Baseball team advances to region semifinals

4/12/2008
Story by Tyler Cundith

Pulled from www.jccc.edu

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- The Johnson County Community College baseball team is just two wins away from reaching its first NJCAA World Series. The Cavaliers have advanced to the semifinals of the Region VI Baseball Tournament in Wichita, Kan., by posting wins over Barton County and Seward Count over the weekend. The Cavaliers face Cowley College today at 4 p.m. with a berth to the title game on the line.

JCCC (39-15) opened the tournament with a 7-4 win over Barton County on Saturday morning, and followed with an impressive 6-3 win over No. 10 ranked Seward County, Sunday afternoon. Outstanding starting pitching and timely hitting proved key in both victories.

In the win over Barton County, sophomore left-hander Travis Blankenship picked up his 10th win of the season, going six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, with four strikeouts. Nick Holtgrieve and
Dustin Holthaus pitched the final three innings of scoreless relief. The win was Blankenship’s 16th of his career, setting an new team record at JCCC.

Offensively the Cavaliers were led by team MVP Doug Otto and Parker Amos. Both had two hits. Otto had single and double and drove in a run.

Amos had two singles and two RBI. Additionally, Jeremy Francis, Chad Griffin and Drew Garwood each had run producing hits. The Seward
County game saw another pitching gem from freshman left-hander
Brandon Droge. He pitched all nine innings, giving up just three runs, only one earned, while striking out six batters.

The Cavaliers trailed 3-1 entering the bottom of the fourth inning, but JCCC would score single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth, then added two more in the seventh, giving Droge a three run cushion for the final two innings. Droge recorded four of his six strikeouts in the eighth and ninth.

John Lenherr had two hits and two RBI, and Garwood and Griffin each had one RBI to power the Cavaliers offensive attack.