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Thomas Miller hit a grand slam in the third inning to power the Western Nevada Community College (41-22-2) baseball team to an 8-4 win Monday against No. 1-ranked New Mexico Junior College in their second game at the College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. The Wildcats will now play San Jacinto College tonight at 6:30 p.m. PST, in the double elimination, ten-team tournament.
Miller's blast broke open a 1-1 tie in the third inning. The Wildcats added three more runs in the sixth inning, however, NMJC answered that with three runs of their own. Reliever Dan Grubbs entered the game in the sixth and quieted NMJC's bats with 3.1 scoreless innings to earn the save. Starting pitcher Justin Garcia picked up the victory after allowing four runs in 5.2 innings.
Anthony Garcia started the Wildcats off with an RBI single in the second inning. In the sixth, WNCC scored three runs on an RBI squeeze bunt from Taylor Mieras, and RBI singles from Pat Grennan and Kyle Bondurant. Bondurant and Logan Parsley led WNCC with two hits each, and Andrew Reid, Grennan, Garcia and Andrew Ferguson added a hit apiece.
On Saturday, starting pitcher Cole Rohrbough and relievers Grubbs and Stephen Sauer led the Wildcats to a 2-0 victory against Delgado Community College in their first World Series game. The Wildcats have to win two more games to get to the final four and four more to win the championship.
For live, inning-by-inning coverage of today's game, visit www.nevadaappeal.com. Stephen Sauer will start today's game for WNCC.
The Wildcats are a perfect 10-0 in the post-season against some of the top baseball programs in the country. They opened the Scenic West Athletic Conference playoffs with a 3-0 win against Colorado Northwestern Community College, a 5-0 victory over the College of Southern Idaho, and a 6-0 win in a rematch with CNCC in Twin Falls, Idaho. WNCC then won the SWAC Region XVIII Championship with two 6-4 victories against No. 16-ranked Community College of Southern Nevada in Henderson. The Wildcats then advanced to the Western Regionals where they defeated Central Arizona College 5-4, Western Nebraska Community College 11-8, and CAC again 13-10.
For more information on the NJCAA World Series, visit www.jucogj.org.
Teammates congratulate Thomas Miller after his third-inning grand slam. (Photo by Chris Tomlinson, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
Thomas Miller watches his grand slam leave the park. (Photo by Chris Tomlinson, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
Justin Garcia picked up the victory in Monday's game. (Photo by Chris Tomlinson, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
