the Colts settled into a steady groove of winning, guided by Rettenmund.
“He was a heck of a coach,” said Nicevski. “He got on us when he needed to, but mostly he concentrated on everybody’s talents and pushed the right buttons to get everybody to perform.”
The Colts avenged their loss to Central by beating the Indians 4-0 in the Greater Flint title game, then opened tournament play with a pair of 3-1 wins over Davison and Grand Blanc in the district at Broome Park.
In the regional at Pontiac, Luna shook off a sore back from a minor traffic accident the night before to beat St. Clair Shores Lakeshore 5-4 in the first game. Lee ignited two separate rallies, and DiPillo’s two-run single in the sixth broke a 3-3 tie.
The Colts needed nine innings to beat Rochester Adams 2-1 in the title game, with Luna relieving Nicevski in the seventh and then singling home Sargent with the winning run in the ninth.
On the final day at Wyandotte, Luna fanned 12 in a three-hit, 1-0 shutout of Plymouth Canton. Cardenas singled home Weatherford for the only run.
“That was one of toughest teams we played,” said Rettenmund. “Their best player led off the seventh with a double and tried to stretch it to a triple, but we made a perfect relay – Bennis (in left) to Diment to Cardenas.”
Nicevski then gutted out four scoreless innings, allowing only a bunt single, in the final against Kentwood despite an arm injury he suffered in the regional.
“I don’t know how,” Nicevski said. “I didn’t have anything on the ball. I think there was more heart in there than arm.”
But that allowed Luna to throw the final three innings for the maximum 10 allowed one pitcher on the day. Meanwhile, the Colts overcame a triple play in the first inning and banged out eight hits, two each by Lee and Johnson.
Both Luna and Nicevski went on to Michigan State, and every other starter on the team earned a college scholarship in one sport or another, Nicevski said.
Rettenmund had other good teams in his 14 years at Southwestern, including an earlier squad with Rick Leach, Gene Johnson and Ron Schmidt.
But none could match the ’78 Colts.
“That was a once-in-a-lifetime ball club,” Rettenmund said.
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