{"id":34611,"date":"2026-05-27T09:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=34611"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:04:29","slug":"knights-finish-fourth-in-college-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/05\/27\/knights-finish-fourth-in-college-world-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights Finish Fourth in College World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnson City, TN (May 26, 2026) \u2013 <\/strong>The sixth-seeded Northern Essex Community College baseball team saw its magical World Series run come to a close on Tuesday afternoon as it fell to second-seeded and reigning national champion RCSJ Gloucester by a 16-2 final score in the semi-finals to finish as the fourth-place team in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\"KNights<\/a>

Knights with the Region 21 Championship trophy<\/p><\/div>\n

The Knights conclude the season with a 33-10 overall record, and 2026 marks their fourth all-time top-four finish in the World Series.<\/p>\n

NECC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a two-run home run from Jack Aylward (Lowell)<\/strong> as he went to the opposite field and skied the ball over the 20-foot fence in right field for his second home run of the tournament. Owen Derocher (Berkley)<\/strong> led off the inning with a triple to the gap in right-center field.<\/p>\n

The lead was short-lived for the Knights as Gloucester tied the game up in the top half of the third inning with a home run of their own, before erupting for 10 runs in the fourth inning off a trio of pitchers. The James Madison University-bound Jack Kelleher (Haverhill)<\/strong> took the ball to start the game on short rest and went 3.2 innings to cap his NECC career, allowing six earned runs while striking out two.<\/p>\n

Previous top four finishes for the Knights at the World Series came in 2012, 2016 and 2023 as the 2026 season marked the program’s 12th<\/sup> all-time World Series appearance.<\/p>\n

Honors for Players and Coach<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Prior to the World Series, nine NECC Knights players were selected to the All-Region 21 Teams as voted on by the league’s head coaches. The selections were highlighted by Region 21 Player of the Year David Castillo<\/a>\u00a0(Boston)<\/strong> at shortstop and Pitcher of the Year\u00a0Kelleher, <\/a><\/strong>among seven first-team selections for the Knights.<\/strong>\u00a0Head coach\u00a0Jeff Mejia<\/strong> was named regional coach of the year for a fifth consecutive season.<\/p>\n

Learn more about athletics at NECC by visiting the website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johnson City, TN (May 26, 2026) \u2013 The sixth-seeded Northern Essex Community College baseball team saw its magical World Series run come to a close on Tuesday afternoon as it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":34253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,16,20,1],"tags":[75,84,752],"class_list":["post-34611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-press-releases","category-students","category-uncategorized","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-world-series"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKnights Finish Fourth in College World Series - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Knights conclude the season with a 33-10 overall record, and 2026 marks their fourth all-time top-four finish in the World Series.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/05\/27\/knights-finish-fourth-in-college-world-series\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knights Finish Fourth in College World Series - 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