Chaparrals Take Bruins in Elimination Game at JUCO World Series, Moves on to Face Horford CC on Monday
The Midland College Chaparrals, spurred by Caleb Eager and Cole Neatherlin homeruns, defeated Salt Lake Community College 9-3 Sunday night in Grand Junction.
NJCAA Division I Baseball National Tournament/JUCO World Series
Sam Suplizio Field
Grand Junction, CO
The #3 seeded Midland College Chaparrals improved to 51-11 this season and 1-1 in the JUCO World Series in a 9-3 win on Saturday night in Grand Junction. The Chaps returned to the win column and will advance to play Harford Community College (55-7) is the #10 seed in the tournament. The win over Salt Lake is the first JUCO World Series win for Midland College head coach Hector Rodriguez.
Harford CC opened the tournament with a 19-3 loss to #1 Johnson County Community College. The Fighting Owls won their second round game over Seminole State College of Oklahoma by a score of 13-11. The Harford CC vs. Midland College is scheduled for Monday, May 25th @ 1:00 p.m. (MT)/2:00 p.m. (CT) at Sam Suplizio Field.
In the Midland College versus Salt Lake Community College game the Chaps rode the offensive output of Caleb Eagar and Cole Neatherlin who each smacked homeruns in the game. Bammer Maes recorded two hits, an RBI and drew two walks against the Bruins. Eager went 4-5 with three RBI while Neatherlin was 2-5 with three RBI. The Chaparrals were a combined 15 for 41 (.366) in the game.
Salt Lake was held in check by the pitching excellence of MC starter Jason Berglund and reliever Lane Schulz. The Bruins went a combined 6 for 34 (.176) in the loss. Berglund went seven complete innings with eight Ks and two walks. Schulz closed out the final two innings and chipped in with two strikeouts.
Salt Lake Community College Bruins vs Midland College Chaparrals Box Score:
https://gochaps.com/sports/bsb/2025-26/boxscores/20260524_xmvm.xml
The winner of the Harford vs Midland game will move on to take on the loser of #4 seed Walters State (TN) and #1 seed Johnson County (KS) on Tuesday, May 26th @ 2:00 p.m. (MT). The losing team in the HCC vs. MC game will see their season come to an end.
NJCAA Division I Baseball National Tournament Bracket:
https://jucogj.org/documents/2026/1/9/2026_JUCO_Bracket.pdf
Watch the Chaps from Grand Junction on ESPN+
https://www.espn.com/watch/schedule?channel=ESPN_PLUS&path=baseball
Listen live to the MC Chaps vs. HCC Fighting Owls on TSBNSports.com (audio broadcast only):
https://tsbnsports.com/harford-vs-midland/
Go Chaps!