OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The 2021 season for the Johnson County baseball program and first-year head coach Eric Horner ended sooner than they had hoped, however, it was still a very exciting and successful campaign. Horner's Cavaliers finished 43-10 overall and placed second in the tough East Jayhawk Conference. His 43 wins are the most by a first-year coach in team history. The previous best first season win total was 28 by Carl Heinrich in 1999.
Nationally, the Cavaliers were one of the top offensive teams in the country. JCCC led the NJCAA in slugging percentage (.691) and triples (35), ranked second in extra base hits (272), total bases (1190) and batting average, ranked third in runs (622) and hits (687) and ranked fourth in doubles (139) and on base percentage (.484).
Individually, 18 of the 20 players that made a plate appearance finished the season batting .300 or better, with eight hitting .400 or better.
The top hitter was sophomore outfielder Nick Iannantone with a .474 average, fourth-best in the NJCAA. It also ranks as the seventh-best season average in team history. He also led JCCC with 81 hits, 18 doubles and 29 multiple hit games. Iannantone hit eight home runs and tied for second with 56 RBI. Hit 29 multi-hit game tie the most in a season
The Cavaliers had four players hit double digit in home runs, led by freshman Alex Austin with 18 round trippers. That total ties the sixth-best season in team history. He hit at a .395 clip.
Austin was followed by freshman Jake Grauberger with 12, and freshman Wyatt Morgan and Jackson Galloway each hit 10 homers. Galloway led the Cavaliers with 64 RBI, and earlier in the season recorded the second longest hitting streak in team history at 28 games, two shy of the record. All three also hit over .400 on the season. Grauberger's average was .423 and he had 15 doubles and two triples to along with his 12 round trippers. He also drove in 52 runs and scored a team-high 64 runs scored.
Morgan hit .429 and had four doubles, four triples, 40 runs and 48 RBI. Galloway finished with an average of .420 and collected a team-high 73 hits, including 17 doubles and four triples. He also drove in 64.
Freshman outfielder Quinton Hall, a 2020 first-team All-American by Baseball Blog, also finished above .400 with an average of .407. He had 59 hits that included 16 doubles, three triple and eight homers. He also scored 62 runs and drove in 54.
On the hill, freshmen left-hander Jay Long and freshman right-hander Matt Ronnebaum tied for the team lead in victories with seven. Long finished 7-1 with 66 strikeouts and an ERA of 4.33. Ronnebaum was 7-2, and also had 66 strikeouts with an earned run average of 5.17.
Freshman right-hander Mikal Ashley posted a perfect record at 6-0 and was the only pitcher to record 10 strikeouts in a game on two occasions.
Freshman left-hander Max Chapman was 4-2 and led the staff with 72 strikeouts, and right-hand reliever Danny Trehey tallied nine saves, third most in a season at JCCC.