It was an exciting baseball season and an exceptional ride for the Titans of Tacoma Community College this year. Falling just two wins shy of the NWAACC championship game, the team experienced nearly every high and low possible in a 47-game season.
The Edmonds Tritons were the team to finally stop the Titans run when the clock struck 12 on the season on May 25, as soon-to-be NWAACC champion Edmonds pushed in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, winning the game 3-2 and moving onto the title game against Bellevue.
It was not the ending the mercurial team had envisioned. But it was fitting for a rollercoaster season that saw the Titans reach both a degree of national prominence and a degree of desperation as they saw their West Region title snatched from them at the end of the season during a short, but ill-timed slump. The team found itself playing in a do-or-die tilt against Lower Columbia after the regular season just to get a seed into the playoffs.
It will always be a season that could have or should have been, but the rare air that TCC took in during the 2014 campaign will be hard to match ever again.
The team jumped out of the gate with five wins to start the season and was then tripped-up for a loss on the road against Walla Walla. It was March 9, and the team stood at 5-1 with a long season ahead of them. No one could have expected what would happen next.
On April 27, the Titans had just wrapped-up a four-game weekend sweep of Centralia and TCC had run their record to a phenomenal 32-1. The team had rattled-off 27 wins in a row, was ranked number one in the NWAACC Coaches Poll and had pulled-off a rarity for NWAACC teams on the national stage; TCC had risen to number 18 in the national JUCO baseball poll.
Between March 9 and April 27, the Titans never lost a ballgame. In retrospect, the team obviously peaked too soon and with the addition of some untimely injuries at the end of the season, they were fighting for their lives at the end instead of pounding teams into submission as they had for most of the season.
Pierce College and TCC have always had a spirited cross-town rivalry in every sport. The Raiders had been playing excellent baseball all season long and the four-game series against the Titans to end the regular season was seen as a big deal even early in the year. No matter how many wins TCC put into the books, they were still going to have to play four league games against Pierce, and they met the Raiders just a week after splitting four games with Lower Columbia.
For most teams, going 2-2 isn’t going to wreck the season. It was an uppercut to TCC though. The Titans needed to win two of four from Pierce at season’s end and the Raiders were peaking. Pierce took the first two games, while the Titans slipped by them in the third. The Raiders put across an avalanche of late runs in the fourth game to win 11-3 and took the West Region crown. More importantly, they scored the number one seed into the NWAACC Championship Tournament and TCC would have to endure a playoff to get a ticket to the party.
The team bounced-back the following weekend taking two-straight from Lower Columbia and the team was on their way to the eight-team NWAACC finals in Longview, Washington as the number two seed.
Treasure Valley Community College out of Ontario, Oregon was the champion of the East Region and the Titans first opponent. Lucky for TCC it was a double-elimination tournament as the Chukars topped the Titans 4-2 and sent them into the loser-out bracket.
Facing the local Clark Penguins, the Titans bats came alive for a 8-5 win and they would live to see another day and a chance for a little revenge lay in front of them.
While Pierce had made short work of Lane College in the opening round 5-0, the Raiders ran into eventual champion Edmonds the following day and were beat 6-3. It was time for a rematch and perhaps a bit of redemption.
The Titan bats were cold as ice against Pierce on Saturday May 24. Freshman first baseman Brett Neilsen had TCC’s sole hit of the game; an RBI single. Pierce pitchers struck-out 12 Titan batters. The only problem for the Raiders was the eight walks and two hit batters these same pitchers served-up. Throw in a couple of throwing errors and TCC won the game 4-2, sending their rivals home and moving a step closer to the championship game.
Of course, TCC would face Edmonds the next day and were turned-away 3-2 in 10-innings by the hottest team at the NWAACC tournament. Edmonds won five of six games and took the crown from Bellevue on Monday May 26 by the score of 6-5. Edmonds would finish the season matching TCC for the best overall record in the 32-team NWAACC at 39-8.
Titans head coach Ryan Mummert is building a powerhouse at TCC and has been sending a steady stream of players onto NCAA Division I programs now for three years. This was expected to be somewhat of a rebuilding season and it ended up one for the record books.
Expect the Titans to rise again next season. Stay tuned.