Seven new members were inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame on June 28, 2014, in the annual celebration of the greatest players in past and present college baseball.
College Baseball's Night of Champions in Lubbock, Texas, honored these men for their addition to the Hall of Fame: Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson; USC pitcher Bill Bordley; University of Miami and Miami-Dade South CC pitcher Alex Fernandez; University of Miami outfielder Mike Fiore; Miami-Dade North CC coach Demie Mainieri; Baylor outfielder Mickey Sullivan; and Tuskegee Institute and Harvard shortstop William C. Matthews.
Bill Bordley was a two-time All-American at USC from 1977 to 1978. He posted a 26-2 career record with the Trojans, and his .929 winning percentage is still a school record. He also logged a career ERA of 2.58 with 10 complete games. Bordley won his first 20 straight decisions and remains the only Trojans pitcher to be a two-time, first-team All-American.
Alex Fernandez was named Freshman of the Year and a first-team All-American at Miami, where he won 15 games to go with a 2.01 ERA and 177 strikeouts in 147 innings as a freshman. He played his sophomore season at Miami-Dade South CC and was named first team all-NJCAA after leading the nation with 154 strikeouts in 121 innings. He finished his sophomore season with a 12-2 record and a 1.19 ERA. He won the 1990 Dick Howser Trophy and the 1990 Golden Spikes Award.
Mike Fiore was a star outfielder from 1985 to 1988 at Miami, where he set 12 school batting records including hits (341), doubles (63) and RBIs (235). He was named a freshman All-American, won the Dick Howser Trophy in 1987 and was a consensus All-American in 1988. He also played on the 1988 gold-medal winning USA Olympic team.
Demie Mainieri was the first junior college coach to win at least 1,000 games. He finished his career with 1,012 wins in 30 seasons at Miami-Dade North CC. More than 100 of his former players were drafted or signed by professional teams, and 30 of them have made it to the Major Leagues. His 1964 team won the NJCAA national championship, he had three teams finish second and another finished third. He has been inducted into six halls of fame and was named to the NJCAA All-Century Team.
William C. Matthews was at Tuskegee from 1893 to 1897 and captained the 1897 team. He also helped organize the school's first football team. Following his career at Tuskegee, he went on to play at Harvard as an infielder. During his time with the Crimson, he was part of teams that went a combined 75-18. In his senior season, he hit .400 and stole 22 bases, all while continuing to deal with boycotts and tension on and off the field.
Matthews was selected by the Black College Legends and Pioneers Committee, which selects inductees who played or coached at HBCUs prior to 1975. He joins Ralph Garr, Lou Brock, Danny Goodwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones as previous honorees in this category.
Gene Stephenson has more Division I wins than any other coach. In building the Wichita State program, Stephenson went 1,837-673-3 in 36 seasons. He took teams to 28 regionals, seven College World Series and won a national title in 1989. He stands as the third-winningest coach at any level, behind College Baseball Hall of Famer Gordie Gillespie and Augie Garrido. He joins his brother, Phil, who was inducted in 2007, and four of his former players in the Hall of Fame.
Mickey Sullivan was an outfielder at Baylor from 1952 to 1954 and was the school's first two-time All-American. He batted .519 in 1954, still a school record. He returned to Baylor as a coach in 1974 and led the Bears to a school-record 649 wins in 21 seasons, including four NCAA tournament appearances and the school's first two College World Series appearances in 1977 and 1978.
