Iowa
Western, LSU-Eunice Ride Similar
Resumes to 1-2 Ranking
No.
1-ranked Iowa Western overcame an opening-round loss to capture the
2012 Junior College World Series championship, its second national
title in three years.
In
a somewhat remarkable case of déjà vu, the identical scenario
applied to LSU-Eunice. Same day, even.
While
Iowa Western upheld its National Junior College Athletic Association
Division I pre-tournament No. 1 ranking by coming through the loser’s
bracket to win the D-I World Series last Saturday in Grand Junction,
Colo., LSU-Eunice, the top-ranked team in NJCAA Division II, exacted
the same story line in the D-II World Series, played just down the
road in Enid, Okla.
To
take the coincidence a step further, LSU-Eunice finished the 2012
season with a stunning 57-5 record, exactly the same record that Iowa
Western boasted when it began play in the national tournament. With
five wins in six games, the Reivers finished at 62-6.
Appropriately,
the two teams rank 1-2 in Perfect Game’s final 2012 ranking of the
nation’s Top 50 junior-college teams. Iowa Western was
ranked No. 1 by PG entering the D-I World Series and preserved that
mark, while LSU-Eunice was ranked No. 6 entering the D-II series, and
leapfrogged four teams that participated in the Division I World
Series (and went a collective 4-8), to finish at No. 2.
Iowa
Western was forced to overcome a 5-2 loss to San Jacinto (Texas) in
the opening-round of the 10-team, double-elimination D-I tournament,
and did so by coming all the way back through the loser’s bracket
to reach the final, where it gained a measure of revenge on San Jac,
beating that team 6-5 by scoring two runs in the top of the ninth,
the winning run scoring on a bases-loaded balk.
Interesting,
Iowa Western also beat San Jacinto, a six-time former national
champion, in the 2010 championship game.
“This
group really liked to win,” Iowa Western coach Marc Rardin said.
“The group that won in 2010 enjoyed it, but is was more
business-like. This group probably had a little more emotion to them
and for each other. That’s what they were about. They were about
wins and winning together.”
LSU-Eunice,
meanwhile, lost its opening-round game at the D-II World Series, 4-3
to Des Moines Area CC, and also battled back through the loser’s
bracket to advance to the championship game, where it beat defending
national champion Western Oklahoma State 7-3 in the clincher.
Whereas
Iowa Western had no players drafted off its 2010
national-championship team, this year’s version, which hit a
school-record .403 on the season, had three players taken: third
baseman Damek Tomscha (Cubs, 19th round), shortstop Iseha
Conklin (Red Sox, 19th round) and first
baseman/righthander Keaton Steele (Rays, 29th round).
Steele
earned MVP honors at the D-I World Series by hitting a team-high .444
and saving two games. He was particularly instrumental in the
deciding contest as he drove in three of Iowa Western’s first four
runs on a two-run homer and sacrifice fly, keyed his team’s
two-run, ninth-inning rally with a leadoff walk and came around to
score the tying run, and then preserved the win by pitching a
scoreless inning in the bottom of the ninth.
Surprisingly,
Tanner Kreietemeier, who had been Iowa Western’s dominant two-way
player most of the 2012 season, going 12-1, 1.78 while hitting
.411-9-62, was passed over in the draft. He suffered his first
setback of the season in the Reivers opening-round loss in Grand
Junction.
LSU-Eunice,
which also won national championships in 2006 and 2008 to give it
four in seven years, did not have a single player drafted this week.
Predictably,
California’s Orange Coast College, which occupied the No. 1 spot in
Perfect Game’s ranking of the Top 50 junior-college teams most of
the spring, and Texas juco power Howard College, which began the
season ranked No. 1, dominated the junior-college ranks in this
year’s draft. Orange Coast had six players taken, Howard had five.
Neither
school, however, finished on a winning note as Orange Coast (36-7)
lost in the California Final Four state championship, while Howard
(45-12) lost in the NJCAA Region 5 championship game, one game short
of a trip to the Junior College World Series. Orange Coast, which
dropped from No. 1 to No. 7 after its disappointing finish, rebounded
to No. 3 in PG’s final ranking behind Iowa Western and LSU-Eunice,
while Howard finished at No. 9.
