Eastern Connecticut State University

Raymond E. Gliha was a full-time starter at all three outfield positions and at designated hitter on four straight NCAA Division III post-season baseball qualifiers and was a key figure on the 1982 national championship team. He began his career as the first freshman in program history to record 50 hits and ended it as a fifth-year senior who batted .360 with five RBI and four runs scored in five national tournament games. The 6-foot-3 inch, 200-pound Manchester native batted .345 with 212 hits, 20 home runs and 151 RBI in a 175-game career. In Gliha’s four full seasons, the Warriors won 139 of 185 games (75.1 percent) including 16 of 23 NCAA post-season tournament games. A right-handed power-hitter, Gliha batted a career- high .375 as a freshman designated hitter; as a sophomore, he batted .319 as the starting leftfielder; after sitting out most of the 1980 season due to a pulled muscle, he returned in 1981 to bat .345 as the starting rightfielder, tying the national record with six hits in one game; and as one of five returning seniors in 1982, Gliha moved to center field, batting .359 and sharing the team lead with seven home runs and 47 RBI. A tri-captain that year, he was named third-team NCAA Division III All-America and team MVP. In the 1982 national tournament, he scored the go-ahead runs in two games, then provided Eastern with a thrilling 9-8 win over Cal State Stanislaus with a bases-loaded single with two out in the bottom of the 12^th inning that advanced the team to the national title game.