For the first time in 17 years the Crowder College baseball team can claim they are champions.

Crowder won Sunday over Jefferson County College to advance to the title game Monday morning.

In that game, Jefferson won to force a winner-take-all third game.

There, the Roughriders came up with a 10-6 victory to claim the Region XVI Championship at Mineral Area Junior College.

Crowder and the Vikings became quite familiar with each other playing three times in two days, and throughout the season the two were the best teams in the region, entering as the No. 1 and No. 2 seed. Top-seeded Crowder won the first meeting on Sunday, 10-3. The storyline for the Roughriders in this game was a seven-run third inning that sparked the victory.

Crowder got an RBI single from Tanner Pogue in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. The seven-run third inning saw plenty of base runners for the team. Bubby Williams had an RBI single and scored on Will McGinnis’ RBI double. Michael Dunlavy capped the scoring with a two-run homer.

Earlier in the frame Matty Johnson singled and would score on a wild pitch. Kyle Zimmerman singled and scored on a fielding error on Pogue’s hit.

Pogue had a sacrifice fly and Tyler Anglin singled and scored on a wild pitch for Crowder’s final run.

Don Lisi started and threw all seven innings, striking out 11 and walking four. He gave up five hits and three earned runs to improve to 8-3 on the season.

Williams was 3-for-4, while Johnson was 2-for-3 to pace the Crowder offense.

The victory was the 100th in the coaching career for Crowder head coach Travis Lallemand.

Jefferson County 7, Crowder 6

Three outs away from a loss, the Jefferson County Vikings rallied for three runs over the final three innings to pull out the win in the championship game of regionals Monday morning.

Crowder led 6-4 going into the top of the seventh and perhaps final inning. Down to one out, Zachary Shy hit a solo home run to make it 6-5 for the Vikings. Bryan Propst then walked, before Luke Schlechte singled. Kyle Morris then delivered a single to drive in Propst, making it 6-6.

The game went into extra innings, before Shy hit his third home run of the game, another solo shot, in the top of the ninth to account for the final score.

Early on in the game, the teams traded runs. Jefferson (41-21) went up 2-0 on a two-run homer run by Shy.

Crowder answered with four runs in the bottom of the first. Anglin had an RBI single, before he and Bubby Williams, who singled, scored on McGinnis’ three-run homer.

The Vikings tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the second when an error with runners in scoring position led to two unearned runs.

The Roughriders forged ahead 6-4 in the fourth inning when Johnson had an RBI triple and scored on Pogue’s RBI double.

Dan Golden started and threw six innings, striking out seven and walking three, while giving up five hits and two earned runs.

Crowder 10, Jefferson County 6

In the third and decisive game, and the biggest game of the season for Crowder, the Roughriders had someone step up.

Freshman Cody Thompson, going on two days rest, threw eight innings and helped the Roughriders secure the win. The southpaw from Nevada, who threw a little more than 100 pitches against St. Charles Community College on Saturday, threw more than 100 in the game against Jefferson County.

He struck out six, walked one, giving up six hits and three earned runs on short rest.
Lisi tossed the final inning, giving up one hit and no earned runs for Crowder.

Crowder travels to Warner, Okla., to play Friday in the South Central District playoffs with Connors State and Delgado Community College from Delgado, La.