Grant Townsend took his arsenal of pitches from the Bonney Lake High baseball diamond to the sunny setting of Central Arizona College, where he recently completed a stellar season.

Following his second year at CAC, the former Panther was named a first-team All-American by the National Junior College Athletic Association. Aside from that honor, Townsend’s sparkling statistics have afforded him the opportunity to play at the four-year level; he will next suit up for the Golden Eagles at Oral Roberts University.

Townsend put together something of a dream season for the CAC Vaqueros on his way to All-America honors.

As the ace of the CAC staff, he threw 100 innings during the recently-completed season and finished with an impressive earned-run average of 1.79. Along the way, he struck out 119 hitters while walking only 24. The 6-foot right-hander finished the season with a record of 11-2, including a 6-1 mark in conference play.

“He deserves all the awards,” said Vaquero pitching coach Jerry A’Hearn. “Grant works extremely hard and made a huge jump from his freshman to sophomore year.”

At Bonney Lake High, Townsend was an all-league first-team pitcher in the spring of 2015, following his senior season.

He landed at Central Arizona after participating in some “showcase” tournaments in the Phoenix area. The CAC coaches were impressed and offered a scholarship to become a Vaquero. Following his freshman season in Arizona, the Oral Roberts staff invited Townsend for a recruiting visit; that led to scholarship offer at the four-year university and a letter-of-intent was signed with the Golden Eagles.

At Central Arizona College, Townsend and his Vaquero teammates competed in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference. The league has 16 teams, all from Arizona.

Now he heads to the Oral Roberts campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Golden Eagles just finished a season in which they posted an overall record of 43-16, won the Summit League title and advanced to the regional round of the NCAA tournament.