Midland College upset by Wabash Valley to start JUCO World Series

May 23-No. 8-seed Wabash Valley College used some big hits to upset No. 3 Midland College in the opening round of the JUCO World Series on Saturday night.

The Warriors connected for three home runs and three triples to beat the Chaparrals, 11-6, at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colorado.

The loss puts the Chaparrals (50-11) in the loser's bracket where it will face defending national champion and No. 9 seed Salt Lake Community College in an elimination game at 8 p.m. CST Sunday. Salt Lake fell to No. 2 Blinn College, 13-3 in five innings, earlier in the evening.

Despite the loss, MC coach Hector Rodriguez remained confident that his team could bounce back because it has done so before in this postseason when it lost to Hill College in the first game of the opening round.

"I think (Jason) Berglund will be ready to pitch and offensively, we have some big hits in us and we've played with our backs up against the wall the past couple of weeks," Rodriguez said. "I think our guys are confident and they'll be ready to play. We just have to go out and play and execute, and I think they'll do it."

Wabash Valley (44-20) plays Blinn at 10 a.m. CST Monday in the winner's bracket.

The Warriors started the game strong as they jumped on MC starter Logan Flores behind a two-run home run by Logan Schallmoser.

The Chaps answered with four runs with a big bottom of the first as Stevyn Andrachick had an RBI double and Legacy grad Cole Neatherlin hit a three-run home run to right-center for the 4-2 lead.

WVC struck back in the top of the third when Enrico Veach had an RBI triple and Leandro Hernandez connected for a two-run homer to take a 5-4 lead.

MC had a golden opportunity to answer in the bottom of the third as it had the bases loaded and two outs, but WVC starter Hayden Alexander got a 2-3 double play and then got a flyout at the warning track to get out of the jam without allowing a run.

"We didn't take advantage of some opportunities that were given to us in the middle part of the game," Rodriguez said. "We didn't produce offensively like I thought we would. We had some opportunities to do that and we weren't able to do it."

The Warriors had a 6-4 lead when they broke the game open with a four-run fifth as they had back-to-back triples, two RBI singles and scored another run off a throwing error for a 10-4 lead.

MC answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth as Neatherlin drove in his fourth run of the game with a single, and then Midland Christian grad AJ Velarde had a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to cut it to 10-6.

But that's as close as the Chaps would get as WVC added a solo homer by Veach in the eighth inning and the Warriors got a good performance out of the bullpen by Trevor Fishman, who allowed just two hits and walked two over 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

Flores took the loss for MC, while reliever Keller Lindeman gave the Chaps four strong innings as he allowed one run on two hits, three walks and struck out six. Lindeman, however, left in the ninth inning with some tightness, according to Rodriguez, forcing Clayton Norrell to close the game.

Rodriguez said he didn't make a pitching change earlier because he trusted Flores, but added the Warriors did a good job of getting the leadoff hitter on base against him. The coach praised Lindeman for his efforts in relief.

"He just came in a gave us a great chance, for sure," he said. "It's a great outing of the bullpen. He gave us a chance and we just couldn't do anything offensively."

The Chaps had nine hits in the game as Neatherlin was 2-for-4 with the home run, a walk and four RBI. Jorge Gil was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk; and Andrachick was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.

Hernandez was 2-for-5 with a triple, home run, three RBI and two runs scored to lead WVC. Schallmoser was 2-for-4 with a triple, home run, two RBI and two runs scored; Veach was 2-for-5 with a triple, home run, two RBI and two runs scored; and Konner Brown was 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored.

MC played Salt Lake CC earlier in the season and won 19-9 in seven innings at home on Feb. 9.

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 11:51 AM.