Stars and Blackhawks set to face off in World Series rematch

A year ago, South Arkansas College and Southeastern (Iowa) Community College met in the NJCAA Division II World Series, each going undefeated through the early stages of the event.

The Blackhawks won that game 10-2, continuing their run to the championship game.

One year later, the Stars and Blackhawks are set to face off today in the first round of the World Series, with each team hoping to be the last team standing.

Game time is set for 4 p.m. at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Okla.

The winner will face No. 2 seed Brunswick (NC) Community College on Sunday at 7 p.m.

The loser will play an elimination game Monday at 7 p.m.

Brett Foss (10-7, 2.68 ERA), who pitched a two-hit shutout in his World Series start last year against Frederick (Md.), will get the start for the Stars.

Southeast coach Justin Schulte did not name a starter.

This is the third meeting between the schools. They also met in 2022 with the Blackhawks winning 4-2 in Millington, Tennessee.

The Blackhawks (43-17) are the seventh seed and received one of two at-large bids after finishing second to Des Moines (Iowa) Area Community College in the Region 11 tournament over the weekend last.

In the third year of the program, the Stars (39-22) are back in the World Series for the second year in a row and sit in 10th place.

SouthArk had to win six playoff games to earn its new trip to Enid. The Stars won the Region 2 tournament, edging Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa in a winner-take-all game.

Then the Stars outlasted Gateway (Ariz.) Community College in the Western District championship, winning the series in three games, including an 8-7 victory in game three to clinch their berth.

“I think it’s awesome,” Lester said of returning to the World Series for the second year in a row. “Last year’s team, we were good. There’s no doubt about it, and it was a much easier path for us to get there than this year. I hope this shows everyone that we are not a one-year wonder. I hope we can continue this thing. You never want to take them for granted. Last year I probably didn’t absorb it enough, probably because I couldn’t believe it at first, but there’s also a lot going on. There’s a lot more to it than baseball, not for the guys, but more on the administrative side, so I didn’t get a chance to appreciate it as much. This year I really plan to soak it all in and enjoy it. It’s very rewarding to know that we’ve done it two years in a row. This now shows that we are going in the right direction with this thing. It wasn’t just a good group of guys and we went for it. All the things we do here translate to maybe success over a long period of time, so that’s exciting.

When it comes to the rematch, coaches disagree on whether or not it’s helpful to know a team’s tendencies.

“I don’t know if that’s the case just because you haven’t seen a team in a year,” Schulte said. “It helps to know that you have a lot of respect for someone. You like the way they run their schedule because we’ve played them each of the last two years. We could tell from their first season that Cannon was going to do a great job there, and obviously he was incredible.

Lester said: “I think so. Knowing their coach, I think they will have very similar teams every year. Our team this year, I would say we’re definitely different in a lot of ways, and I’m sure they are to some extent, but I think they’ll be very similar to their team from last year in terms of how they go about their business and what they are trying to accomplish.

Lester added that SouthArk could get some help with the potential return of Ian McCubbin, who is nursing a hamstring injury.

“I hope so,” Lester said. “I think we’ll try to put him in there. In the spring, Ian played in the outfield, so I don’t think that’s out of the question, especially if the hammer is doing well. I’m not sure where I want to put it, but I think (Alex) Show(alter) did a really good performance. Showalter can handle very good high-end arms, but Ian’s pop is unparalleled, lots of doubles, Enid is short right and Ian hits the ball really hard right, so we’d like to get him back in the lineup. Ian plays without fear. He won’t be afraid, so if Ian is ready to go, we’ll find him a spot in the lineup.

SouthArk has already played in eight playoff games and Lester hopes his team can relax and enjoy their experience in Enid.

“I hope so,” Lester said. “Our thing is we really don’t care about the other team, we just want to show up and play the game the way we play it. If it results in a W then great, if it results in a loss so be it.

“If we can control the things we can control and stay on our guys and really have unwavering confidence in what we’re trying to do as a team and stay with that. I thought Saturday night when we lost 2-1 in a really good game, I thought we did a lot, especially offensively with what we were trying to do. I think we were in one game and we had a really good guy on the mound, but we don’t play a lot of 2-1 games. We had a hard time dealing with this. It was our biggest crowd all year. A lot of guys were trying to do too much. They were trying to hit every ball 450 feet, living and dying on every call, every swing and every pitch. Hopefully they learned their lesson and let the game come to them. We just have to stay and take what the game gives us. We did a good job on Sunday. On Saturday we tried to make everything happen. I think everyone tried to be the hero.

