The RoundHouse | 3/28/2019 11:16:00 AM

 
Coach Jim Maynard waited by his phone to hear the score of the biggest games any Wichita State softball team had played. In 1989, things happened without instant communication of facts, pictures and sounds.
 
For a coach too sick to travel, the waiting added to his discomfort.
 
"It was miserable," Maynard said. "Steve (Harshberger) called me after each game. I knew they had won it when they called me."
 
The 1989 Wichita State softball team, coached by Maynard and assisted by Harshberger, is the first women's team sport to qualify for NCAA post-season play. The Shockers went 5-1 in the Gateway Conference Tournament in Cedar Falls, Iowa to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA regional. 
 
"Somehow, it all came together," said Marie Thomas, a junior second baseman. "It was the greatest feeling. Nobody really thought we had a chance and we did it."
 
The 1989 Shockers are reuniting for Friday's 6 p.m. game vs. UConn at Wilkins Stadium. 
 
The Shockers started the season with modest expectations under Maynard, in his first season as head coach. They went 12-33 in 1988, the program's sixth straight losing season. The 1989 team relied on two pitchers, defense, execution with the bats and enough power (in an era when pitching dominated) to finish 35-31 overall, 9-7 in the Gateway and in fourth place. They set 12 school records, including season wins.
 
In NCAA play, second-ranked Oklahoma State and two-time Olympic pitcher Michelle Smith defeated Wichita State 2-0 and 3-1 in the best-of-3 to advance to the Women's College World Series, then played in California.
 
Wichita State led with pitching – Gateway Conference MVP Patty Bautista dominated and Sylvia Lavin, a transfer from Creighton, provided a strong No. 2. Bautista won all five games in the conference tournament and went 24-15 with 1.32 ERA for the season. Lavin went 11-16 with a 2.23 ERA.
 
They also hit in the middle of the order. The NCAA used what's known as the "white ball" until 1993, when it switched to a more hitter-friendly yellow ball with raised seams and a harder core.
 
"The bats weren't nearly as lively," Maynard said. "Low-scoring games. You had to scratch to get a run when you could."
 
Lavin hit .315 with 15 doubles to lead the team and drove in 29 runs. Bautista hit .284 with 10 doubles and 22 RBI. Julie Gallagher hit five home runs to finish in a four-way tie atop the conference. Thomas hit .275.
 
"They just clicked at the end," Harshberger said. "Nobody stood out except Patty, and Patty didn't act like the queen. She was just there to win the game. She played hard. Sylvia played hard, too. They both wanted to win."
 
Wichita State hinted at its closing run late in the season. It won seven of its final nine regular-season games – including a sweep of Oklahoma. Two vans, one driven by Harshberger and one by the athletic trainer, departed for Cedar Falls.
 
"I remember the van ride being super-long," Bautista said. "Everybody was excited, everybody was focused on doing their best."
 
Maynard, stricken with hepatitis, stayed in Wichita. Harshberger drove, washed the uniforms at a laundromat each night, coached and phoned Maynard with updates.
 
"I was bed-ridden," Maynard said. "There was no way."
 
Bautista, a member of the Gateway's All-Decade team and the Missouri Valley Conference's All-Centennial team, won all five games in the tournament and threw three shutouts. 
 
After a loss to Indiana State, the Shockers eliminated top-seeded Western Illinois 2-1. To complete the journey back from the losers bracket, Bautista threw two-hit shutouts in 6-0 and 2-0 wins over third-seeded Indiana State. 
 
"She was the force," Harshberger said.
 
Michelle Vogt, a freshman utility player, remembers Bautista icing her leg after games. She smacked that leg with her glove during her pitching motion and that sound and the sight of Bautista's pony-tail swinging sticks with her.
 
"I was always in awe of her," Vogt said. "She pretty much dominated."
 
After winning the title, Harshberger and the athletic trainer drove 514 miles back to Wichita. They arrived early the next morning and Harshberger remembers watching hot-air balloons launch as part of Riverfest.
 
"That ride home – it was like we were flying," he said. 
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.