Columbia State Community College (45-11) owned Jaguar Field this past weekend, going 3-0 in the National Junior College Athletic Association East-Central District Tournament, and will advance to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado this weekend.
The Chargers managed to win the East Central District Championship with a 5-1 victory over Darton State (43-20). In the championship match, Columbia State put up four unearned runs on the board within the first three innings due to three errors by the Cavaliers.
Darton’s lone run was recorded in the sixth inning when William Golden picked up a fielder’s choice RBI to bring in Brandon Sharpe.
Columbia State scored five runs in each of its three games. The Chargers also managed a win-margin of at least three runs in their tournament campaign.
The Chargers’ winning pitchers from each game, Scooter Hightower, Tyler Stewart and Cody Puckett have a combined record of 23-2. Although their offense never managed to score less than five runs, it was the pitching that helped hold opponents to two runs or less.
The tournament consisted of four teams including Columbia State. The other three teams were Darton State, Motlow State (40-24) and Georgia Perimeter (44-14).
In what was a bit of an upset, Darton eliminated GPC from tournament contention in dominating fashion with a 9-0 blowout in seven innings.
The game was stopped early due to the run rule, which states that a game is called if a team leads by eight runs after seven innings.
GPC’s offense struggled throughout the tournament, as the Darton loss was the second-straight game in which GPC didn’t record a run. The Chargers topped Georgia Perimeter 5-0, while their offense recorded 12 hits including a six-hit fourth inning where they amassed four runs.
Georgia Perimeter’s match against Motlow was the only time their offense showed some life, as they totaled five runs to get a 5-0 win.
Darton went 2-2 in the tournament, while Georgia Perimeter went 1-2 and Motlow went 0-2. The Chargers will play Iowa Western on Saturday in the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
