Century College baseball team coming back strong

The baseball team at Century College in White Bear Lake will play in the National Junior College Athletic Association's Division III World Series starting Saturday. That's quite a feat considering its program was re-established three years ago after being dormant for 25 years.

The Wood Ducks (38-11), ranked No. 2 in the nation and coached by Dwight Kotila, open against top-ranked Gloucester County (45-3) of New Jersey at noon Saturday in the double-elimination tournament in Tyler, Texas. They have an 11-game winning streak.

The Woods Ducks' top hitters are catcher Zach Horn (.418, 32 RBI) and outfielder Ben Schmitz (.333, 33) while Jared Dettman is 10-3 as a pitcher with a 3.10 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 61 innings. The Twins took the 6-3 lefthander from Somerset, Wis., in the 46th round of the 2011 major league draft.

Awards for Mavericks

Senior righthander Harvey Martin of Minnesota State Mankato was named the National Pitcher of the Year in Division II on Friday and to the first All-America team. Martin, of Farmington, Mich., is 8-0 with a 1.52 ERA.

Sophomore Nolan Johnson, Martin's catcher from Bloomington, was named to the all-Central Region team and also, for the second year, to the region Gold Glove team. He is hitting .363 with three homers and 36 RBI. He has a .992 fielding percentage.

The Mavericks (39-8) play Grand Valley State (35-17) at 4 p.m. Saturday in their first game of the Division II World Series in Cary, N.C.

Etc.

• The St. Paul Saints swept a road doubleheader on Thursday for the first times since July 15, 2007. They beat Sioux Falls 9-1 in the first of two scheduled seven-inning games and then 10-8 in nine innings. The Saints got their winning run in the nightcap on a Jordan Tripp's groundout — it scored Jose Hernandez who had walked — and an insurance run on Adam Frost's RBI double.• Sophomore third baseman Kaitlyn Richardson of the Gophers softball team was named to the Academic All-America third team. She has a 3.91 GPA as a marketing major in the Carlson School of Management and hit .430 with 43 RBI in 55 games.