East Central Community College Baseball team (Photo from ECCC website)
The Warriors from Decatur are the No. 3 seed in the ten-team field. They open play on Saturday versus Southeastern Iowa.
East Central Community College’s Baseball team is heading to the NJCAA DII World Series for the first time in program history.
The ECCC Warriors have an overall record this season of 37-18, with a conference record of 23-5. They earned the opportunity to compete at the World Series after defeating No. 1 LSU Eunice 8-2 on Friday in the NJCAA Region 23 tournament.
ECCC Head Coach Neal Holliman said the chance to compete at the World Series is big for his team.
“It depends on what you are striving for, and for us, it’s to win the national championship so this is a step in that process,” Holliman said after the game. “It’s a big step though as this was our third time in this game, but I’m proud of our guys as we were able to conquer it today.”
Coach Holliman is in his 17th season as Head Baseball Coach at East Central Community College and has compiled an overall 445-323 record.
The Warriors will now join nine other community colleges in Enid, Oklahoma at David Allen Memorial Ballpark for the double-elimination NJCAA DII World Series tournament. Games are set to begin Saturday, May 27 and run through Saturday, June 3.
The community college teams in the series, by seeding, are:
- No. 1 Heartland
- No. 2 Lansing
- No. 3 East Central
- No. 4 Madison
- No. 5 St. John’s River State
- No. 6 Southeastern Iowa
- No. 7 South Arkansas
- No. 8 Lackawanna
- No. 9 Glendale
- No. 10 Frederick
ECCC will face Southeastern Iowa at 1 p.m. on May 27.