For the third straight year, the East Central Community College baseball team is headed to Enid, Oklahoma to the NJCAA Division II College World Series.
The Warriors found out on Tuesday that they had received one of two at-large bids into the 12-team national tournament.
ECCC coach Neal Holliman said he thought his team had a good shot of making the field after falling to Pearl River in the Region 23 Super Regional last week.
“I feel good about our chances of making it,” Holliman said. “Based on my conversation with (Athletics Director Paul) Mixon and the criteria that they were looking for that we had a very good argument to make the tournament.”
The Warriors are 42-14 on the season and enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed. They will take on No. 11 seed Catawba Valley on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Holliman said he hopes the experience of playing in Enid the last two years pays dividends. Last year, the Warriors lost in the semifinals, finishing tied for third.
“It’s our third year in a row and I know there was a big difference from year one to year two,” Holliman said. “But you still have to play, no matter the experience. But there is no substitution for having been there and those guys being able to share information with the freshman.”
Holliman said the Warriors will begin scouting work on Catawba immediately and leave for Enid on Wednesday.
“We will practice Wednesday morning and leave at 2:30 p.m. headed that way,” Holliman said. “We will spend the night in Little Rock and practice on Thursday morning at Arkansas-Little Rock. We will start doing some work on Catawba Valley as soon we can. I think our region prepares us well. I think we do a lot of things that are harder to prepare for if you don’t play us on a regular basis.”
Holliman said he hopes his team bounces back from the two super regional losses to Pearl River, 22-1 in the opening game and 10-0 in the deciding game three.
“I think they are eager to redeem themselves from the lack of execution from last weekend,” Holliman said. “Things that we have done over and over, we didn’t execute well at all. And when you play a good team and don’t execute, the outcome isn’t going to be good. But at this point in the season, it’s not so much about the physical reps as the mental reps and doing what you have been taught to do thousands of times.”
