After dropping a game to Columbia State early in the TCCAA tournament, Walters State needed to be nearperfect to stay alive.

The Senators have since won five straight games to clinch its second straight trip to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, which included a pair of wins over Columbia State to win the TCCAA title.

After sweeping the best-of-three series against Georgia Highlands, No. 13 Walters State (52-11) is ready and tested its World Series run, which begins with Seminole State on Saturday, “I don’t think you’ll ever have a chance to win a national championship unless you face adversity,” Walters State head coach Dave Shelton said. “Adversity is what makes you stronger, and there are moments that come up in every game where you either have guys rise to the occasion or they fail. Sometimes the failures can make them better. Sometimes it can really hurt their confidence.

“But if you’ve got the right mental makeup as a team, they face that adversity head on, and they rise to the challenge. And that’s what this group’s been able to do, losing that game to a very good Columbia team, and then having to win three games in two days, and two of them against Columbia on their home field. Especially since Columbia has beaten us three times already this season, that was a pretty resilient statement by our group. And then we faced some big moments down in Georgia where it could have gone either way, and we had guys step up and rise to the challenge. That’s what it takes to be a championship- caliber team.”

The Senators are looking to go the full distance after finishing just short as runner-ups in last season’s World Series.

Shelton believes that the Senators’ depth on the mound could play a key role in getting where last year’s team could not. However, Walters State has to make it deep enough to let that depth show.

“Every team’s different in little ways, but there are a lot of similarities (with last year),” Shelton said. “We might be a little deeper with arm talent on the mound, but it’s funny how for that depth to show up, you got to go deep in the tournament. So I hope we’re able to showcase that depth in arm talent because that means we’ve stayed up there for a while. So that’s probably the biggest difference with this group.”

What’s not different with this year’s team is boasting one of the nation’s top offenses. The Senators are third in the country with 148 homers, sixth in average (.380) and RBIs (639) and fourth in extra base hits with 313. The Senators also boast the nation’s fifth-best onbase percentage (.495) and sixth-best slugging percentage (.700).

At the helm of the Walters State offense is the trio of Holden Pantier, Drew Blalock and Hayden, who are each top-eight in the country in home runs. Blalock (30) and Pantier (29) are both nearing Tyler Myatt’s home run record of 31 as they enter the World Series. Pantier is the nation’s leader in RBIs with a program record of 122.

“Offensively, if you look at our numbers, they’re kind of eerily similar to last year’s team as a whole,” Shelton said. “Last year, it was Tyler Myatt putting up to gaudy National Player of the Year type numbers, and this year Holden Pantier, and we’ve really got three guys with similar numbers to Myatt with Pantier, Blalock and Blair. So we had some depth offensively last year too. So it’s very similar. I’m hoping that the guys who were able to go experience it last year, that it’s got them ready to not get out there and be nervous, but be up there and perform at their best.

“They’ve all got unbelievable makeup. They’ve worked their tails off. Pantier was a starter last year for us, but he played through an injury that most kids wouldn’t even try to play through. He had a hand injury that he needed surgery for after the season, and he was a great player for us last year, an allconference player. But now that he’s fully healthy, he’s a potential National Player of the Year. And Blaylock and Blair, they’ve both been here for three years, and they, they kind of put their time in work the tails off. Had to sit behind people until it was their turn, and now it’s their turn this year, and they’ve really stepped up and performed and done great things for us. Hopefully, they stay as hot as they have been, and everybody will see what they can do in Grand Junction.”

Though the Senators have heated up as of late, Shelton knows that it takes a little bit of luck to win it all. Salt Lake City, the team that beat them in the national championship, was nearly eliminated four games before the championship.

“There’s a big thing you got to understand: to win this tournament, you got to be really good, but you got to have a lot of things go your way,” And there are things that happen in a baseball game — the old saying sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way — that can happen. And there’s things that can happen that can really change the trajectory of this tournament, and it might not even be in your games. Last year, we lost in the championship to Salt Lake City. And I fully believe that if Florence Darlington hadn’t had their number three pitcher get ejected for bringing a prop onto a field during home run, he would have pitched against Salt Lake City in the losing bracket and would have eliminated them, because Florence Darlington scored 11 runs in the first inning and then couldn’t hold them because they didn’t have enough pitching and lost in the last inning, 17 to 16.”

Despite that, Shelton is focused on the Senators controlling what they can control. Walters State opens in Grand Junction on Saturday against Seminole State. First pitch is slated for 11 a.m. ET.

“It’s a 10-team tournament with 10 unbelievable teams every year,” Shelton said. “There’s just a lot of things that can go right. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. You’ve got to control what you can control and go into every game and every pitch with focus, and hopefully you guys have got the mental fortitude to show up, because it’s a pressure situation that most of them have never been in before. But it’s a lot of fun, and it’s going to be a great trip for our guys. We’re excited for it.”