Navarro's season ends with loss in RXIV tourney
JUNIOR COLLEGE BASEBALL
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

Winning the Region XIV Conference baseball tournament, and maybe something even bigger, will have to wait until at least 2009 for the Navarro College baseball program.

The Bulldogs, which have former Kilgore High School players Logan Chitwood and Jaron Shepherd on their team, finished the season last night with a 5-4 loss to Wharton in the conference's tournament at Northeast College in Mount Pleasant.

Navarro won its first game, 10-0, over Blinn on Saturday, but lost to Alvin, 10-6, in the semfinal round on Sunday, forcing NC to win out.

In the final game against Wharton, Shepherd did score and Chitwood got to pitch for a few innings, but Wharton took the lead in the fourth inning and held on. Wharton out-hit Navarro, 11-9.

Following a long rain delay of at least three hours, the Bulldogs shut out Blinn in a game didn't start until 12:30 a.m. Sunday. Shepherd went 3-for-3 in that game, including a triple, and had an RBI.

The Bulldogs were in a similar situation Sunday night against Alvin. Their game was delayed due to all the other games being moved for rain.

Both Shepherd and Chitwood are freshmen at NC. Shepherd is the son of Ron and Janda Shepherd of Kilgore; Chitwood is the son of Albert and Scarlett Chitwood, also of Kilgore.