Actually made the finals three times, 1981, 1987 and 1990! I am a little older than you and started following OSU baseball in 1980! Ward is a legend!!!I was a kid and watched all of Ward's seasons from 85 on.
And no, he didn't win a title, but he did make the finals twice, and of course we all believe there was no way Georgia was going to beat us twice. The difference, to me, was that whenever OSU would come up short back then, it was a surprise. You expected them to succeed because they usually did. They played the same way from game 1 to game 60.
When he'd do a postgame show with Bill Platt, he'd talk for 15-20 minutes each time and I'd listen to all of it. I'm sure some people complained, but you knew he was getting the best out of his players every year.