1967 Arizona State University Sun Devils, 53-13 (10-6 WAC), College World Series Champions.

The 1967 Sun Devils got off to a slow start to their season, losing four of their first five Western Athletic Conference games before rallying to go 9-2 the rest of the way to capture the WAC conference title.  In a game still considered by many the greatest in school history, the 11th-ranked Sun Devils beat 9th ranked Arizona, 3-2, in a one-game Southern Division playoff held at a packed Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Sun Devil pitcher Gary Gentry, who had shut out the Wildcats, 3-0, in the final regular-season game, pitched all 15 innings of the four-hour, 17-minute marathon. Working on just two days’ rest, Gentry scattered nine hits, walked five and struck out 18, while throwing 208 pitches in the Phoenix heat.  The Sun Devils then won two of three from Air Force in the regional playoffs in Phoenix to earn a spot in Omaha.  

1967 Arizona State University Sun Devils

With three teams remaining in the CWS, each with one defeat, Houston drew a bye into the finals; ASU and No. 1 ranked Stanford (who had earlier lost to ASU sophomore Larry Gura) staged a rematch for the right to move to the final game against Houston. What resulted was a classic battle of two evenly matched squads, as ASU and Stanford struggled 14 innings before A-State won a 4-3 decision. ASU starter Gary Gentry and Stanford starter Rod Poteete locked horns in a pitcher’s duel that lasted over three and one-half hours. Gentry was the man who eventually scored the winning run, after singling in the 14th inning. One out later, Scott Reid sent a fly ball deep to center that Stanford center fielder Jeff Rohlfing misjudged and was unable to recover and field. Reid’s hit dropped in, and Stanford dropped out of the tournament.  ASU then won its second NCAA championship in three years, with an 11-2 drubbing of Houston in the CWS finale.  ASU starter Tom Burgess allowed 12 hits and four walks but struck out 15 men, including three whiffs of Cougar All-America Tom Paciorek for the Devils win.  This was the middle squad of a Sun Devil dynasty that won 3 CWS titles in five years, but was distinguished by Gentry's stellar ironman performance--which might have appreciably shortened his promising MLB career.