Johnson County CC caps powerfully historic baseball season with 1st national title
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- Johnson County CC won its first JUCO national title by beating Blinn College 8-5.
- 67-3 is the most wins in JCCC and NJCAA history.
- JCCC set a new all-college single-season record with 219 home runs.
Johnson County Community College’s wildly historic baseball season got its fairytale ending on Friday as the Cavaliers beat Blinn College of Texas for the program’s first junior-college national championship.
JCCC beat Blinn 8-5 in Grand Junction, Colorado, to take home the JUCO World Series title in its first national title-game appearance — and fourth straight trip to the World Series.
The Cavaliers are the No. 1-ranked team in the nation and the tourney’s top overall seed. They went undefeated in five World Series games, the first clean sweep in five years.
JCCC’s roster is packed with Division I pledges. Together, the Cavaliers set several team records during one of the best college baseball seasons ever, at any level.
Johnson County’s 67-3 record this season represents the most wins in school history — not to mention the most in NJCAA history. The Cavaliers hit 219 home runs this year, setting a new single-season record across all levels of college baseball. The Cavs obliterated the previous all-time record of 188 (LSU, 1997).
JCCC also rode a 41-game win streak through most of the season.
Sophomore outfielder Ashton Hartwig earned the Kirby Puckett Memorial MVP. He hit .474 with three home runs and 10 RBIs and was one of six JCCC players named to the All-Tournament team.
The Central Arkansas commit capped a 9-3 comeback in the semifinals with a walk-off two run homer.
JCCC is the second team from Kansas to win a national junior-college title. Cowley County of Arkansas City won back-to-back crowns in 1997-98.
