When the weekend started, the Cisco College Wranglers were on the outside looking in at the Region V Baseball Championships. Then, on Saturday, the Wranglers completed a sweep of the North Central Texas College Lions and found themselves in a threeway tie for fourth in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference standings. Still, the baseball gods didn’t shine on Cisco. The Wranglers, by virtue of tie-breaker rules in the conference, finished two points behind rival Ranger College in a power ranking poll based on how each team had done against the top squads in the conference during the regular season. On Tuesday, the tables turned – again. NTJCAC Commissioner Stan Feaster notified the conference that Ranger College had withdrawn from the regional tournament – a fact that will send Cisco to the postseason.
According to an email from Feaster to the rest of the NTJCAC programs, Ranger pulled out of the tournament after an anonymous report surfaced that two RC players were ineligible to play due to age restriction limits for individuals participating on a professional farm team.
RC Athletic Director Scott Norwood said an extensive investigation into the allegations was conducted by the college. That investigation, he informed Feaster, revealed the “findings were confirmed.”