“Sunday we had kingmakers. Obviously, Justin (Szymanski) was a king, Gavin (Murphy) a king, Luke (Eaton) was a king.

“Jacob Ambriz takes three walks. He took what they gave him and he finally slowed the game down. Alex Showalter had that big hit by pitch, and I’ll be honest, Show isn’t the best at getting hit by pitches. Our team is pretty good, but he’s not one of them, and he just carried it like a champ in a two-strike count to load the bases. The guys just take what they’re given, we did that on Sunday, and hopefully we can do it in Enid too.

The Stars played a brutal non-conference schedule that included games at East Central (Miss.), Pearl River (Miss.) and LSU-Eunice.

“At first, you looked at the situation, and the way things were going at first, it was like, ‘Man, why did I do that?’ “, Lester said. “But looking back, I think it took us a long time to get over some of those losses and the manner in which we lost. It was imposed on us there for a while, in different ways. In the Pearl River series, Pearl River came out and gave us 10 points. We played Parkland in the next game, and they were one game away from the World Series. We beat them and I thought that team was really good, but you’re not sure because they didn’t play much.

“Then they came back the next day and beat us. Then we go against the No. 1 team in the country that won it last year (Heartland), and we win and we’re like, “So here it is, guys.” We didn’t even play well that game. That’s the good part. We didn’t need to play a perfect game to beat a good team, so we kind of showed what was in it. As the conference progressed, we didn’t start off too hot. There was a lot of back and forth. You’ve had glimpses of it. We lost two of three to SAU Tech, but we scored 26 points in the third game.

“We knew that on the pitching side everything would be fine. We got hit early, but we knew we had the depth and the stuff. We never weakened on that side, but on the offensive side, we had to be there, and we had to recover the ball. I think as the year went on we became a little more comfortable in our own skin. The Enid matches at the regionals and the supers, they didn’t bother us. These environments in East Central and Pearl River were just as big, if not bigger, than last weekend. I think it was really good to see them, especially in hindsight. It helped us play better.

The Blackhawks went into a tailspin in late April, losing six straight games, including a three-game sweep by Iowa Central at home, but they responded with a seven-game winning streak that ended with the first of two losses to Des Moines. Region 11 tournament area.

“Just toughness,” Schulte said. “We are a very process-oriented program. People say we’re similar every year in how we do things, and I think that’s a compliment. These guys have had a lot of adversity. We played a very difficult schedule, we suffered difficult defeats. We had a losing streak that they then turned into an eight-game winning streak. They really showed me all year that there was a lot of difficulty here. We talk about it a lot as a program that when baseball is over, one of the only things you can hang your hat on in life is your endurance. So they’ve done a great job of being for themselves at all times and appreciating opportunities.”

The Blackhawks, who are ranked No. 9 in the final Division II poll, are hitting .322 as a team and have seven players with more than 100 at-bats hitting .300 or better this season.

“Our goal is to have nine tough Hawks in the lineup,” Schulte said. “If we start at the bottom of the order, it’s the same as starting at the top of the order as far as how we take our hitters. Usually that leads to a lot of guys who are .300 hitters and a lot of guys with 35 or 40 RBIs and above. This gives you a chance to win every day.

Schulte added that the Blackhawks’ success has been a team effort.

“They’ve been doing it as a group all year,” Schulte said. “It was never really about one guy on our team. It seems like we have a different hero every day, and it’s fun to watch.

Lester said he knew his team faced a severe test,

“At the plate, they’ll be tough,” Lester said. “They probably won’t do much.” They are going to be one of the best defensive teams. It’s just going to be a really solid team. We’ll have to put together some solid hitters and limit the big innings, but we’re excited to play.

Lester said the Blackhawks remind him of East Central, which is the third seed.

“I don’t know if they’re that talented, but they’re going to play hard, they’re going to look to take the extra base, they’re not going to give up ABs,” Lester said. . “They will force you to beat them and put pressure on you. The main thing is our offense as a unit. We have to take what they give us. They’re going to take you out, so we have to see the ball in the zone, stay in the middle of the field and not get too happy.