The Cochise College baseball team heads to the Western District Championship tournament this week in Phoenix, hosted by Region I champion South Mountain Community College.
The Apaches, runners-up in Region I, enter the four-team bracket hungry to stay alive this postseason after finding themselves on the losing end of a sweep against the Cougars in the region championship tournament last weekend. The double-elimination tournament starts Thursday, with Region 18 champion Western Nevada College facing South Mountain at noon, followed by Cochise against Region 9 champion Trinidad State Junior College of Colorado at 3 p.m.
Of the four teams, Cochise was the highest ranked in the preseason at No. 10, thanks to a third-place finish in the Junior College World Series last year, while Western Nevada was ranked No. 14. Both teams dropped from the top 20 with the release of the first official rankings of the season. South Mountain’s highest ranking of the year was at No. 19, from the March 25 poll.
Last year, Cochise entered the postseason as the top seed in the Region I tournament and defeated Yavapai in the semifinals and South Mountain in the championship series for its first-ever trip to the Western District Tournament. After winning their first matchup against Northeastern Junior College, the Apaches then faced Western Nevada three times: Cochise won the first meeting, fell the next, then won the district championship in a rain-delayed game that started on a Saturday and wrapped up on a Sunday.
At the beginning of this season, Western Nevada made a road trip through Arizona for games at South Mountain, Cochise and Pima. On the Douglas Campus, Cochise took the first of a three-game series 6-5, but dropped the next two, 9-2 and 6-2.
The Western District champion moves on to the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament in Grand Junction, Colo.