After he would help the Minnesota Gophers win their first big ten basketball championship in 35 years, Dave Winfield missed his junior year of baseball with an injury, but bolstered himself into the limelight in his senior year.

Doing so on both the mound and the plate, he won 13 straight games, posting a 2.74 era, while also hitting .385 with 33 rbis as he was named an All-American. He was named captain of the team and helped Minnesota win the big ten and make the College World Series. And in their first game, Winfield would throw a complete game shutout with 14 strikeouts to beat Oklahoma 1-0. Minnesota made it to the semis where Winfield was on the mound against USC who had by far the best program at the time, looking to win their 3rd consecutive college world series. And with a team that featured Roy Smalley and Fred Lynn, Winfield would give up just one hit and strikeout 15 through 8 innings.

Minnesota was winning 7-0 in the 9th, but USC finally got to him. A bad call that should’ve been a double play led to Minnesota coach Dick Siebert being ejected which gave USC momentum. After two singles and an error, Winfield, who had thrown 140 pitches was taken out, and moved to left field. Then USC would come all the way back to win 8-7, then win their 4th of 5 straight titles. Despite this, Winfield would be named the MVP of the College World Series after throwing 17.1 innings and giving up just 1 earned run while also hitting .467.

Winfield then going to be drafted in four different leagues across three sports, then choosing baseball which was a good decision as he went on to have a Hall of Fame career. Winfield someone who could’ve done what Shohei Ohtani does now. Rich Dauer, who played on USC and is in the Orioles Hall of Fame said on facing Winfield that day:

Steve Arlin has the most strikeouts and innings pitched in one game in College World Series history. Striking out 20 over 15 innings for Ohio State in 1965 against Washington State.