Jun. 4—GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Errors plagued Crowder for much of the NJCAA World Series, and errors played a big role in the Roughriders’ exit on Thursday night.
McLennan (Texas) capitalized on five Crowder errors and posted a 15-5 victory in a semifinal game in front of 8,723 fans at Sam Suplizio Stadium.
Blake Jackson’s two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning ended the game because of the 10-run rule and put the Highlanders (46-16) in the championship round against Central Arizona at 8 p.m. Friday. Central Arizona nipped San Jacinto-North 11-10 in Thursday’s first game.
McLennan is undefeated in the tournament, while Central Arizona has one loss and must beat the Highlanders twice to claim the championship.
Crowder, which notched three elimination game victories after a first-round loss, finished 55-8 for the season.
McLennan’s Jack Hattrup pitched five innings, giving up four runs (three earned) and six hits. He struck out eight batters and walked one. Gray Harrison gave up a run and walked three in his one inning.
Peyton Holt, who had three of Crowder’s six hits, belted a solo home run with two outs in the first inning, but the lead was short-lived.
Two Roughrider errors led to two unearned runs and a 2-1 McLennan lead in the bottom of the first, and the Highlanders pulled away with four runs in the second, three in the third and four in the fourth for a 13-3 lead before Crowder extended the game with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth.
Miguel Santos and Jackson socked back-to-back homers in the second inning.
Jackson paced a 15-hit attack by going 4 for 5 with two runs scored and five runs batted in. He also had a run-scoring double in the first inning and RBI single in the fourth.
Garrett Martin went 2 for 4 with three RBI — a grounder in the first inning and two-run single in the third. Santos had two hits, two RBI and three runs scored and Izzy Lopez contributed three singles and three runs scored.
Landrey Wilkerson added two hits and two RBI for Crowder, and Gaviin Glasgow singled for the Roughriders’ other hit. Wilkerson drove in one run with a triple down the right-field line in the fourth as the outfielder lost the ball in the lights, and he had a single in the fifth.
Crowder starter James Hicks (11-2) allowed five hits and six runs (five earned) in two innings. He walked one batter and struck out two.