Roughriders baseball team gets sendoff to NJCAA World Series on Tuesday
May 21—NEOSHO, Mo. — Crowder College faculty, administration and staff gathered on the front steps of Farber Hall on Tuesday morning to give the Roughriders baseball team a sendoff to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Baseball World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
The 49-13 Roughriders punched their ticket to the World Series by defeating Region 2 winner Seminole State, of Seminole, Oklahoma, this past weekend. They won the first two games in the best-of-three series with scores of 11-2 and 8-2.
This will be the fifth appearance in the NJCAA World Series for the No. 7 Roughriders and their third in four years.
Coach Travis Lallemand told the gathering that the team has been preparing for this moment since last fall.
"Thank you all for being here to see them off because I told them yesterday, we're not just going to Grand Junction, we have a chance to compete for a national championship," Lallemand said during the sendoff. "It feels pretty good saying that, and I hope that's what this group continues to do as we navigate through this."
In a selection show Tuesday morning, after the Roughriders left Neosho, the NJCAA announced that Crowder was seeded fifth and would take on sixth-seeded Blinn College of Brenham, Texas — a 42-16 team that took three games to eliminate San Jacinto-North College in the Region 14 finals last weekend.
The two teams will play this weekend. Games will be televised on the ESPN+ network.
"We've taken the right route and the right path, and it wasn't easy getting here," Lallemand said. "We've had a lot of crossroads and hiccups and things across the way, but this is what made this group grow and that's what I'm about. I'm about growth and development, and winning is a byproduct of those things, and I couldn't be more proud of this group. This is our fifth time in school history being there. I'm very proud of that. But at the same time, we're not there to be tourists. I'd like to go compete, and I know these guys would too. I appreciate your support as we move forward, and hopefully we're not done."
