BASEBALL: Carsten, McLennan beat Chaps for Region V title

By Oscar LeRoy
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Will Carsten gave the No. 3-ranked McLennan Community College baseball team what it was looking for and then some against Midland College in Tuesday's deciding game of the NJCAA Region V Tournament championship.

The 6-foot-7, 230-pound right-hander kept the Chaparrals off the board through more than eight innings and his offense backed him up with three home runs as the Highlanders beat MC, 5-3, to win the Region V title for the second straight year.

"What a great competitor he's been all year," said McLennan coach Mitch Thompson about his starter. "He was the co-conference pitcher of the year and it worked out to our benefit that he didn't have his best stuff on Friday. We got him out early enough that we could bring him back today. He was a warrior. He was dominant, he threw great stuff and I could not be more proud of him."

McLennan (49-12-1) will get to defend its national title at the JUCO World Series May 28-June 4 in Grand Junction, Colo.

McLennan had fought back from the elimination bracket thanks to a 6-3 loss to MC on Saturday. The Highlanders then held off the Chaps 13-12 late Monday to force Tuesday's deciding game.

The Chaps end their season with a 40-20 record still searching for their first trip Grand Junction since 2014.

The Chaps took advantage of a couple of infield errors in the ninth inning to score three runs and make things interesting, but before that it was tough to string any hits together against the University of Oklahoma signee. The 10 hits they got against Carsten in his 8 2/3 innings of work were scattered. And even when they did get runners in scoring position, Carsten found a way to get out of it with a flyout or a double play ball.

"That was as gutsy of a performance that you're going to have," said MC coach Hector Rodriguez about Carsten. "You tip your hat to that on short rest, just like our guy (Luke Young). He's so efficient. The sinker ball works, he gets a lot of ground balls, a lot of stuff in the air. We weren't able to get any leverage on any of that stuff and get big hits when we needed to.

"I thought we were in the game the whole time, we just couldn't get anything going," Rodriguez added. "I thought our guys pressed a little bit in the middle part of the game and then we kind of relaxed. Right when we were about to do something, bang, double play ball. It was something like that, that killed any type of momentum we were trying to create."

Young started the game and pitched two scoreless innings but left after two innings as he was going on just three days rest after throwing 139 pitches in a 2-0 victory over Ranger College on Friday.

Luis Rodriguez, who had pitched 3 1/3 innings against McLennan on Saturday, came in the third inning but he surrendered back-to-back solo homers by Ty Johnson and Hunter Green.

"The top of our lineup is really potent but it has been somebody different every day," Thompson said. "That's how we've won. We've won together. Together is our team motto and it took every one of us to get this done."

Rodriguez settled down and pitched four scoreless innings but exited in the bottom of the eighth after allowing a leadoff double to Cole Fontenelle. The Highlanders then got a walk against reliever Aaron Molina before Johnny Ceccoli hit a three-run home run to right to give MCC a 5-0 lead.

Rodriguez said that home run took some of the air out of the Chaps' dugout. But he added that they were ready to respond in the top of the ninth.

"It's our guys, it's who they've been all year," said Rodriguez of his team never giving up.

Thompson said he also tipped his cap to the fight that the Chaps had.

'I want to give Hector and his players all the props," he said. "They had a great year, they really competed hard, they were a great competitor and they run a great program. I'm very impressed with how Midland College hosted the tournament this weekend. It was a great experience."

While it was a great run by his team, Rodriguez said any time his team doesn't reach the JUCO World Series it's a disappointing season.

"I tell every kid in our recruiting meetings, our coaches and throughout the year that our goal is to get to Grand Junction," Rodriguez said. "We haven't done it since '13 and '14 but we've knocked on the door a couple of times in between that. In that sense, it's a disappointment, especially being that close. It doesn't take away from the kids in the dugout. They're a good, good group of kids. To me, there's so much more about who the kids were than their talent on the baseball field. That's part of the reason we had such a successful season because of the makeup of our club."

Follow Oscar on Twitter: @OLeRoy_MRT 

NO. 3 MCLENNAN CC 5, MIDLAND COLLEGE 3

Midland          000      000      003      --          3          10        0

McLennan       002      000      03x      --          5          7          3

Luke Young, Luis Rodriguez (3), Alizaeh Gutierrez (6), Aaron Molina (8) and Ryan Blackwell. Will Carsten, Austin Ford (9) and Hank Bard. W – Carsten. L – Rodriguez. Sv. – Ford. 2B – MC: Gibrian Pena 2; McLennan: Mateo Zeppieri, Cole Fontenelle

• CLICK HERE for an "MC Baseball" photo album from the tournament, by MRT's Tim Fischer