Boise State baseball hosts first home game since 1980 in front of a near sellout crowd
More than 30 former players and coaches were on hand Friday at Memorial Stadium to watch the Boise State baseball team earn a 4-0 win over Northern Colorado that was almost 40 years in the making.
Lee Sakugawa, a catcher on the Broncos’ final team in 1980, came all the way from Hawaii to catch a ceremonial first pitch from Steve Laughrey, who pitched in the last game before the program was disbanded.
Laughrey’s toss followed pitches from former Boise State President Bob Kustra, Athletic Director Curt Apsey and current university President Marlene Tromp, who was accompanied by a pair of scholarship recipients.
“It was pretty emotional,” Boise State coach Gary Van Tol said. “Overall, what a special night. I caught myself just looking around a couple times, and when they had the Boise State chant going the first time, I had goosebumps.”
The 3,279 fans, who nearly filled the 3,427-seat stadium to capacity, witnessed pitcher Travis Weston strike out 10 batters and not surrender a run while limiting Northern Colorado (2-6) to two hits in seven innings of work. His first win in a Boise State uniform marked the Broncos’ first win as a program since May 10, 1980.
“It’s really just surreal, especially to do it in front of a packed house like this,” Weston (1-1) said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the defense, and to the offense for coming out with two early runs, but we couldn’t have asked for a better turnout tonight.”
Seeing Boise State (1-3) back on the diamond was especially cathartic for the coach of the 1980 team, Ross Vaughn, who knew his program was in trouble long before the final decision was made to cut the sport.
The last time the Broncos had a field to call their own was the fall of 1979. That spring, it was demolished and ground was broken for The Pavilion, which is now ExtraMile Arena. And while many of Boise State’s teams were in the Big Sky Conference, the league stopped sponsoring baseball in 1974, forcing the Broncos to join the Northern Pacific Conference.
Vaughn said official word of the program’s demise didn’t come down until the final week of the 1980 season, and he had the unenviable task of gathering his team in the locker room and delivering the grim news.
“That was tough, especially because we didn’t have many seniors,” Vaughn said Friday. “All I could do was tell them this decision has been made. We’re sorry and we’ll do anything we can to help you.”
Vaughn takes pride in the fact that he and his staff were able to place all but one or two of their scholarship players in other programs, and several went on to have success at the collegiate and professional levels.
Former shortstop Tim Hayes was an All-WAC pick the following season at Utah. Third baseman Rick Stroman led the country in home runs while at Grand Canyon College, and right fielder — and Coeur d’Alene native — Cory Bridges ended up playing in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.
Vaughn hadn’t seen many of his former players in almost 40 years before Friday night, and he swelled with pride as the current crop of Broncos took a 4-0 lead in the sixth inning thanks to shortstop Cole Posey’s blooper to shallow right field, which scored two runs.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Vaughn said. “It’s amazing that it took 40 years, but it’s great to see it come back.”
Friday was as much a win for Kustra as it was the Broncos. His decision to bring baseball back in the final years of his presidency was met with plenty of criticism, especially when it meant the demise of wrestling.
Kustra said he was sold on bringing the sport back after attending a Fresno State baseball game and seeing the frenzy caused by the then-nationally ranked program.
“I walked into a stadium that was absolutely jazzed. They were wild and it was absolutely packed and the media was all about Fresno baseball,” Kustra said. “I thought this was a branding opportunity for the university, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get it done.”
Kustra announced the resurrection of the baseball program in April 2017. Almost three years later, he was on hand with his grandson, Brendan, who is a student at Boise State, to watch a new generation of Broncos take the field.
Kustra ranks the return of baseball up there with what he sees as the greatest accomplishments of his presidency, including the opening of the Center for Visual Arts on Capitol Boulevard and Boise State becoming a doctoral research university.
“It took a long time to get here, but we brought something back that was gone for 40 years,” Kustra said.
Boise State went into Friday’s game winless after it was swept in a season-opening series last weekend at Texas. But history repeated itself to give the Broncos an early lead.
First baseman Joe Yorke — who recorded the Broncos’ first base hit in 40 years last weekend at Texas — posted Boise State’s first hit of the night with a single to right field. Catcher Cory Meyer followed with a single. After a walk advanced Yorke to third, Grant Kerry sent a sacrifice fly to right field to plate the game’s first run.
Posey followed with a hard grounder, which Northern Colorado shortstop Ben McKay couldn’t handle and allowed Meyer to score to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead, which they never relinquished. Freshman Jay Baggs took the mound in the ninth inning to earn the save.
Boise State and Northern Colorado return to Memorial Stadium for a doubleheader Saturday. The first game begins at 2:05 p.m., and junior Mitch Lines will be on the mound for the Broncos. The second game starts 40 minutes after the opener ends. The series wraps up at 1:05 p.m. Sunday at Memorial Stadium.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 9:14 PM with the headline "Boise State baseball hosts first home game since 1980 in front of a near sellout crowd."
