PHOENIX – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team dropped a pair of games Friday.

        The Cougars opened the day by dropping a 9-inning 6-0 contest to Central Arizona before falling in a heartbreaking, 9-inning contest 4-3 to Phoenix College.

        The Cougars will be back in action Saturday when they face Phoenix College one more time before wrapping up the Arizona trip with a contest against Mesa Community College on Sunday.

        In the opener, the Cougars managed just four hits and the majority of the damage happened early with Central Arizona scoring three in the first and one in the second for a 4-0 lead.

        WNCC's four hits came from singles from Ty Benson, Cole Williams, Alex Achtermann, and Cooper Buchhammer.

        Claude Bova suffered the loss on the mound, going five innings in giving up nine hits, six runs while striking out two. Zac Moran and Blake Slaymaker finished off the game. Moran went two innings in striking out one while Slaymaker went one inning.

        The night game was a lot closer with the Cougars battling back to take a 3-2 lead before falling 4-3.

        The Cougars outhit Phoenix 9-8 and most of the hits came in the 3-run eighth inning when they scored three runs. Trailing 2-0 entering the eighth, Esai Hernandez started the frame with a single. Stuart Eurich and Benson followed with singles. Ryan Grasser then came up with a one-out single to score two runs.

        Achtermann then came through with a big single followed by a run-scoring single by Isaac Taylor to give the Cougars the lead at 3-2.

        Phoenix came back with two in the bottom of the eighth to get the win.

        WNCC was led at the plate by Achtermann with two hits while seven other hitters managed a single. Ryan Grasser had two RBIs in the contest.

        Ian Fisher took the loss, going one inning in allowing three hits and two runs. Jacob Pekol started the game, going six innings in allowing four hits and two runs, while fanning two. Nat Andresen also tossed an inning of work allowing just one hit.

Game One

WNCC            000 000 000 – 0 4 2

C. Arizona      310 020 00x – 6 11 1

LP – Claude Bova.

Game Two

WNCC            000 000 030 – 3 9 1

Phoenix          001 100 020 – 4 8 1

LP – Ian Fisher