St. Cloud Tech Cyclones fall after advancing in junior college world series
The St. Cloud Technical and Community College Cyclones’ third trip to the NJCAA Division III baseball world series has come to a close.
The Clones (25-12) faced a tough bracket, initially being seeded against No. 1 Rowan College South Jersey-Gloucester (50-5) and losing 5-3 on Saturday. They battled back and beat Joliet Junior College (39-25) 4-2 on Monday to advance in the loser’s bracket.
On Tuesday in the team’s second elimination game in two days, SCTCC lost to Niagra County Community College (44-6) 7-4 at the worlds series in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Seeded last of the eight world series teams, SCTCC was an underdog to the rest of the field. It was the only team not ranked by the NJCAA to have made the bracket. Joliet was No. 8 and Niagara County was No. 4.
The Niagara County Thunderwolves started in on St. Cloud Tech early, hanging three first-inning runs on starter Kayden Swenson, who got the loss after lasting an inning. Landon Lunser, Carson Reeve and Sam Holthaus had multiple innings from the bullpen and all three gave up at least a run. Niagara County hit safely 16 times in the game.
SCTCC catcher Blaine Fischer was 3-4 and had the Cyclones’ only RBI on a ninth-inning single. The team left seven runners on base and Holthaus, who is a St. Joseph native and St. Cloud Apollo graduate, was the only other hitter with more than one hit. He was 2-4 and scored the run.
This season was manager David Kroger Jr.‘s first after 10-year skipper Jason Fischer left to coach the new Alexandria Technical and Community College team. Kroger and the Cyclones beat Alexandria Tech twice in a row on May 19 and 20 in the Region XIII Final Four to advance to the national tournament.
The Cyclones were one game shy of 2022’s playoff run when Kroger was an assistant under Fischer.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud Tech Cyclones fall in junior college world series
