Shutting down the nation’s No. 1 offense with a brilliant display of pitching and getting timely hit after timely hit, the Salt Lake Community College Bruins won the Junior College World Series on Saturday night with a 9-6 victory over No. 1 seed Walters State of Morristown, Tennessee.
It is the first national championship for coach DG Nelson’s program, which went 0-2 two years ago at the same tournament in its first appearance in the Juco World Series.
Salt Lake, which refers to itself as the #BruCru, finished the season with a 48-11 record, and lost just once since the middle of April. Walters State, which was scoring a nation’s best 11.7 runs per game and had a team batting average of .386, fell to 59-8-1.
Salt Lake, the No. 8 seed, became the lowest-seeded team to win the Juco World Series in the seeding era. Because there are 562 junior college baseball teams in the country, the Juco World Series is considered one of the most difficult titles to win in all of college sports.
On this night at Sam Suplizio Field, outstanding pitching outdid outstanding hitting, as SLCC’s Gage Olsen, Easton Davies, Austin Taylor and Darius Henderson held the Senators to 10 hits and six runs.
Henderson, a Snow Canyon product, shut the door in the bottom of the ninth inning, his third save of the tournament in four appearances.
Third baseman Taylor Ayala, second baseman Jake Mortensen and left fielder Chandler Reber made some great defensive plays to help their pitchers.
Defense was another difference in the tournament, as Walters State committed a tournament-high 15 errors. A couple of blunders by the Tennessee squad led to SLCC runs on Saturday night.
Offensively, Jalen Seward delivered the big hit, a two-out double to center field that plated two runs and gave the Bruins a 7-5 lead in the top of the seventh. It was Seward’s fifth double of the tournament.
SLCC didn’t have the offensive numbers Walters State had this season, but they are still impressive considering the Bruins use wooden bats in the regular season before switching to aluminum bats for postseason play.
SLCC averaged 8.4 runs per game and carried a team batting average of .340.
The Bruins jumped in front 3-0 in the second inning Saturday when Ayala and Avery Doezie walked. Jake Olsen’s infield hit plated a run, then Reber drove in a run with a single and Mortensen’s sacrifice fly brought in another run.
Atticus Goodson led off the third with a solo homer for the Senators, trimming SLCC’s lead to 3-1 before Lehi product Olsen’s solo homer with two outs, only his second HR of the season, put SLCC up 4-2 in the fourth.
Gage Olsen pitched into the fourth inning before giving way to Davies.
In the bottom of the fifth, Walters State loaded the bases with an error, a base hit, and a HBP with one out. Davies walked in a run on a full-count pitch, then gave up a two-run single up the middle to Jack Torbett, giving Walters a 5-4 lead.
SLCC pitcher Taylor, a Copper Hills product, went three solid innings and gave up just one run, a solo blast with two out by Carson Cabbage.
The Bruins got some insurance runs in the eighth when Ayala hit a leadoff double, stole third and scored when Olsen’s fly to right was misplayed.
A record 72 home runs were hit in the 10-team tournament that began last Saturday.
The eighth-seeded Bruins started their run with a 16-2 pounding of Florida Southwestern last Saturday. After losing 11-9 on Monday to Lake Land (Illinois), they rebounded with a 15-13 win over Shelton State on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, they pulled off the best comeback of the tournament, overcoming an early 10-0 deficit to beat Florence-Darlington 17-16. They got some revenge against Lake Land on Thursday, advancing to the championship game with a 12-2 win over the Lakers.