The path to a title is not always paved smoothly. 

For Cottonwood High graduate Avery Doezie and his Salt Lake Community College teammates, it was they who found this out the hard way after winning the first game at the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado. 

Doezie and the Bruins lost Game 2 11-9 to Lake Land College out of Florida, dropping SLCC into the loser’s bracket. From that point on, the Millcreek resident and his teammates started clicking, and SLCC won Game 3 over Shelton State May 27 to advance to the next day’s action. 

Doezie, who had only played sparingly and had last taken the field for the Bruins 10 days ago on May 17, went 1-for-4 at the plate and was walked twice, scoring once in a wild 15-13 win. 

Would Doezie and the boys improve the next day in Game 4? 

The answer in this double-elimination JUCO World Series was yes. Doezie belted a game-winning home run in the eighth inning, completing a 10-run comeback that started in the bottom of the first for a 17-16 win over Florence-Darlington out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama May 28. Doezie himself had a day, going 3-for-6 along with the two-run homer. 

How could Doezie top that in Game 5, the national semifinal, on May 29? 

The Cottonwood Colt then nuked another home run against a familiar foe May 29, the same team that defeated the Bruins, in Lake Land by the score of 12-2 to move on to the national championship game. Doezie again stepped up to the plate and delivered, going 1-for-4 but making that one hit felt around the ballpark in Grand Junction as it cleared the wall in left center. 

It was Doezie’s second homer in two days, marking the 6-foot-5, 210-pound sophomore’s third dinger of the year for the Bruins. 

In the national championship game, No. 8-seeded SLCC put together a total of five runs in the tops of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and captured the title 9-6 over Walters State, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. 

It marked a storybook ending for a Bruins team that added several key D1 bouncebacks in the offseason, a squad that also captured the Region 17 championship, the title that gained SLCC entry to this JUCO World Series. 

As soon as Copper Hills alum Austin Taylor threw the last out, the Bruins dogpiled in the middle of the diamond to celebrate one of the most unlikely national titles in school history, SLCC’s first in the sport of baseball. 

Doezie played in 29 games for SLCC this season, hitting .283 with three home runs and 26 RBI. At the JUCO World Series though, he played some of his best ball all season as the Bruins’ designated hitter, going 6-for-17 from the plate in Grand Junction. 

Over his two year career at SLCC, Doezie averaged .284, appearing in 79 games and starting 61. The Cottonwood alum hit six home runs and had 44 RBI, hitting eight doubles and stealing six bases for the Bruins. 

For his efforts, SLCC head baseball coach David “DG” Nelson was later honored with JUCO Coach of the Year Honors. In addition, former Colts coaches Chris Shelton and Jason Crawford were on the Bruins staff as assistants this past season. λ