![Mack Mitchell hit a home run in the third inning vs. Central Florida [photo courtesy NJCAA].](/sports/bsb/2022-23/mITCHELL_hr.jpg?max_width=450)
GRAND JUNCTION, Col. – Central Florida, after beating Wabash Valley on Thursday night to stay alive in the Juco World Series, did it again on Saturday in the national championship game.
The Patriots jumped to an early lead and made it stand in a 13-6 title game victory before 11,969 fans at Sam Suplizio Field. They earned their first crown ever for long-time coach Marty Smith, who has over 900 victories in 29 years at the helm – none bigger than this one.
Wabash Valley finished a historic season with a 57-13 record. The Warriors made back-to-back trips to the World Series for the first time in program history and made it all the way to the championship game with a team with no position starters back from last year and a first-year head coach in Aaron Biddle.
Central Florida (56-7) jumped to a 9-0 lead in the first inning and added three more in the second for a 12-0 lead. The Warriors managed to slow the Patriots down after that but could not put together a sustained rally and never did challenge.
WVC scored its' first run in the second inning when Richard Bonomolo, Jr. lifted a bases-loaded pop up into right field that Central Florida second baseman Bradke Lohry managed to catch but could not turn and make a play on Michael Lareau, who tagged and scored on an unusual infield sacrifice fly.
In the third, the Warriors cut the deficit to 12-2 on a home run to right field by Mack Mitchell, his second homer of the tournament.
After the Patriots got a solo shot from Thad Ector – their third homer of the day - to make it 13-2 in the fifth, WVC would score the final four runs of the game.
In the sixth, Nick Williams hit a SAC fly that scored Luke Odden to make it 13-3. In the ninth, the most productive frame of the night for the Warriors, Bruce Jellison drove in a run with a ground out, while Luke Evans and Zamaurion Hatcher stroked two-out RBI doubles to account for the final.
Central Florida starter J.D. Smith, who went three innings, and notably Andrew Herrmann, who went five innings of four-hit relief to get the win, held the high-flying Warrior offense to just eight hits on the night and only four over the first eight innings.
It was the first time in six World Series games that WVC had less than 10 hits. And the top three in the batting order – with a staggering .538 average heading in – finished 4-of-11.
Jacob Frost took the loss for the Warriors and finished 9-3 on the season. Manuel de Gracia, Jackson Soucie, and Louis Phillipe Langevin also worked on the hill for Biddle's club.
WVC has now made four trips to the Juco World Series and has a record of 11-8 in Grand Junction games.