PHOENIX, Ariz. – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball dropped a heartbreaking loss to No. 13 South Mountain Community College Tuesday 3-2 on a walk-off single.

                South Mountain, who's assistant coach Jimmy Turk will be the Western Nebraska Pioneers manger this summer, moves to 21-8 on the season. The Cougars drop to 4-15. The two squads will be back in action Wednesday for another 9-innnig contest.

                WNCC and South Mountain were locked into a defensive battle all game. WNCC pitchers Hunter Parker and Jacob Pekol tosses a strong game. Parker started and went six strong innings, striking out six and allowing four hits and two runs. Jacob Pekol tossed 2.1 innings in relief, allowing fur hits and a run in taking the loss.

                Offensively, the contest turned out to be a matter of who got the last clutch hit.

                South Mountain opened the scoring with a single run in the third on one hit.

                The lead stayed that way until the sixth when the Cougars put together timely hitting in taking a 2-1 lead. The rally started with Mitch Lightbody and Brandan Maher collecting back-to-back doubles. Maher's double scored Lightbody. Esai Hernandez score the go-ahead run with a single.

                The lead didn't last long as South Mountain scored a run in the bottom of the sixth to knot the score at 2-2.

                The lead stayed tied until the ninth when South Mountain received a double and a single to win the game.

                South Mountain out hit WNCC 8-6. Mitch Lightbody and Claude Bova each had two hits for the Cougars. Lightbody had a double and run scored. Maher also had a double in the contest.

WNCC                   000 002 000 – 2 6 1

S. Mountain       001 001 001 – 3 8 1

LP – Jacob Pekol

2B --- Brandan Maher, Mitch Lightbody