Coach DG Nelson’s Salt Lake Community College baseball team has made a living this season coming from behind to pull out improbable victories, but on Monday morning the tables were turned on the Bruins.
Trailing by three runs, Lake Land College of Mattoon, Illinois, scored five runs in the top of the eighth inning and eked past SLCC 11-9 in a second-round game at the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
SLCC, known as the #BruCru on social media, drops into the one-loss bracket at the double-elimination tournament and will face Shelton State Community College of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. MDT at Suplizio Field in Grand Junction.
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The Bruins dropped to 44-11 on the season with the loss. They picked up their 44th win in the tournament opener late Saturday night, pounding Florida SouthWestern State 16-2 in seven innings.
Monday, Luke Jacobs staked SLCC to a 2-0 lead with a two-run single in the first inning. Hudson Manwaring’s sacrifice fly in the second made it 4-0 SLCC.
Lake Land scored six runs in the top of the third to take a 6-4 lead, meaning that the team from the Land of Lincoln scored all 11 of its runs in two innings.
SLCC took a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Chandler Reber and an RBI single by Jake Mortensen. The Bruins stretched their lead to 9-6 on Easton Romero’s RBI single in the sixth and another sac fly by Manwaring in the seventh.
After Lake Land took the lead, the Bruins threatened in the bottom of the eight but Romero was stranded at second after a one-out double.
In the Bruins’ win on Opening Day, which didn’t start until 10:25 p.m. Saturday night and ended around 1:15 a.m. Sunday morning, Manwaring had four hits and drove in five runs. Pitcher Jaxon Grossman went five innings and allowed just one hit, striking out five.
Salt Lake Community College is the No. 8 seed in the tournament and the Florida crew was the No. 3 seed.
Lake Land is the No. 9 seed and will play Florence-Darlington of South Carolina at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the undefeated bracket.
The Bruins are playing in the Juco World Series for the second time in three years. Two years ago, they lost a heartbreaker on Opening Day and again the following morning, so this is the farthest they have made it in the national championship tournament.
