STERLING, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team received excellent pitching and defense in taking an Empire Conference contest from Northeastern Junior College Saturday evening in Sterling, Colorado.
WNCC's four pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts and the Cougars scored three late runs to earn the 3-2 win over the Plainsmen.
WNCC, who moves to 27-28 on the season, swept the series after taking the first game on Thursday 6-3 at NJC and then the doubleheader at Scottsbluff on Friday 5-4 and 2-1.
It was WNCC's fifth straight win and moves the Cougars to 18-10 in the conference, which is tied with McCook as they get ready for the Region IX tournament that begins Thursday in Colorado Springs, Colorado. WNCC will play either NJC or Lamar Community College who are tied at 10-18 in the conference. Southeast won the conference at 25-3, followed by Otero at 20-8, and both get byes at regionals.
WNCC head coach Mike Jones said the team pitched and played defense well during the NJC games.
"We pitched really good all four games and played really good defense also," Jones said. "Offensively, we found ways to score runs. NJC's pitcher was good and they were tough on us, but we found a way to score enough runs to win."
It was the defense that played like a championship team during the entire series.
"Our defense was outstanding, especially this evening (Saturday night). In clutch situation we were finding the holes with guys on base and that was enough for us," Jones said. "There were times NJC had guys in scoring position. We were really able to make some big pitches and make defensive plays to keep them from scoring."
Now, the Cougars will be entering the Region IX tournament with some confidence like when they ran off seven straight wins in February and March.
"Right now we have confidence going and we have momentum going." Jones said. "The guys feel really good about finishing off their season with some wins. That gives us an opportunity to go into the tournament feeling good with confidence."
The regional tournament runs May 9-12 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with the winner advancing to the district finals in Arizona the following weekend. Jones said they will need to keep playing good defense to get wins at regionals.
"You get there in Colorado Springs and it is a really big field and a lot of ground you have to cover in the outfield," he said. "We have to keep throwing strikes and you have to play really good defense behind the pitchers."
In Saturday's regular-season finale in Sterling, the contest was definitely a defensive contest as well as a pitcher's duel. WNCC starter Hunter McCollum went three innings allowing just one hit with one strikeout followed by Cameryn Spence going two innings in striking out three and allowing two runs. Julian Garza followed with two innings with one hit and three strikeouts and then Asahi Nakano tossed the final two innings in getting the win in allowing one hit and striking out three.
WNCC was outhit by NJC 6-5. Mathieu Levesque led the way with two singles with a run scored and an RBI. Calvin Johnson had two RBIs.
NJC scored first with two runs in the fourth inning. WNCC finally broke through in the seventh inning with two runs to knot the score. Ashton Ross and Tyler Easter started things with back-to-back singles. Ross came in to score on a Levesque groundout and Easter scored on a Johnson single.
WNCC took the lead in the ninth inning when Levesque singled and scored on a Johnson sacrifice fly by Johnson.
WNCC then closed out the game by holding the tying run at third as Nakano got the final out to fly out to right fielder Johnson for the win.
WNCC 000 000 201 – 3 5 2
NJC 000 200 000 – 2 6 1
WP – Asahi Nakano.