Hall of Fame
The 1979 Point Park Pioneers Baseball Team was inducted for the Class of 2019 on the 40th anniversary of its run in the NAIA World Series. Point Park placed third in the nation that year to achieve the highest national placement for the program at that time. The incredible season capped off a strong decade of the 1970s for Point Park baseball and continued things into the tradition that lasted through the 1980s, 1990s and beyond. The third-place finish was matched only by the Pioneers' 1986 team, which is also in the Hall of Fame. The Pioneers posted a very strong record of 28-5 for one of the best winning percentages in program history of .848 for the season. The Pioneers went 8-2 in the postseason for an impressive playoff run to end their season. First was a 5-0 sweep through the NAIA District 18 and Area 8 playoffs. The Pioneers opened the NAIA World Series with a loss, but they responded to win three elimination games in a row to make it to the final three teams. Only a 10-6 loss in extra innings to High Point kept them from playing for the NAIA national championship. The 1979 Pioneers were loaded with talent like Ed Haberle, Dave Duncan and Joe Fiori, who were all inducted to the Hall of Fame previously as individuals. The head coach was Ben Fiori, who took picked up right where Barry Hanburger left off in his first year. Hanburger was the architect of the Pioneers' teams that had their NAIA success in the late 1970s collecting some of the best talent that Pittsburgh college baseball or the NAIA had ever seen. The Pioneers batted an amazing .354 as a team in 1979. The offense pounded out 374 hits and 288 runs for an average of 12 hits and nine runs per game. The pitching staff compiled a 28-5 record with seven arms that carried the load.
