Before freshman pitcher Mark Lumpa committed to Duke, and before he led The Bolles School to back-to-back Florida state championships, he played in the Little League World Series twice—as a member of the Saudi Arabian team.
Lumpa learned the fundamentals of America’s pastime in an unusual place, the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert. Since his father, Robert, works for the Saudi Aramco oil company, Lumpa grew up in the small company town of Udhailiyah, two hours away from the nearest baseball field in Dhahran. The drive between the two isolated Saudi Aramco compounds is nothing but desert, with only several small villages visible from the road.
“The only people that played baseball in my town were me and my brother,” Lumpa said. “Every single day my dad would get off work and we’d be done with school, and we’d have to drive two hours to Dhahran for practices. So going down we’d read or do homework. We had to.”
The trips were worthwhile, though. Dhahran, with its constant influx of American and European players, has become a perennial international powerhouse in the Little League World Series, as the town’s team has earned a berth in the tournament for the past 11 years.
After watching his older brother, Craig, play in the picturesque stadiums of Williamsport, Pa. twice, Mark made the cut the following year as one of only four 11-year-olds on the 2003 team.
“It was intense,” Lumpa said. “We had two-a-days, morning practices and then late afternoon practices. We’d have workouts also. It was competitive, and you weren’t just fighting to make the team. Since you knew who was going to make it, you were fighting for a spot to be a starter.”
In 2003 Lumpa did not see any time as a pitcher, but by 2004 he was a seasoned veteran, hitting in the three-hole and starting on the mound. In both years the Dhahran team dominated the Middle East and Africa Region Tournament that took place in Kutno, Poland.
“We would mostly play American kids that lived on military bases throughout Europe,” Lumpa said. “Both years we played Germany in the finals, and both years, more or less, we destroyed the competition. When I was 12, we outscored our opponents 120-4, give or take a few runs.”
But despite the Saudi Arabian team’s dominance in the qualifying rounds, and despite the bleached blonde hair they sported as a symbol of team unity, they struggled to move out of pool play both years. In 2003 they lost to Curacao and then were overwhelmed by a superior Japan squad that won the entire tournament. The next year, they lost to Curacao again before losing to Mexico in extra innings after a walk-off home run.
In the two tournaments, Lumpa was exposed to different styles of play—not to mention completely different cultures.
“All the kids lived in one area called The Grove [in Williamsport],” Lumpa said. “You would eat with them, and they also had a rec center where you could hang out with kids from the other teams. You got to interact with them and even with the language barrier it didn’t matter, you could figure out a way.”
After Little League, the ballplayers in Dhahran and the surrounding towns moved on to professional-sized fields. As some kids hung up their cleats, there were less teams and the best players were more consolidated. It was here that Lumpa honed his skills on the mound before coming to the United States for high school.
“You got to know them,” Lumpa said of his competition. “You knew how to pitch somebody and you knew what they were going to throw you. But it didn’t take anything away from the game. We still enjoyed it.”
Mark’s brother Craig chose to attend The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla. because he wanted the year-round baseball weather that comes with the South. Mark initially looked at other boarding schools, but decided to join his brother at Bolles.
As a freshman on junior varsity, Lumpa played infield. When the varsity team made it to the state finals in Sarasota, Fla., Lumpa was one of the few freshmen invited to join the roster. The following year, Lumpa was used sparingly on the varsity squad, but managed to post a 4-0 record from the mound.
Before his junior season, Lumpa was intended to be one of the two starting pitchers for the Bulldogs, but after the other pitcher was injured, Lumpa became the No. 1 in the rotation. Despite his small stature at 5-foot-7, he went 11-0 with a 0.87 ERA on the year.
“I’ve always been one of the smaller guys on the team, but I never let that get to me,” Lumpa said. “If anything, I’ve always used that for motivation. I’ve been told, ‘Oh he can’t do that because he’s not the prototypical pitcher’.... I try to prove people wrong and show that I’m capable of doing anything.”
Lumpa was a workhorse during that postseason, pitching a complete game in the second contest of the regional finals series, and then closing out the last inning of the game the next day. In the state semifinal, Lumpa threw a complete game and only allowed one earned run.
“The first time [we won the state championship] it was kind of unreal,” Lumpa said. “But I actually didn’t get to play in that game, so I knew that next year I wanted to come back and play in the championship game. I knew I didn’t want my senior year to end any differently.”
Due in large part to Lumpa’s dominance, it didn’t. After Lumpa posted a 13-0 record and a 0.63 ERA his senior year, a Bolles squad with high preseason expectations found itself back in the state championship game. In the semifinals, Lumpa pitched a complete game, and in the championship he was called in for relief in the top of the seventh. The score was tied with two outs, and the bases were loaded.
Lumpa forced a groundball that was taken care of by David Perkins, who had also already committed to Duke. Perkins made the play and then hit a game-winning double with a man on second in the bottom of the inning.
After his second straight championship win, Lumpa arrived at Duke having never lost a game in high school. In a sport where even the best players are far from perfect, Lumpa’s 28-0 record stands out as an anomaly.
The freshman has had some trouble adjusting to the college game, but he’s performed well out of the bullpen for Duke, appearing in 18 games with a 3.91 ERA.
“What stands out about him is his fastball is basically a cutter,” Duke head coach Sean McNally said. “He’s not a velocity guy, he’s not a guy that’s going to blow you away. But he’ll beat you with movement and command…. Basically every pitch he throws is a cutter and that helps him keep the ball off the barrel.”
Lumpa hopes to continue to progress on the mound throughout his time at Duke, but his extensive innings in high school have already proved to be an asset for the Blue Devils. McNally explained how he can always count on Lumpa for multiple innings of relief.
“He’s a really important guy for us because he’s a guy that has a rubber arm,” McNally said. “He can pitch everyday.”
Prior to Duke, Lumpa’s experience with the Dhahran team and Bolles had conditioned him to be a champion. Despite the Blue Devils middling record, he hopes to continue that mentality at his new school.
“There’s a difference between being the underdog and the team that’s expected to win, but I don’t let that change the way I play,” Lumpa said. “I still expect to go out there and do the best I can, to compete and win games. That’s what I did in high school, and that’s what I’m trying to do here. It’s not any different in the aspect of how hard you work, it’s just how outsiders view you.”
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