Grayson County Community College

Chipola baseball still on path for second national championship

June 1--GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Chipola College played into the wee hours of this morning again at the Division I baseball Juco World Series tournament on Tuesday night.

The Indians (40-20) faced Navarro College (44-17) of Texas at Sam Suplizio Field in a winners' bracket game that started at 8:30 p.m. CDT with the finish beyond press time. Chipola opened the tournament on Sunday with a sloppy 19-13 victory over Grayson County College of Texas where the Indians committed eight errors but survived the nearly four-hour contest. Grayson went on to be eliminated on Tuesday by defending national champion Iowa Western Community College.

The winner of Chipola-Navarro plays Central Arizona College (54-13) in the winners' bracket final at 8:30 p.m. today. The loser plays Iowa Western (42-19) in an elimination game today at 4 p.m. Central Arizona defeated South Georgia 13-3 on Saturday and Potomac State 12-2 on Monday to advance.

The blowouts were reminiscent of many of the tournament's games through Tuesday. Seven of the 11 winning teams scored in double digits and eight won by six or more runs. Four games featured a 10-run margin.

Half of the 10-team field was eliminated by Tuesday's Chipola-Navarro finale. The event continues through Friday, with the possibility of an if-necessary championship game on Saturday.

Chipola won the 2007 national title and bowed out of the 2008 event after three games.

All Juco World Series games are broadcast at psblive.com.

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Eisenbach taken by Padres in MLB draft - ThisWeek Community Newspapers

First-year Licking County Settlers coach Devin McIntosh may be a Texas native, but he's spent enough time in other regions of the country to know how deep the baseball talent pool can be in the Midwest.

"There's no question baseball's played at a pretty high level up here," said McIntosh, who just completed his first season as coach at Richland College in Dallas after previously working as an assistant at Buffalo and Niagara. "The talent in Ohio matches up to what you see in the South. The one difference might be there's a little more depth in the South."

It probably came as no surprise to McIntosh then that four central Ohio products, including 2006 Newark Catholic High School graduate R.L. Eisenbach, were selected in the Major League Baseball draft, which was conducted June 6-8.

Eisenbach, 23, played on Division IV state championship teams at Newark Catholic in 2004 and 2006. He was taken late on the second day of the draft in the 23rd round by the San Diego Padres with the 713th pick overall. A 6-foot, 180-pound left-handed pitcher, he was one of 33 players chosen who have Ohio connections. Twenty-two of them were pitchers, as were the top four picks in the first round for the first time since the draft began in 1965.

"I guess you can never have enough arms," said Phil Klein, a 2007 Gahanna graduate and right-handed pitcher from Youngstown State who was taken in the 30th round by the defending American League champion Texas Rangers with the 924th pick overall.

Eisenbach, who originally made a college commitment to Buffalo, posted a 14-2 record and 1.48 ERA this spring as a senior at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala. He led the nation in victories, limiting opponents to a .165 batting average as the Eagles advanced to the NAIA World Series for the first time. Eisenbach, who also played at Grayson County (Texas) Community College and Lubbock (Texas) Christian, was named the Southern States Athletic Conference's Pitcher of the Year.

Eisenbach is the first player from the program to be drafted since Doug Wollenburg and Mark Mesewicz were picked in 1992. Eisenbach played Little League and Babe Ruth ball with current Texas Rangers pitcher and Newark native Derek Holland.

"I'm very excited about the opportunity I have to play professional baseball," Eisenbach said. "I'm ready to get started on the career I've always wanted."

The other central Ohioans who had their names called were third baseman Jason King, a 2007 Dublin Jerome graduate from Kansas State who was taken in the fourth round by the Detroit Tigers with the 137th pick overall, and first baseman Ben Thomas, a 2007 Westerville Central graduate from Xavier who was taken in the 34th round by the San Francisco Giants with the 1,047th pick overall.

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