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He was one in a sea of 10,000 fans, but Mike Mose knew what it was like to be at the plate. From his seat in Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colorado, Mike watched as the Lake Land College Lakers battled Blinn College on the biggest stage of community college baseball: the JUCO World Series tournament.

After facing an early deficit, the Lakers responded with a flurry of offense to tie the game at six apiece. Now, in the top of the seventh, the game reached its tipping point: Lake Land batting, bases loaded, two outs. At the plate, Lake Land sophomore Drew DuPont set his feet, bent his knees and raised his bat to his back shoulder. Above the action, thousands of fans jumped to their feet and held their breath.

Inside the stadium, the energy was electric, the tension thick. And it all sent Mike’s mind racing back to games from decades before. He knew how it felt to play on the World Series stage, in this very stadium, wearing the Laker red and black in front of a national audience. He knew what it was like to feel the pressure of an entire season magnified into one moment, to ignore the screams of 10,000 fans and focus on the incoming pitch.

CLANG! Drew DuPont connected with the first pitch and sent the ball soaring through the Colorado air. He didn’t rush to first base – he didn’t need to. The ball sailed more than 360 feet over the right-center field wall.

Mike knew what that felt like, too.

THINK GRAND JUNCTION

Amidst the wonders of western Colorado lies the city of Grand Junction, the home of community college baseball. There, in historic Sam Suplizio Field, the 10 best teams in the country converge every year for the World Series Tournament, with only one team returning home as the national champion. For the few players lucky enough to compete there, the city is also home to lifelong memories and unforgettable experiences. Mike Mose is among those lucky few. Yet, less than 40 years ago, he had never even heard of Grand Junction.

In 1984, Mike graduated from Stephen Decatur High School as a decorated pitcher for the Running Reds baseball team. His trusty right arm placed him in the Decatur Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame and made him a coveted collegiate recruit. He ultimately joined the Lake Land College roster to play under Coach Gene Creek, but Mike’s time pitching for the Lakers was destined to be short-lived. Following his first game with the team, he woke up to numbness throughout his right arm. He’d relied on that same arm all his life to strike out batters and win ballgames. Suddenly, he could barely move it. He had damaged his ulnar nerve in the elbow, and surgery was the only chance to restore the arm to its old glory. Mike declined, and he never pitched again.

Mike instead shifted his focus to serving his country and joined the United States Marines. He rejoined civilian life in 1987 and, to his surprise, found the Lakers waiting for him. Coach Creek evidently wasn’t concerned about Mike’s arm; if pitching wasn’t an option, they’d find another role for him. Mike eventually settled in at first base, and three years after first joining the Lakers, he was finally set for his first full season of college baseball.

The 1987 season brought plenty of excitement to the Lake Land fans who came out to watch the team play in Mattoon. But for Mike, the most memorable point of the season actually occurred in Marianna, Florida. Before a game against the local Chipola College, several Lake Land players noticed their opponents sporting the phrase “Think Grand Junction” across their T-shirts.

“We had never heard of Grand Junction, so we asked Coach Creek what it meant,” Mike explained. “He told us that’s where the JUCO World Series is played every year.”

There in Florida, Grand Junction seemed so far away to Mike. After all, just one day ago, he had never even heard of the place. Little did he know, however, that in just one year, he’d be playing there.

THE MOUNTAIN MAN

1987 was a strong season for the Lakers, but it was nothing compared to 1988. After a slow start with an equal number of losses to wins, something clicked. The team won 25 straight games to secure more than 50 victories for the first time in Lake Land baseball history. More importantly, the team won the Great Lakes District Tournament, the pre-qualifier to the World Series. For the first time in program history, the Lakers were heading to Grand Junction.

The national stage can feel overwhelming coming from a small town, but for Mike, the tournament began in a way most ballplayers can only dream of. Facing the College of Southern Idaho in the Lakers’ opening game, Mike stepped up for his first at-bat.

CLANG! The ball sailed over the outfield wall for a homerun. Mike rounded the bases, headed back to the dugout, and before he knew it, returned to the plate for at-bat number two.

