Senators battle back, fall 18-13 to McLennan at JUCO World Series

GRAND JUNCTION, CO – The outcome was not what Walters State wanted on Thursday evening, but the fight they showed for nine innings was something the Senators can build off of.

Taking on seventh-seeded McLennan in the JUCO World Series, the Senators fell behind early and were on the verge of being run-ruled twice. However, each time Walters State fought back. While the Senators eventually ran out of outs and fell 18-13, they gathered momentum they can bring into Friday evening's rematch with the Highlanders.

With the defeat, the Senators fell to 58-7-1 on the season. 

"Hats off to McLennan, they punched first and punched hard," Walters State coach Dave Shelton said. "I'm really proud of my guys. They battled the entire game. They could've quit at any moment but at no point did they show any type of quit. Just really proud of that. At the end of the day, we walked 14 batters and you're not going to beat a team like McLennan doing that." 

Leading the way for Walters State at the plate on Thursday was Tyler Myatt. Myatt opened his day hitting a three-run home run in the bottom of the first. The home run was his 30th and broke the Walters State record for homers in a season (Kyle Koeneman, 2008). The RBIs brought him to 108 for the season, breaking the Walters State single-season RBI record as well (Alberto Osuna, 2021). 

Myatt finished the game with three hits and three RBIs, as did Nate Conner and Jack Torbett. Taylor Harris drove in three runs, as well. 

On the mound, 10 pitchers saw action. Tyler Welch got the start and gave up four runs, three earned, on two hits. After Matthew Porchas faced four batters, Reilly Byers took over and threw 1.1 innings. Byers gave up four runs, three earned, on three hits and struck out one. Riley Franklin was next in line, throwing 1.2 innings while allowing four runs on four hits. 

Rowan Park pitched next for Walters State, throwing 1.1 innings and allowing four runs on three hits while striking out one. Tyler Peterson replaced Park and recorded an out, before Ryan Smith threw a scoreless inning and struck out one. Lorenzo Atwell opened the seventh inning and recorded two outs while allowing a run, and Ryder Moye got the final out of the seventh. 

The final two innings were thrown by Drew Blalock, making his first appearance of the season. Blalock pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out two. 

McLennan opened the game with five runs in the top of the first, but Walters State got three of them back when Fenton singled, Vogele reached on a fielder's choice and Myatt hammered a home run over the fence in right to make it 5-3.

McLennan responded with four runs in the second, but Conner got a run back in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly that scored Torbett. Following a scoreless top of the third for McLennan, Walters State continued to push in the bottom half. Myatt led things off with a triple, and Holden Pantier scored him with a single. After Walker Morgan walked, Torbett doubled down the line to score Pantier and make it 9-6. Harris was next up and he grounded out but scored Morgan to make it 9-7.

Unfortunately for Walters State, the Highlanders answered back with six runs in the fourth and two runs in the fifth to make it 17-7. Needing a run to keep the game going, Pantier led the inning off with a single. McLennan picked up two outs after, but Torbett tripled off the wall in center to score Pantier to make it 17-8.

The two teams traded zeroes in the sixth, and Walters State held McLennan to just a run in the top of the seventh. This time, needing three runs to keep the game going, the Senators got the bats going in the bottom of the inning. Kenny Cox got things going when he reached on an error and a hit by pitch and walk loaded the bases. That brought up Harris, and he singled to left to score two and cut it to 18-10.

Following a walk to Fenton, Conner was next up and he made it a six-run game with a two-RBI single. That moved the game to the eighth, and Blalock entered and picked up two flyouts and Cox threw a runner out at third to get out of the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Walters State threatened again as Pantier reached on a dropped third strike, Cox singled and Atticus Goodson was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Torbett got a run back with a sacrifice fly that made it 18-13, but that was all Walters State could muster. 

In the ninth, Blalock again held the Highlanders at bay. The Senators put two on with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, but three strikeouts ended the game. 

Up Next:

Walters State and McLennan will play again on Friday evening at 7 pm MT (9 pm ET). It will be an elimination game, with the winner advancing to Saturday's Championship game against Salt Lake Community College.

"They're good, and I think we're pretty good," Shelton said. "It should be a pretty good contest tomorrow. Obviously, tonight didn't go the way we wanted it to but I feel like our kids left there not dejected or defeated. We battled, but we just have to play a lot better. Hopefully, we get a good night's rest and come out tomorrow ready to compete. We're one of the final three teams in the country, and we expect everything to be a dogfight from here on out."