NJCAA Recap | Tournament Central | Tournament Awards

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – A historic season for the Johnson County Community College baseball team found its storybook ending in Grand Junction, Colorado, as the Cavaliers went a perfect 5-0 at the 2026 JUCO World Series to claim the program’s first National Championship with an 8-5 win over Blinn College.

Earning the school’s 13th National Championship in Johnson County athletics history, JCCC’s National Title is the 159th National Title for a Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference school and the fourth NJCAA National Title for the KJCCC during the 2025-2026 athletics year. Johnson County becomes only the second school in KJCCC history to win an NJCAA baseball National Title, joining Cowley College, which won both the 1997 and 1998 NJCAA Division 1 Baseball National Titles.

With five wins in the World Series, Johnson County finishes the 2026 baseball season with a 67-3 overall record and ends the year with 10 consecutive victories while winning 51 of their final 52 games of the season. As a team, the Cavaliers led the NJCAA in seven major offensive categories (runs, hits, home runs, runs batted in, extra-base hits, total bases, and slugging percentage) while posting the fifth-best pitching earned run average among all 158 NJCAA Division 1 baseball teams and the third most pitching shutouts. Belting 219 home runs throughout the year, the Cavaliers also rewrote the All-College record for team home runs in a season after surpassing the previous record of 188 that was set by NCAA Division 1 LSU during their 70-game season.

Opening the NJCAA D1 Baseball JUCO World Series on May 23rd, the Cavaliers made quick work of number 10 seed Harford Community College with a 19-2 victory in five innings as four different players hit a home run as part of a 14-hit effort from the Cavaliers. Two days later against number four seed Walters State Community College, Johnson County matched a three-run top of the first from the Senators before taking the lead in the bottom of the third with a Logan Groh solo home run to go up 4-3. JCCC broke the game open in the fourth, scoring eight runs and going on to win by a final score of 12-7 to start the World Series 2-0 and in the driver’s seat of the 10-team, double-elimination field.

Following another day off, Johnson County took on an upset-minded Miami Dade team that entered the World Series as the number six seed and pulled off upsets against number five seed LSU-Eunice and number two seed Blinn to set up the Wednesday night showdown of the remaining unbeaten teams. The Cavaliers wasted no time in showing off their offensive firepower, scoring five runs in each of the first two innings as part of another 19-run outing by scoring the first 19 runs of the game to claim another five-inning victory by a score of 19-1.

Needing just one win to advance to the National Title game, things did not come easy for the Cavaliers as Midland College worked their way back through a loss on the opening day of the tournament to win three-straight games to advance to the semifinal round, where the Chaps jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after one inning of action. Johnson County responded with two runs in the bottom of the second before allowing a run in the third and four in the fourth to trail by a score of 8-2 heading into the fifth. JCCC pushed across a run in the bottom of the fifth with a Lucas Wilson solo home run but continued to struggle offensively as JCCC was limited to just one hit across the sixth and seventh innings. Trailing 9-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Cavalier offense awoke in a big way as a pair of one-out walks started a three-run rally to pull JCCC within three at 9-6 despite leading the bases loaded to end the inning. Working around a one-out single in the top of the ninth, Johnson County picked things back up offensively in the bottom of the ninth as three-straight base hit singles scored Colin Coonradt to pull the Cavaliers within two and set up an eventual Ashton Hartwig walk-off three-run home run to send JCCC to the 2026 National Title game in dramatic fashion.

A matchup of the top two seeds in the tournament was set for the National Championship as Johnson County found Blinn College awaiting out of the elimination bracket, with the Buccaneers needing to defeat JCCC in consecutive days to deny the Cavaliers of a National Title. Facing another early deficit after allowing an RBI triple in the top of the second, Johnson County grabbed their first lead of the contest in the bottom of the fourth when Isaac Pamaran delivered with a two-run home run, only to see Blinn respond with a two-run home run of their own in the top of the fifth to put JCCC back in a 3-2 hole. The Cavaliers strung together back-to-back hits in the bottom of the inning before scoring a run on a fielding error by Blinn, followed by Coonradt hitting his second home run of the tournament with a three-run blast to put the Cavaliers up 6-3. Hartwig added a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth before seeing Blinn answer with a solo home run of their own in the seventh that was answered by a solo home run from Johnson County’s Boston Bruce. Holding an 8-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth, things did not come easy for the Cavaliers to close the game out as Blinn loaded the bases with one out and pushed a run across with a two-out single to put the game-tying run on base before seeing Victor Christal slam the door shut with a strikeout swinging on the sixth-pitch of a battle with Reece Lunsford to clinch the National Title.

Groh, Hartwig, Pamaran, Bruce, and Brayden Giesler all were named to the All-Tournament team following the conclusion of the tournament, with Hartwig being named the Kirby Puckett Memorial Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Hartwig hit .474 with nine hits and three home runs across five games in Grand Junction, with 10 RBI and stole three bases, delivering one of the most memorable hits of the tournament with the walk-off home run against Midland. Adding to the post-tournament awards, JCCC head coach Eric Horner was named the Bus Bergman Coach of the Tournament.

Johnson County led all tournament teams with a .396 team batting average in Grand Junction while blasting a tournament-best 15 home runs and scoring 61 runs across the five games. Despite being one of just three teams to play five games in the tournament, the Cavaliers needed just 37 total innings during the tournament and struck out 50 batters while holding teams to a .289 batting average as JCCC outscored opponents 61-24.