DREAM MISSION

For more than five decades, Dick Runkle, Ray Miller, Randy Miller and generations of their players have kept the dream alive.
Theirs was the dream that a small-town amateur baseball team could compete on a national stage.
The Portland Rockets will get that opportunity beginning tonight, when they take the field for the first time in the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
“It’s icing on the cake after many years of hard work,” said Portland manager Randy Miller, noting that a lot of former Rockets had been in contact to offer their support and congratulations over the past week. “It’s fantastic to be going to the biggest stage. I’ve got 20 guys here right now that are chomping at the bit thinking we have a chance to win that thing.”
The Rockets will open play in the 10-team NABF World Series when they take on Murray’s Diesel, winner of the New York regional, at 8 p.m. tonight at Niagara University’s Sal Maglie Stadium.
Each team in the tournament is guaranteed four games in pool play, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the championship tournament. Portland will play Peppino’s Pizza (Battle Creek, Mich., regional champion) at 10 a.m. Friday, Beacher Muskies (Kankakee, Ill.) at 3 p.m. Friday and Perdue Chick’s (Salisbury, Md.) at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The semifinal games will be played at 4 p.m. Saturday, followed by the championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Rockets’ “big four” are scheduled to throw in pool play, with 2002 Jay County High School graduate Mitch Waters starting the opener five days after earning the win over the Cincinnati Chiefs in the Cincinnati regional. Dan Bollenbacher, a 2008 South Adams High School graduate, Billy Geeslin and Michael Caley will follow.
Miller said he’s been confident in his arms all year, but it wasn’t until the last few weeks that the entire team came together.
“I did think we had the kind of pitching to keep us in any kind of ball game,” said Miller, who started his career as a Rocket player in 1972. “I was really worried about our offense. I was concerned because teams were not playing us and we were only playing on weekends. I didn’t know if we could keep our timing offensively.
“Our hitting really picked up.
“I became a believer after that WBC tournament.”
Portland had an 11-6 record in late June before racking up seven consecutive wins. That streak, however, came to a crashing halt as the Rockets got outscored 23-7 in losses to the Ohio Warhawks on back-to-back nights.
But they have been on a mission ever since.
Portland won four of its final five games in the regular season and then swept to its first World Baseball Congress title on its home field. After splitting its first two games at the NABF regional in Cincinnati, it strung together wins in three elimination games in a span of less than 18 hours to earn its first World Series berth.
“I think we had a lot of leadership and have a couple of guys who are more veteran,” said Miller, referencing Waters, Zach Tanner and Justin Marrero, of why this particular Portland squad was able to break through. “Just the pieces fit together and the guys have gelled. We played our best when it counted in the WBC and the NABF regional.
“These guys rally around each other and enjoy each other. … That stuff carries you through when times are tough and you’re up against the wall.”
The Rockets’ roster includes key players from Markle, Cowan, Pendleton, Indianapolis, Yorktown, Kokomo, Berne and Coldwater, Ohio. And Miller said it’s been especially gratifying to be headed to the World Series with several Jay County players involved.
In addition to Waters, first baseman Billy Wellman and fellow infielder Thomas McCowan are both Jay County High School graduates.
Miller also acknowledged former local players, such as Heath Williams, Josh Ludy and Josh Atkinson, who have contributed in years past. And he said he can’t help but think of his father, who he said received special mention at an NABF tournament meeting Wednesday evening.
“He’d be busting his buttons,” Miller said of his father, Ray, the longtime manager of the Rockets who died in 2007. “He was a visionary. In 1973 he expanded our schedule, much to the chagrin of my mom … He did that so we could expand our horizons and compete on a national level. … We haven’t really got to the next level, but we are today.”
This NABF tournament will be a new level of competition for Portland.
Its first two opponents have a combined record of 53-7 this season. Miller said he recognizes most of the teams in the field, which includes squads from Florida, Maryland, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan, as World Series regulars.
But he also referred to his team as “road warriors” and said the Rockets are more than ready to compete.
“We’re proud to represent Portland,” said Miller. “We think it’s a big thing for our town. Our guys have rallied around that.”

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