Cisco College Baseball Set For First World Series Appearance
By: Chad Grubbs
Updated: May 21, 2012
Cisco College's
baseball team is enjoying its best season in the program's short history
as the Wranglers won the Region V Championship last week in Lubbock and
will now make the school's maiden voyage to
the National Junior College Athletic Association's World Series in Grand
Junction, Colo., beginning Saturday.
The Wranglers are
48-13 on the year and the 48 wins are a school record. Cisco is ranked
No. 10 in the latest NJCAA poll. The Wranglers journey for a national
title will begin on Saturday at 8:30 CST against
either Eastern Oklahoma State or Jefferson (Mo.) College.
Head coach David
White, the only head coach in the eight-year history of the program, has
built a team around a rotation of reliable pitchers and a consistent
and steady offense that doesn't care who gets
the credit.
"We just have a
bunch of hard-nosed guys that are not afraid to go to work," said White.
"They have been a team all year long that doesn't get too high or too
low and they all believe in each other and that
has been our key."
The Wranglers are not a team that has eye-popping numbers, but they have a good combination of speed, power and timely hitting.
Freshman shortstop
Jake Armstrong from Odessa Permain leads the Wranglers offense. He is
hitting .446 with six home runs and 50 RBI. He also had 22 doubles and
four triples to lead the team. Sophomore first
baseman Alvaro Moreno from McAllen leads the team with 53 RBI and he
hits .337. Sophomore outfielder Rustin Thomas is hitting .379 with 42
runs driven in and 46 runs scores.
Armstrong and
Moreno were first-team all-conference selections and Thomas and
outfielder/designated hitter Mark Davis were second-team selections.
"We have had
different people step up for us all year long," said White. "Our longest
losing streak of the year was three games and that was the last three
games before the regional and I think just two other
times did we lose two games in a row. We have had a team that has bounced back from any tough situation we have faced. They battle to the end."
The pitching staff
is led by some talented arms. Freshman Corey Taylor from Kennedale is
one of the best in the country with an 11-1 mark and a 1.39 ERA.
Sophomore Brad Vachon, who won two games in the regional,
is 8-3 with a 3.34. Vachon has signed with Texas-Arlington and is
originally from Round Rock.
Arturo Martoral, a
freshman from Puerto Rico, is 8-0 on the year and Oklahoma State signee
Austin Salter, a sophomore from Kingwood, is 5-2.
"We have a pretty
deep pitching staff," said White. "Corey and Brad have been great all
year, but Martoral and Salter are also two guys we rely on to get us
deep into games. In the bullpen, (Heath) Herrington
and Robert Baker, those are two guys that can come in and shut down some
games."
Herrington, a Texas
Tech signee who also plays centerfield, is the relief ace with nine
saves. He and Taylor were both named first-team all-conference as
pitchers.
Armstrong was named
the player of the year, Taylor was named the top pitcher in the
conference and White was named the coach of the year. Of the 15
sophomores on the roster, 11 have already signed to play
somewhere next season.
The Wranglers
advanced to the World Series by beating Howard College, 5-2, in an "if
necessary" game. Cisco defeated Western Texas 7-1, New Mexico Junior
College 7-2 and HC 8-0 to move into the championship
game where they had to be beaten twice.
Howard College
battled through the loser's bracket to get a shot at Cisco and won the
first championship game 16-7, but true to their season-long form the
Wranglers did not let the loss disappoint them and
they battled back to beat No. 5 Howard to earn the ticket to Grand
Junction.
"We had played
Howard four times before that championship game and none of the games
had been close, they had pounded us twice and we had done the same to
them. We just came out poised, put up a five-spot
in the second inning and Brad (Vachon) and Heath (Herrington) made it
hold up."
The World Series is a 10-team double elimination tournament that runs May 26 through June 2.
"Obviously, we are
proud of our guys for getting to the World Series but we don't just want
to be there," said White. "We have a team that believes that it can go
out there and compete with the 10 best teams
in the country and come home a champion."
For fans wanting to keep up with the Wranglers in Grand Junction, www.jucogj.org
is the web site of the tournament and it has brackets, live video broadcasts and stats of each game.
Comments
So proud of this awesome group of young men and exceptional coaches!
Lance H.
May 24, 2012 at 6:25 pm
