50@50: FIU baseball upsets Notre Dame to win South Bend Regional in 2001


To celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary, FIU News is sharing 50 moments in FIU’s history as part of our “50@50″ series.

Tommy Duenas is currently an assistant coach for the Miami-Dade College Sharks.

Tommy Duenas is currently an assistant coach for the Miami-Dade College Sharks.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

In 2001, sophomore catcher Tommy Duenas, and most of his teammates on the FIU baseball team, thought they knew where they were going for the NCAA regionals.

For four straight seasons, the Panthers were sent to the Coral Gables Regional, hosted by the University of Miami, and they had little reason to believe they were going anywhere else.

“Back then we played them every year,” Duenas says of the Hurricanes. “We would take it to them and they would take it to us – it was a big cross-town rivalry.”

But as the Panthers, after compiling a 40-18 record during the season, were watching the NCAA Regionals Selection Show in the FIU Baseball Stadium locker room, they were in for a surprise.

“We were all sitting there waiting toward the end of the show and then they start talking about the South Bend Regional and Notre Dame. We were like ‘Yeah, yeah – get to the Coral Gables Regional,’” Duenas recalls.

The South Bend Regional bracket was displayed on the screen and there was FIU, listed as the No. 3 seed in the four-team, double-elimination regional.

Just like that, the Panthers were packing their bags and getting on a plane for Indiana. It was the first time the Panthers were traveling out of state for a regional as a Division I program.

“When we saw our name there we went nuts. It was a chance to get out of Miami and make some noise in the tournament,” Duenas said. “We weren’t going there just to participate – we were going to win the whole thing.”

LUCK OF THE PANTHERS

The Panthers offense lit up the UC-Santa Barbara Guachos in the opening game of the regional, powering FIU to a 17-4 win in the opening game to lift the Panthers.

Starter Willie Collazo, who went 13-1 on the mound that season, pitched the complete game with four strikeouts to set up a duel with the Notre Dame in the winner’s bracket of the regional.

With the score tied at 6-6, the Panthers and Fighting Irish went into extra innings. But in the bottom of the 10th inning, with the winning run on second base, Panthers left fielder Barry Paulk hit a walk-off single down the right field line to score pinch runner Todd Sherbinsky from second base and give the Panthers a 7-6 win.

After Notre Dame narrowly won an elimination game over UC-Santa Barbara, they beat the Panthers 5-2 on May 28 in the first game of the regional finals to force a winner-take-all final game later that same day with a trip to the super regionals at stake.

Willie Collazo

Pitcher Willie Collazo pitched a complete game in the opening game of the South Bend Regional and days later pitched six innings of relief to help get the Panthers to a super regional.

After the Irish took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, the Panthers scored four runs in the bottom of the third and added another in sixth inning to give FIU a 5-2 lead heading into the final innings.

Collazo, just three days after pitching a complete game, came in as a relief pitcher in the fourth inning and gave up a run in the eighth inning that made it a two-run game heading into the final frame.

In the top of the ninth, Notre Dame came within 90 feet of tying the game after catcher Paul O’Toole smashed a triple to drive in another run and stood on third base as the tying run with two outs.

But against Collazo, the luck of the Irish ran out as the Panthers’ ace struck out Andrew Bushey with three changeups to end the game.

For FIU, it marked the program’s first NCAA regional championship and trip to a best-of-three super regional, one step away from the College World Series in Omaha.

“We went from them coming that close to leaving us on the field to us celebrating in a pile on the mound on their field in a matter of seconds,” Duenas said. “It was an amazing experience. One we’ll take to the grave.”

Less than a week after their South Bend victory, the Panthers flew across the country to face the No. 2 University of Southern California Trojans in the Los Angeles Super Regional.

Against Trojan ace and top MLB prospect Mark Prior – who went on to be drafted by the Chicago Cubs with the No. 2 overall pick – the Panthers held their own, taking a 1-0 lead over USC into the fifth inning.

But the Trojans went on to win that opening game 5-1 and ended the Panthers’ dream of going to Omaha a day later with another win.

“It was a little bittersweet, but it was amazing experience being able to be there,” Duenas said.

STILL IN THE GAME

Several members of the 2001 team, including Collazo and outfielder Brad Eldred, went on to play professional baseball. Duenas himself was drafted a year later by the Anaheim Angels in the 16th round of the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft and went on to play for seven years in the minor leagues.

He is currently still heavily involved in baseball, working as an assistant coach for Miami Dade-College baseball under Danny Price, who was the head coach of that 2001 FIU team, and still tries to make it to as many FIU games as he can.

“I love my school. I have so much pride in that place and it brings a smile to my face every time I’m on campus,” Duenas said. “That time molded my life and molded my career.”

Finding out that FIU will once again be facing UM in the Coral Gables Regional this year brings back memories of his days at the university and hopes that this group of Panthers can become the second team to advance to an NCAA super regional.

“They’re not just carrying what they did this year, but they’re also carrying what the alumni from all the past years have done,” Duenas said. “It’s about how far they want to go. I’m excited to see what they do this weekend.”