2024 JUCO World Series Day One Delivers

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) – The Junior College World Series is here, and the busiest day of the sports schedule on the Western Slope delivered with four great games out at Suplizio Field.

Game one featured a newcomer to Grand Junction, the lone team making their JUCO World Series debut, the Georgia Highlands Chargers, taking on the program with the most recent JUCO Title in this year’s field, the Mclennan Highlanders. Call it beginners luck, call it lighting in a bottle, whatever you want, end result is the Chargers picking up their first JUCO win 5-1.

Game two was a rematch of a round one matchup last year. The Johnson County Cavaliers were once again taking on the Shelton State Buccaneers in the first round. Last year the Bucs pulled off an extra inning first round upset. That was not the case this time around, to put it simply. Johnson County went on to run rule the Bucs this time around, getting their payback winning 14-4.

Game three was the most back and fourth of the day. The Southern Nevada Coyotes faced off with the Northwest Florida State Raiders. After an early lead by the Coyotes via the longball, the Raiders answered right back. Then the Coyotes answered back, then the Raiders answered back, and so on until the game went into extras. The Coyotes were lifted by a loud home run off the bat of Tyman Long and some clutch pitching to pick up the 7-6 win.

Game four the Florence-Darlington Stingers bats made it sting early on against Iowa Western. They waisted no time jumping out to an early lead. After the first inning Flo-Dar was up 6-0 and cruised from there to the 10-4 win.

Two more teams, Blinn and Crowder will make their tournament debut Sunday, along with a pair of elimination games.

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