MARIANNA—Chipola College baseball head coach Jeff Johnson has been named the NJCAA D1 American Baseball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year.

“It feels good to get it man,” said Johnson. “As always when you get an award like that with the many great coaches as there are at our junior college level, it’s special. It takes a lot of great players and a lot of great assistant coaches to help as well. I’m just proud to receive the honor.”

Johnson led his team to back-to-back JUCO World Series titles after ending the national tournament with six straight wins including two against No. 1 Walters State and one against 2017 runner-up San Jacinto. It was Johnson’s third JUCO title (2007, 2017, 2018). Chipola finished the season at 49-17.

Chipola won its second straight title with a 10-7 win over Walters State (TN) in the title game of the National Tournament on June 2. After dropping the opening game of the World Series to Walters, the Indians avoided elimination in six consecutive games to win the title, becoming just the fourth program in tournament history to achieve the feat.

Chipola also was the first program to win back-to-back NJCAA World Series championships since Grayson (TX) in 1999-2000.

Chipola Sophomore Morgan McCullough won three individual awards at the tournament – Outstanding Defensive Player, Outstanding Hitter and Most Valuable Player.

Philip Sanderson won the Outstanding Pitcher award. He allowed only one earned run in 13.1 innings.

Five Chipola players were named to the All-Tournament Team: Edmond Americaan, Trevor Holloway, Morgan McCullough, Francisco Urbaez and Alex Webb. Coach Jeff Johnson was awarded the Bus Bergman Coach of the Year Award for the second consecutive season.