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  • Crowder College employee Jamie Stanley helps about 75 co-workers and other fans cheer Wednesday as the college baseball team prepares to depart for the Junior College World Series. Globe/T. Rob Brown

    Jamie Stanley

  • Crowder College Roughrider Kyle Hardy gets a hug from Susan Williams on Wednesday during a send-off for the baseball team, which will compete in the Junior College World Series at Grand Junction, Colo. Williams is the mother of Kyle Williams, who also plays on the Roughrider team. Globe/T. Rob Brown

    Kyle Hardy

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May 26, 2010

Crowder team heads to national series

By Greg Grisolano Globe Staff Writer

NEOSHO, Mo. — Terry Trudell said he didn’t mind skipping his lunch break at work Wednesday if it meant being part of a send-off for the Crowder College baseball team.

The Roughriders will be playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series this weekend.

“I’m not much of a baseball fan, but this seems to be a pretty big deal,” said Trudell, who works as a student employee for the college. “This is the school I’m going to, so why not support the team?”

Trudell was among about 75 students, alumni and staff members who carried signs and led cheers for the team Wednesday afternoon in front of Arnold Farber Hall. Players attended a short ceremony highlighted by speeches from Crowder President Alan Marble and Athletic Director Millie Gilion before boarding a bus for Grand Junction, Colo. The team’s first game is at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Central time, against Iowa Western Community College.

The World Series berth is the first in the team’s 46-year history, according to Marble.

“There have been a lot of guys wear the uniform and try to get where you’re at,” he told players on Wednesday. “There will be a lot of (former) ’Riders pulling for you.”

After the ceremony, Marble said he is grateful for the support the team and the college have received from the community and beyond.

“Everybody’s a Roughrider fan today,” he said. “We’ve got phone calls, notes, letters coming in from all across the country. (The team’s) hard work has done more for us than all the advertising we could buy, I suppose.”

Former Crowder ballplayers Cary Marion and Joe Ketchum both said the college has a rich tradition in baseball. The team’s appearance in a World Series is a new milestone to add to that history.

“A lot of the ’Riders will probably be coming out of the woodwork now that they see Crowder is going to the World Series, so that will be a big plus for us,” said Ketchum, who is president of the Crowder Baseball Alumni Association. “This is the milestone for the entire Crowder baseball program. We’ve had some great teams and some great coaches, and they never could do it, so we’re very excited about coach Travis Lallemand and his team and his staff being the first and hopefully not the last.”

Ketchum said the baseball alumni group has more than 230 members. Some of those players have gone on to successful careers at the Division I college level, and some have continued all the way to the big leagues.

“From a recruiting standpoint, (the World Series) is national, and that’s important,” Ketchum said. “Crowder has been on the map, but now it’s a nationwide thing, and it brings recognition not only to our players and our baseball team but the college itself.”

Marion, a Crowder baseball Hall of Fame member who attended Wednesday’s send-off, said the team’s accomplishment is “huge.”

“When I was here, we won our regional championship both times, but we got beat in districts, so we were never able to complete the task,” said Marion, whose son Carter is an outfielder with the team. “And here my son is, 26 years later, going to do that. So it’s a special thing.”





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Live broadcasts of the NJCAA World Series can be heard on local radio beginning at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on 91.7 FM. Updates and streaming video footage will be available through Crowder College’s website, www.crowder.edu.

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