5-21 - Ranking as of May 21
RK |
5-21 |
Team |
State |
Overall |
Season Accomplishment |
1 |
1 |
Iowa Western |
IA |
62-6 |
Junior College D-I World Series champion |
2 |
6 |
LSU-Eunice |
LA |
57-5 |
Junior College D-II World Series champion |
3 |
7 |
Orange Coast |
CA |
36-7 |
California Final Four |
4 |
3 |
Jefferson |
MO |
53-12 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
5 |
2 |
Polk State |
FL |
46-12 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
6 |
4 |
Western Nevada |
NV |
48-17 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
7 |
5 |
Cisco |
TX |
48-15 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
8 |
9 |
Neosho County |
KS |
49-16 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
9 |
10 |
Howard |
TX |
45-12 |
NJCAA D-I Region 5 runner-up |
10 |
11 |
Salt Lake |
UT |
45-10 |
NJCAA D-I Region 18 champion |
11 |
12 |
Central Arizona |
AZ |
47-15 |
NJCAA D-I Region 1 champion |
12 |
13 |
Middle Georgia |
GA |
46-13 |
NJCAA D-I Region 17 champion |
13 |
14 |
Rio Hondo |
CA |
40-5 |
California Final Four |
14 |
16 |
San Jacinto |
TX |
41-25 |
Junior College D-I World Series runner-up |
15 |
15 |
Walters State |
TN |
52-11 |
NJCAA D-I Region 7 champion |
16 |
17 |
Louisburg |
NC |
52-9 |
|
17 |
18 |
Cosumnes River |
CA |
28-16 |
California junior-college state champion |
18 |
8 |
Spartanburg Methodist |
SC |
45-18 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
19 |
19 |
Heartland |
IL |
54-8 |
Junior College D-II World Series |
20 |
20 |
Santa Fe |
FL |
37-13 |
|
21 |
21 |
Palm Beach State |
FL |
38-16 |
NJCAA D-I Region 8 runner-up |
22 |
22 |
Shelton State |
AL |
40-23 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
23 |
24 |
Central Alabama |
AL |
42-13 |
|
24 |
25 |
Grayson County |
TX |
44-18 |
|
25 |
26 |
Feather River |
CA |
32-8 |
|
26 |
27 |
Chipola |
FL |
39-17 |
|
27 |
28 |
Santa Ana |
CA |
33-9 |
|
28 |
29 |
Lamar |
CO |
47-12 |
NJCAA D-I Region 9 champion |
29 |
31 |
Gordon |
GA |
40-25 |
Junior College D-I World Series |
30 |
23 |
Des Moines Area |
IA |
51-14 |
Junior College D-II World Series |
31 |
32 |
Seminole State |
OK |
41-15 |
|
32 |
33 |
Crowder |
MO |
44-17 |
|
33 |
34 |
Florence-Darlington |
SC |
42-12 |
|
34 |
35 |
Columbia State |
TN |
43-14 |
NJCAA D-I Region 7 runner-up |
35 |
|
Pierce |
WA |
32-13 |
NWAACC champion |
36 |
36 |
Yavapai |
AZ |
40-20 |
NJCAA D-I Region 1 runner-up |
37 |
37 |
John A. Logan |
IL |
41-22 |
NJCAA D-I Region 24 champion |
38 |
|
Western Oklahoma State |
OK |
48-17 |
Junior College D-II World Series runner-up |
39 |
38 |
Sierra |
CA |
26-17 |
California Final Four |
40 |
39 |
Georgia Perimeter |
GA |
43-16 |
|
41 |
40 |
Wallace State-Hanceville |
AL |
41-17 |
NJCAA D-I Region 22 runner-up |
42 |
41 |
Navarro |
TX |
37-20 |
NJCAA D-I Region 14 runner-up |
43 |
30 |
Bellevue |
WA |
35-12 |
|
44 |
42 |
Eastern Oklahoma State |
OK |
38-22 |
NJCAA D-I Region 2 champion |
45 |
45 |
Northeast Texas |
TX |
32-16 |
|
46 |
44 |
San Mateo |
CA |
32-12 |
|
47 |
46 |
Wabash Valley |
IL |
48-13 |
NJCAA D-I Region 24 runner-up |
48 |
47 |
Johnson County |
KS |
40-18 |
|
49 |
|
Madison |
WI |
45-13 |
Junior College D-II World Series |
50 |
48 |
Fresno |
CA |
29-13 |
|
Dropped out: Mt. Hood, State College of Florida-Manatee, Harford