TJC baseball coach Doug Wren led the NJCAA All-Stars to the championship game of the National Baseball Congress World Series on Saturday in Wichita, Kan. The Juco Stars lost to the Santa Barbara Foresters, 6-5, in the final. Wren accepts the runner-up trophy. In the photo are (from left) Ryan Cougill (Yavapai College, Arizona), Wren, Joe Bauth (Eric Community College, New York) and Sam Temple (Hinds Community College, Mississippi). NBCWS/Courtesy

The NJCAA National Baseball team, guided by Tyler Junior College baseball coach Doug Wren, made quite an impression at the 84th annual National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas.

The collection of junior college all-stars finished as runners-up in the 10-day event at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, which has hosted the tourney since 1935.

The tournament concluded Saturday night as the Santa Barbara Foresters won 6-5 over the Team USA NJCAA squad in the championship.

The championship gave the California club and NBC Hall of Fame coach Bill Pintard a tournament-record seventh title.

Santa Barbara walked four batters in the top of the ninth and allowed three runs to score with two outs. That tied the game 5-5 going into the bottom of the inning.

The NJCAA National Team couldn’t find the zone, either. The Foresters started the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff single to right field from Logan Allen and put two more on after two batters were hit by pitches.

That set up tournament MVP Patrick Mathis with the bases loaded and no outs. He won it with a walkoff walk.

Just a week ago, Mathis wasn’t even on the team, and about a month ago, he was in the Houston Astros organization. He joined the Foresters just to stay sharp.

Mathis, a former University of Texas player, said he did much more than that.

“This is just another stepping stone for me in my journey to get back to professional baseball,” he said. “But it was fun to kind of step down and make it fun again. Going before, it was a job. Here, it was just about having fun, going out and playing the game we love.”

Mathis rocked a home run to left field in the bottom of the first that scored Wichita State junior Luke Ritter. 

The NBC World Series is set to move to Wichita State’s Eck Stadium in 2019 because of heavy renovations needed to Lawrence-Dumont that pushed the city to move toward its demolition.

Wren’s club was second in pool play with a 2-1 record. The San Antonio Angels won with a 3-0 mark. The Juco All-Stars defeated the San Diego Force, 7-6, and the Everett (Washington) Merchants, 8-0. They lost to San Antonio, 6-3.

In bracket play, the NJCAA team defeated the Colorado Cyclones, 9-8, in the quarterfinals and Wellington (Kansas) Heat, 7-3, in the semifinals to reach the championship game.

In other quarterfinals games, Santa Barbara downed the San Diego Stars, 7-6; San Antonio won over the San Diego Waves, 8-4; and Wellington defeated the Seattle Studs, 4-3. The Foresters reached the finals with an 11-2 win over the Angels.

TJC’s Taylor Broadway and Michael Spinozzi were on the junior college team, while Panola College had three players — Jarret Whorff, Michael Lawson and Kade Clemens.

TJC’s Eddy McGuire served as head trainer.