CLANG! Mike’s second plate appearance yielded the same result as the first. He watched the ball disappear behind the outfield wall and looked forward to his next attempt.

CLANG! When the moment came, Mike did it again. Three at-bats. Three homeruns.

“Colorado has thin air. The ball travels,” Mike said with a laugh.

Thin air or not, the legendary performance helped Lake Land coast to a 10-2 opening victory. It also secured Mike a spot on the All-Tournament team and earned him the nickname “The Mountain Man” from the World Series radio broadcaster.

“Someone asked Coach Creek recently what his favorite memory was from all his years of coaching, and he said it was the three consecutive homeruns that I hit in that game,” Mike said. “I was about 20 years old when I hit those. I’m 59 now. It’s just cool to know that after all that time, my coach still considers that his favorite memory.”

The victory over Southern Idaho would be the last of the 1988 season, and the Lakers returned home with a sixth-place finish in the World Series. As the years since 1988 turned to decades, that season remained the pinnacle of Lake Land baseball, and still the Lakers never found themselves back in Grand Junction.

THERE’S NOT A TEAM YOU CAN’T BEAT

In 2019, Julio Godinez became the head coach of the Lakers baseball team and immediately got to work building a team that could “Think Grand Junction.” Among his first recruits was actually Mike’s son, Nash Mose, who took after his father’s pitching talents and served on the mound for the Lakers from 2020-2022.

“It’s unreal that my son played at Lake Land, too,” Mike said. “Seeing him out there playing on the Lake Land team is one of the proudest moments of my life.”

As the years progressed, the Lakers improved and slowly began their road back to Grand Junction. A slow start to the 2025 season saw the Lakers finish the first month of contests with a 7-6 record. Then, much like the 1988 team before, something clicked. The Lakers secured 42 wins and clinched a spot in the World Series by winning the Midwest District Tournament. After 37 years, the Lakers were heading back to Grand Junction.

The Lakers were unranked all season and given the ninth seed of out the 10 schools participating in the World Series. They would be entering the tournament as heavy underdogs, but they wouldn’t be going alone. Mike made the drive, all 1,200 miles of it, to be there and support the next generation of Lakers baseball. On the eve of the team’s first game against Blinn College, the fifth-ranked team in the country and second-seeded team in the tournament, Mike spoke to the Lakers and offered words of wisdom from his own experience decades ago.

“I told them that it all can feel overwhelming, but the players on every other team put on their uniforms the same way we do,” Mike said. “I told them, ‘There’s not a team you can’t beat.’”

The following day, the Lakers proved Mike right by shocking Blinn College with a 17-9 victory, never looking back after Drew Dupont’s seventh-inning grand slam. The Lakers then followed it up with two more wins to become one of the final four teams in the tournament, earning a fan-favorite status among the dazzled audience members in the process.

Ultimately, the run would end there. After a loss to top-ranked Walters State and another to eventual champion Salt Lake College, the Lakers completed their Grand Junction journey with a fourth-place World Series finish, the best in school history.

 LASTING MEMORIES

Having returned to Grand Junction for the first time in nearly 40 years, Mike found himself swimming through a flood of memories from the moment he entered the World Series stadium. Before the 2025 Lakers stepped onto the diamond, he took some time to reminisce about that 1988 season. As he looked out onto Sam Suplizio field, he could still picture his three homeruns, trace their paths through the sky and point out the spot each one crossed the outfield wall.

During that first night back in Grand Junction, Mike spotted a familiar face in the crowd: Christopher Hanks, former Boston Red Sox draft pick and current head coach of Colorado Mesa University. Hanks just so happened to be on that Southern Idaho team back in 1988.

“I walked up to Coach Hanks and introduced myself, and he stopped me and said, ‘You’re that guy who hit those three home runs,’” Mike said with a laugh. “I guess that just goes to show you that no matter what happens in the tournament, you’re going to make memories and have friends for life from this journey.”