World Series Appearance Earned By Harford Community College Baseball Team

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — The Harford Community College baseball team heads to Grand Junction, Colorado, for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Baseball World Series after capturing the NJCAA Division I East District Championship with a 2-1 series victory against Florence-Darlington Technical College last weekend.

It’s the Fighting Owls’ first trip to the national tournament since 2022, which runs May 23–30.

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Harford clinched the series Sunday afternoon with a 13-12 win at Lexington County Baseball Stadium. The series featured 63 combined runs and 82 hits across three games, with Harford’s offense producing in key moments throughout the weekend.

“This series provided three of the best, most difficult, emotional games we have not only played this season, but that I have experienced at Harford,” said head coach Josh Houser. “All three games ended in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and tying and/or winning runs on base. It was great to see how our guys performed in one high leverage moment after another. We knew all year this group was made for that and they certainly showed themselves and a lot of others [during this series].”

Harford opened the series Friday afternoon with a wild 14-13 victory that saw the Fighting Owls (54-6) erupting for five runs in the first inning. Poole delivered an RBI single before James Asmus lined a two-run double to right field. Mercado capped the inning with a two-run homer to center.

Game two belonged to Flo-Dar, which evened the series with a 7-4 victory late Friday afternoon.

“The emotions of this weekend from everyone were essentially two years of work coming together,” Houser said. “It was a win that touched far beyond our present players and sophomores, and I think that’s why it was special. You can say we avenged last year’s heartbreaker, but I believe this was something that we were destined to do this year, with this group, at this time.”