Bio

Morningside's 1980 baseball team won the NCC championship with a 12-4 record and finished with an overall record of 18-16. The NCC title earned the team a berth in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional tournament, where the season ended after a 2-1 loss against Northwest Missouri State and a 13-2 setback against Mankato State. Ten of the team's 16 losses came against NCAA Division I opponents, including defending Big Ten Conference champion Michigan State, nationally ranked Pan American, and a doubleheader against the University of Nebraska.

Longtime Morningside head coach Don Protexter was named the NCC Coach of the Year and junior ace Mike King was named the NCC's Most Valuable Pitcher. King was joined on the All-NCC team by pitcher Royce Schultz, catcher Jay Rehnstrom, and shortstop Greg Smith, while second baseman Ron Stabile and outfielder Terry Meyer received honorable mention All-NCC recognition. King, who was also named the NCC's Most Valuable Pitcher as a freshman in 1978, and Rehnstrom, the 1981 NCC Co-Most Valuable Player, were both named to the All-NCC team three times during their careers, while Smith was a two-time pick.
Aside from the All-NCC performers, other players on the team included Mike Allan, Lonny Amick, Bob Bouvia, Bruce Bunch, Mike Clough, Dave Etzel, Brian Johnson, Rhett Kenny, Tom Leinen, Tom McCann, Mark Paulsen, Scott Piersma, Bruce Pinkerton, Terry Pomerenke, Kent Prescott, Arlin Roskam, Jeff Snyders, Tim Watts, and Bill Welch.

A dominate pitching staff was the key to the team's success. Morningside led the NCC with a 2.25 team earned run average to finish over a full run lower than runner-up South Dakota State's mark of 3.39. King and Schultz each pitched three shutouts in NCC competition to tie a league record and helped Morningside set a team NCC single-season record with six shutouts. Schultz was 3-0 in the NCC and allowed only 11 hits in 21 innings, while King went 4-1 with a 0.31 ERA and allowed only seven hits and struck out 46 batters in 29.1 innings. King finished the season with an overall record of 6-4 with a 0.47 ERA and allowed only 14 hits and struck out 93 batters in 56.2 innings, while Schultz finished 4-1 with a 2.74 ERA.

McCann was the team's leading hitter with a .313 batting average, while Smith hit .292 with a team-high seven doubles, nine home runs, and 22 RBIs. Smith topped the NCC with six doubles and was the co-leader with 14 runs scored in the team's 16 league contests.

King set NCC career records with six shutouts and a 0.75 earned run average in his three seasons at Morningside. The left-handed fire baller struck out a school-record 304 batters in 174 innings and pitched seven no-hitters during his Morningside career, including a no-hitter against Big Ten champion Michigan State as a sophomore. King was named a first-team NCAA II All-American in 1980 and in June of that year was selected by the Oakland Athletics with the fourth overall pick in the first round of Major League Baseball's free agent draft. The first pick that year was future MLB standout Darryl Strawberry.