Indians go for back-to-back titles

By Dustin Kent

Published: May 22, 2008

The Chipola Indians begin their quest for a second straight national championship Saturday in Grand Junction, Colo., Saturday when they open first round play of the NJCAA Baseball Championship.

Chipola opens the double-elimination tournament with Connors State at 4 p.m., local time Saturday.

The Indians have a chance to win back-to-back national titles for the first time since 2000 when Grayson County College won its second national crown in two years.

Only five schools in history have won the NJCAA tournament in consecutive years, but Chipola coach Jeff Johnson said that the thought of such history isn’t on his mind.

“I just feel great that we’re here and that we have an opportunity to be one of final 10 teams in country and have a chance to win a title,” the coach said. “It took me 11 years to get here once, so it’s not something you take for granted. You better not come out here and not take advantage of this environment.”

Chipola has five players back from last year’s team and many more who weren’t on the field when the Indians took the title last season.

It’s a point that Johnson said he emphasized with his team with regards to the repeat talk.

“I told the team, ‘you guys have nothing to do with last year, so forget about that,’” the coach said. “The thing is it doesn’t matter if you’re the most talented team or the least talented team, it’s the team that plays hardest and plays the best that wins this thing.

“If we do win it again, that’s great. If we play as hard as we can and don’t win it, that’s fine too. I just don’t want us to have a poor effort.”

Chipola rolled through the state tournament in Winter Haven, winning all five games and clinching the title with a 6-0 shutout of Manatee in Winter Haven May 13.
The Indians got great offensive production throughout its lineup in the state tournament and a classic pitching performance in the title game from sophomore

Ryan Chaffee, who tossed a complete game shutout and struck out a whopping 18 batters.

It was Chaffee who pitched the national championship-clinching game last year in Grand Junction.

However, it will be Drew Parker, also an Indians pitching hero from last year’s national tournament, who gets the start Saturday.

“What was decided was that Drew Parker’s experience is a big key to us and he threw very well in the state tournament,” Johnson said about choosing Parker for the opener.

“I feel like we have to get two starts from him to win it.”

Chaffee will start the second game, which will be Monday if the Indians win Saturday and Sunday if they lose, with Matt Jackson, who was the ace of the staff in the regular season, set to start a third game should the Indians get there.

Jackson, who still has not suffered a loss this season, will be in the bullpen for game one along with fellow rotation regular Jason Townsend.

“We feel fortunate to have four guys who are very good starters,” Johnson said of Parker, Chaffee, Jackson and Townsend. “If we have to use one (of Jackson and Townsend) a little longer in relief, then we’d start the other in the third game.”

Pitching depth has never been a concern for the Indians this season.

However, after a long trip to Colorado and a 10-day break after a red-hot state tournament, Johnson is not without any concerns regarding his club.

“It’s been a long couple of days, so we’re concerned with that,” Johnson said about his team, which left for Grand Junction Tuesday. “We didn’t get a whole lot out of practice Tuesday and didn’t get much done Wednesday.

“It’s good to get back on field (Thursday), so I hope we’ve started getting a little bit of our focus back. Our concentration level has not been good.”
Johnson said Thursday’s practice was a good one, though he can still sense some fatigue in his team.

“I do think we’re tired,” he said. “We’ve been wandering mentally, not much focus. I hope everyone has their focus back and understands the reason we’re out here. We’re not on vacation.”

Johnson said the break shouldn’t be a problem for his team, which he said had to wait longer in between the state and national tournaments last year.

“We can’t do anything about the time off,” the coach said. “I told the guys that we haven’t played our best game yet, so I hope that happens here.

“But we can’t worry about the pro draft or any other distraction. We just have to worry about winning the national title and the first element of that is beating

Connors state, so we’re taking it one inning and one game at a time.”
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All Chipola games will be broadcast on WJAQ-100.9, and are available at http://www.chipola.edu.

Tournament information is available at http://www.jucogj.org