Forty-six hits in two games is not too bad.

The Chipola (Fla.) College Indians saw an offensive explosion in their final two games at the Alpine Bank Junior College World Series, finishing with 72 runs and 96 hits in the tournament.

They were one run shy of the run record and two hits shy of the hits record.

The Indians, who averaged 10 runs a game during the regular season, finished the tournament with run totals of 11,14,7,6, 27 and 7.

“Coach (Brent) Shelton, Coach (Nick) Fletcher and Coach (Jared) Harrell work with our hitters and do an outstanding job,” Chipola coach Jeff Johnson said. “Those guys spend hours and hours. I wish I had a dollar for every batting practice ball Jared Harrell threw.”

While the coaches did their jobs, the players did theirs — playing.

And they played well.

Chipola landed three field players on the all-tournament team: Jesus Barroso, Einar Atencio and Tom Hatcher.

“I don’t know what happened today that we started hitting the ball well,” Barroso said. “Everyone hit and that is how we won the championship.”

Barroso finished the series with a .452 batting average and had seven RBI, six of those coming in the Indians’ 27-12 victory over Spartanburg (S.C) Methodist College in the semifinals Saturday afternoon.

A couple of players who did not receive any awards, Paul Gatchell and Brandon Street, showed what they were capable of in the tournament.

The two players led the Indians in batting average — Gatchell hitting .545 and Street finishing with a .565 average while leading the tournament in runs scored with 12.

“Paul Gatchell, he has been through so much with injuries but he came out and had a great tournament and swung the bat like we knew he could,” Street said. “He just surprised everyone and he had a great tourney.”

Street fell just short of receiving the Big Stick Award but was hampered by being walked seven times during the tournament.

“The individual awards come second to the team awards,” Street said.

“Those two guys did outstanding jobs,” Johnson said. “Neither one of those guys are worried because I heard Brandon say ‘We got the big trophy.’ ”

Chipola thrived on being the visiting team. The Indians won every game in which they batted first.

Street credits that as part of the hitting success the team had during the tournament.

“Coach Johnson always says ‘start the momentum. Don’t sit around and wait for the other team to do it,’ ” Street said. “So that is what we did.”

And the Indians did it against some top-notch pitching, scoring seven runs against New Mexico’s top three pitchers — Matt Speake, J.R. Robinson and Trevor Hardin in the championship game

“When you’re this far in the tourney, you’re going against great arms and you have to bring your best game,” Street said. “We just did it as a team and came together to win it all.”

The Indians became the 50th team to win a JUCO World Series title and did so with their bats.

“We have had a lot more talented teams, but this team believed in the coaching staff and believed in what we were doing,” Johnson said.

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Patrick Bahr can be reached via e-mail at sports@gjds.com.