the ‘cats meow

There may be no team in the country — at any level of the game — hotter than Jones County Junior College. The sixth-ranked Bobcats (45-15) are unbeaten through three games of the NJCAA Division II World Series; they play a winner’s bracket game tonight in Enid, Okla. JCJC has won 18 of its last 20 games, and virtually every one of those games was a significant one. Consider: The Bobcats won their last six games of the regular season, pulling away from the pack to win the MACJC South Division title. They beat East Mississippi in three games in a best-of-3 playoff to make the state tournament, then won the MACJC title by winning three straight against a strong field. They dropped their opener in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament but rallied to win four straight, the last two against defending national champ LSU-Eunice, to make the juco World Series for the first time. In Enid, they have beaten the Nos. 1 and 4 teams in the country. They recovered from a blown lead in the ninth inning on Tuesday night to score three times in the 10th and beat 14th-ranked Kellogg CC 10-7. Chase Headrick, a sophomore out of West Jones High who has four postseason homers, hit one against Kellogg. Leading hitter Zach Allen, a freshman from Pascagoula, started the 10th-inning rally with a one-out single and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. The resourceful Bobcats might just figure out a way to win this thing and bring a national championship back to Ellisville.