Knox College Athletics

The 1986 Baseball Team is one of the most decorated teams in Knox College history across all sports.

The team held a 19-5 overall record and 11-4 record in Midwest Conference play en route to a Midwest Conference Championship. Knox defeated St. Norbert in a best-of-three playoff to earn the conference title. The 19 wins were the most in school history until 1997 and the .792 winning percentage is among the best winning percentages in department history in all sports.

Carlos Interial, Todd Ryan, Jon Ripperger, Mark Crawley, Dave Plomin, Bob Monroe, Jon Muehlbauer, and Perry Ahlgren were named to the All-Conference team. Interial finished the season with a 5-1 record on the mound and a school-record 62 strikeouts. Ripperger hit .488 with a program-record 13 home-runs. He led the nation with .54 home runs per game, finished second with 1.71 runs per game, and was fifth in batting average. The team as a whole hit a scorching .357, the fifth best mark in NCAA Division III. They also hit a school-record 41 home-runs, also the fourth most in conference history.

The team was coached by the late Tim Heimann ‘70, a member of the Knox-Lombard Hall of Fame and long-time basketball coach. After clinching the south division title with a 19-5 victory over Illinois College, Heimann said, “Our expectations were that we were going to win it. We confidently felt that we were the best team going in. We just viewed it as another game. That’s probably why we played so darn well.”

The victory over Illinois College to clinch the south division was a rematch of a game earlier in the season when Illinois College pitcher Danny Flesner handed Knox their first loss of the season. Flesner pitched again, but Knox scored 15 runs in the second inning to seal the game early.

Four days later, Knox began the best-of-three series with St. Norbert. Knox won the first game 13-2 in six innings, but St. Norbert won game two 3-2 to force a third game. The deciding game went extra innings, but Troy Jackson drove in the winning run to claim a 6-5 victory.

“The celebration was pure joy with a bit of relief,” said team co-captain Jon Ripperger. “What we had been through in previous years mad winning that much sweeter. It was Coach Heimann’s 38^th birthday, so we celebrated by throwing him into the pool and then jumping in after him.”

“It was the confidence in each other and the strength throughout the roster that pushed us over the top,” added Ripperger. “We had a powerful offensive lineup from top to bottom and three ace pitchers. We played free and relaxed, knowing that we each just needed to do our job because we had teammates to pick us up when needed. The fact that we had eight people on the 16-player All-South Division team -- no other school had more than two -- reflects just how strong that team was.”

I am honored to welcome the 1986 Baseball Team into the Knox-Lombard Hall of Fame.