Throughout Luke Harper’s recruitment process, part of Pearl River Community College’s pitch included the chance to play for an NJCAA World Series — not later, but right now.

Last Saturday, just after Pearl River secured the final out in its lopsided 11-2 win against then- No.1 LSU-Eunice, Harper found himself in the midst of his team’s dogpile, as the win advanced Pearl River to the NJCAA World Series and secured the Region XXIII tournament championship.

“It’s amazing,” Harper said. “Going to a college world series is like a dream come true. It’s awesome getting to compete against people from across the country, and seeing where you’re at with those players and those teams.”

Harper, a Northeast Lauderdale alumnus, tallied one hit, one RBI and one walk in Saturday’s contest.

Pearl River is 40-12 this season, and in Harper’s two years at the school, the Wildcats have achieved a 78-23 record. While his time at Pearl River has flown by, he said he’s grown substantially as a baseball player since his prep days at Northeast Lauderdale High School.

“I didn’t know I could mature this much, honestly, as a person and as a player,” Harper said with a laugh. “It’s been a long road, but it seems like it’s happened with the snap of my fingers. It’s been fun.”

Harper, who has signed with the University of North Alabama, said the beginning of his baseball maturation process began with a simple tweak.

“Listening,” he said. “I think when I got here my freshman year, I think I was being a little hard-headed and not really listening because I thought I had it all figured out because I did well in high school. But I think when I got here and I saw all these guys, and they were really good, I had to be able to compete with them to play. So I had to grow up right there, and I had to listen and work my butt off to make sure I got to play. I think that was when it happened.”

This season, Harper, a catcher, is batting .260 to go along with 27 runs, 16 RBIs, one home run and one stolen base. Harper played in 40 games as a freshman and ended the year with a .327 batting average and an on-base percentage of .433. While excelling in high school took preparation, Harper said sustaining that success at the college level is much more challenging.

“We play the game at such a high pace that you really have to slow things down,” Harper said. “And the way you do that is to anticipate everything — especially since I’m a catcher. You have to know what to do in a situation and react when it happens and prepare yourself way ahead of time for a situation that will happen in the future, if it happens.”

Harper further explained. 

“And I think, small details of the game, like knowing what a pitcher threw you your last at-bat, and doing your research on a pitcher. See what he likes to throw in his counts, and what their coach likes to call during the game… You have to be able to do all the little things to be successful.”

Harper said he’s received an outpouring of support following Saturday’s win. He stopped by his old high school earlier this week to visit his former coach, Josh Snider, and old teachers and friends.

“We’re very, very proud of him,” Snider said. “He was actually at the campus yesterday and was pretty jacked up. I think they took a picture of him and me and put it up on Facebook.”

No. 1-seeded Pearl River will open its NJCAA World Series run at 1 p.m. Sunday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Oklahoma, where the Wildcats will draw either Pasco-Hernando State (Florida) or Lackawanna (Pennsylvania). 

Although the World Series awaits Harper and his Wildcat teammates, he said he’s still soaking up the excitement from the recent Region XXIII title win.

“It’s really surreal,” Harper said. “It kind of didn’t hit me at first. I knew we won, and I knew what we were about to go to, but I was like, ‘Wow! We just won the regional.’ When we got here, our goal was to win the national championship, and there’s a lot of stuff you have to do before you get there. It’s really crazy because we’re actually doing what we set out to do when I was getting recruited. They told us, ‘Hey, we want to play for a national championship.’ And we’re getting the opportunity to do that now.”