"They had a tricky arm out there who kept us off balance," Kirtland said of Poole. "We were finally able to get locked in on him and get some home runs that were big. We were able to add some runs late in the game, too."
The Bobcats made it 6-0 in the seventh when Hoard singled and John Alan Wall was hit by a pitch. After Wallace walked, Hoard was able to score on a wild pitch.
The Geckos got on the board in the eighth when Brady Hettinger led off with a single, took second on a groundout, stole third and scored on Nathan Chokey's groundout.
JCJC's final run came in the bottom of the eighth when Sasser led off with a double, was sacrificed to third by Fred Franklin and scored on Huddleston's triple into the rightfield corner.
Kirtland said the championship contest was JCJC's best game of the season.
"I think we played our most complete game of the season in the national championship game, which is special," he said. "We had to sweep a doubleheader to win it and that's something this team has done a lot this year. They came out from the start, had a plan to execute to win two games and were able to win a national championship.
"We got some really solid pitching throughout the tournament and it helps to score a significant amount of runs and these guys did that. We made the plays when we needed to and these guys were able to experience victory in a national championship and there is nothing sweeter than that."
JCJC pounded out 15 hits on the evening, led by Huddleston's home run, triple and single and Hoard's double and two singles. Irby homered and singled, Sasser doubled and singled and Parker singled twice. Wallace added a home run and Franklin and Wall had singles.
JCJC ended the year with a .352 team batting average, which ranked first in the MACJC and sixth nationally.
"This offense has been great all season and they did not disappoint in the postseason," Kirtland said. "We hit the ball well this week." Poole, 13-2, took the loss for GateWay. He allowed five runs (all earned), 10 hits, walked one and struck out three. Seth Nordlin and Brock Whittlesey also pitched for the Geckos. Bryce Redaja doubled and singled twice for GateWay, while Ian Evans had two singles. Jeffrey Chandler, Brady Hettinger and Matt Asta added singles.
GateWay ends the year at 43-22. Kirtland was a member of head coach Christian Ostrander's staff when the Bobcats made it to the World Series in 2011 and finished second to Western Oklahoma.
He was thrilled to see the Bobcats prevail this time. "We came here in 2011 and we were disappointed because we came up one game short," he said. "It was really cool to see the JCJC Bobcats finish on top this time."
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