CVCC hangs on to down Harford in JUCO World Series

The Chattahoochee Valley Community College baseball team was cruising along, three outs away from a six-inning, mercy-rule win over Harford on Tuesday afternoon.

But the Pirates gave up eight runs in the sixth and ended up hanging on for a 14-11 victory in nine innings in the JUCO World Series.

Frank Wager hit a pair of home runs and a double as CVCC built a 12-2 lead through the top of the sixth. Jordan Lee and the Pirates just needed to keep Harford scoreless in the bottom of the sixth and the game would be over.

But Harford’s Luke Johnson led off with a home run, then he capped the eight-run uprising with a grand slam to close to within two, 12-10.

Reliever Trent Simpson came on and pitched the final 3 1/3 innings, allowing just a single run in the ninth inning.

Caron Hughes went 3-for-4 with four RBIs for the Pirates. AJ Willoughby and Jaylen Smith had two hits apiece.

CVCC (51-11) will have Wednesday off before playing at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Late Monday

Iowa Western 8, CVCC 0

A pair of Chattahoochee Valley Community College errors led to six unearned runs in an 8-0 loss to Iowa Western on Monday night in the JUCO World Series.

The game was stopped after seven innings due to the mercy rule.

Iowa Western right-hander Jacob Niggemeyer limited CVCC to just four hits in 6 1/3 innings.

The Pirates, who average almost nine runs a game, were shut out for the third time this season.

Chase Adkins took the loss. He gave up all eight runs — only two earned — on 12 hits in 4 1/3.

Iowa Western scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Jared Gates, Matt Hoeg and Matt Lloyd opened the frame with three straight singles to score a run.

Hoeg scored the second run on a Adkins’ error on a pickoff throw to first base.

Iowa Western scored six times in the third inning.

Hoeg, who went 4-for-4, led off with a double and went to third on a balk. Luke Morgan hit a grounder to shortstop Jayson Cook, who threw home to get Hoeg. But his throw bounced past catcher JT Thomas.

After striking out the next batter for the second out, Adkins looked like he might escape the inning trailing just 3-0.

But four hits, a walk and a hit batter followed, and Iowa Western’s lead was 8-0.

Thomas had two of CVCC’s four hits. AJ Willoughby and Cook had the others.

The top-ranked Pirates saw their 18-game winning streak come to an end.

This story was originally published May 31, 2016 at 8:14 AM with the headline "CVCC hangs on to down Harford in JUCO World Series."