The Northeast Texas Community College Eagles Baseball team secured their spot in the finals of the NJCAA Region 14 Tournament Monday night as they beat San Jacinto College 7-6. The Eagles will face off at 5 p.m. against the winner of this afternoon?s matchup between San Jacinto and Alvin. The winner of the tournament will represent Region 14 at the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
The game against San Jac was tied at six with NTCC batting in the bottom of the 11th when Taylor Barber singled on the first pitch of the at-bat, driving in the game winning run.
Both teams had hot bats from the beginning of the game, ending up with 10 hits apiece. San Jac fired up the offense in the first inning with a triple on a 1-1 county, scoring one run. After San Jac scored one run in the top of the second,†NTCC†answered with one of their own. San Jac scored with a solo homer. The Eagles answered with a sac fly by Matt Scheurich scoring an additional run for NTCC.
NTCC scored four runs in the sixth inning. The offensive firepower of the Eagles was led by Jordan Martinez, Chase Talbot, and Barber, all sending runners across the plate with RBIs in the inning. Brody Curry got the win for NTCC, allowing zero hits and zero runs over two innings, striking out four. Tyler Jeans and Hunter Thomas entered the game out of the bullpen and helped to close out the game in relief. Chandler Mauldin started the game for the Eagles. He allowed seven hits and four runs over five and a third innings, striking out four.
The Eagles are one game away from the second-ever trip to the NJCAA JUCO World Series.††The Eagles won the NJCAA National Championship the only other time they were there in 1996.
