Pitching Linfield to its second national championship in school history, Vince Doherty helped establish the Wildcats as a legitimate baseball power on the national stage, and has the distinction of becoming the first player from the storied 1971 team to be individually inducted into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.
While Doherty’s route to Linfield may have been planned, his athletic career took an unexpected detour after his first winter in McMinnville. Playing high school basketball under former Wildcat Terry Woods, the Reedsport, Ore., native earned a basketball scholarship to Linfield, but never ended up stepping foot on the court in a game setting.
After redshirting his first hoops season, Doherty earned a spot on Roy Helser’s baseball team with just a year’s worth of high school experience. The 6-foot-4 right-hander was a member of a talented incoming class that included a dozen all-state players, but he had good enough stuff to make multiple appearances on the mound, including Linfield’s doubleheader sweep of Lewis & Clark.
Doherty sat out his sophomore season to focus on academics, returning for a breakout junior season in 1971. Quickly recovering from a Northwest Conference-opening loss to Whitman, Linfield won the league title that season with a 14-4 record, advancing to the playoffs for the first time since the 1966 national championship season.
Playing in McMinnville, the Wildcats bounced back from an opening-series loss to the Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon) with back-to-back victories that propelled them into the NAIA area tournament. Doherty pitched 14 innings en route to both wins against the Wolves.
Doherty rang up another victory at the area playoffs as Linfield punched its ticket to the NAIA World Series in Phoenix, Ariz.
After dispatching Grand Canyon, Southwest Oklahoma, Indiana (Pa.) and Lewis College, the Wildcats took the field against David Lipscomb. Facing elimination, the Bison edged the ‘Cats to force a winner-take-all championship game.
The title game was played in the heat of the afternoon under a hot Phoenix sun; Linfield’s wool uniforms were less than ideal for the 100-plus degree conditions, but the ‘Cats maintained their mental cool.
Shaking off a losing performance the previous afternoon, Doherty provided two clutch plays to key the Wildcat victory. After the Bison rallied over the final three frames, tying the game at 7-7 to force extra innings, Doherty entered the game and sparked the Linfield offense with a two-out single before scoring the go-ahead run on teammate Glen Plagman’s triple.
With the Wildcats nursing a 9-7 lead heading into the bottom of the 10th, Doherty yielded one run but struck out Lipscomb’s cleanup man with the tying run on base to end the game with the score 9-8 in Linfield’s favor. Compiling a 3-1 record, Doherty was named to the all-tournament team.
Turning down an opportunity to play for the Yankees in favor of another season with his collegiate teammates, Doherty returned to Linfield for his senior campaign. Though the ‘Cats limped to a seventh-place league finish, Doherty capped off his time at Linfield with a career-low 1.24 ERA, totaling four victories and three shutouts among five complete games.
Relying on his fastball and changeup, Doherty amassed five shutouts among 11 complete games and a 1.87 ERA over his four-year Wildcat career, narrowly missing out on tying or bettering the then-career record ERA of 1.85. He was voted the team’s most improved player at the conclusion of the 1971 season, was twice named to the all-Northwest Conference team and earned honorable mention all-America consideration in 1971.
Deciding a teaching career was not the right fit for him, Doherty got his first job out of college at a mobile home factory in town before moving into sales and management. He currently resides in Mesquite, Nev., where he has worked in residential real estate since 2000. He and wife Janis have one daughter: Michelle.
