MCC Baseball postpones Saturday games with Western Nebraska
The McCook Community College baseball team split a pair of games against Western Nebraska Monday but remain in second place in the Region IX standings heading into the final week of the regular season. MCC won the first game 9-1 and lost the second game 15-4.
"It's disappointing that we couldn't finish off the day," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.
MCC pitchers Jereniel Herrera and Ethan Badcock combined to strike out 15 Cougars in Game 1 and Michael Quick had a three-hit game with two RBIs.
"I really felt like we came out in Game 1 and just really played well," said Olsen. "We got a great start from Jereniel and just put some good swings on it and we had some timely hits."
In Game 2, the Cougars outhit MCC 17-3 and walloped five home runs.
"It was the exact opposite in the second game," said Olsen. "Western put some really good swings on it, seems like they just got to the barrel a lot."
MCC goes to 18-5 in the Empire League and 27-22 overall. The win leaves MCC in second place in the standings. Third-place Otero improved to 17-7 over the weekend with a four-game sweep over Luna.
Western Nebraska remains in fourth place and goes to 14-10 and 23-28 overall.
Southeast Community College leads Region IX at 21-3 and the Bobcats host MCC this weekend with doubleheaders Friday and Saturday. Southeast needs just one win against MCC to clinch the regular season title. The Indians need to sweep the Bobcats to jump into first place.
"We've done a lot of good things this year and we have a chance going into the last weekend with a chance to win the league, it will be a fun last weekend," said Olsen.
The top two teams in the standings will receive a bye in the first round of the post-season tournament which begins May 9 in Colorado Springs.
MCC will close out the home schedule Tuesday with a 3 p.m. game against Colby Community College.
All the latest information for MCC baseball including up-to-date schedule and changes as well as statistics, rosters and photos can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com
GAME 1 – McCook CC 9, Western Nebraska 1: The Indians scored three runs in the second on an RBI-double by Maddox Shaver (freshman, Belleville Ontario) and a two-out RBI single by Michael Quick (sophomore, Oshawa, Ontario).
Sophomore Luke Bies (La Vista / Omaha Gross) led off the MCC fourth with a single then with two outs scored on an RBI-double by sophomore Jake Quinlivan (Sydney, Australia). Freshman Nathan Hutchison (Riverton, Wyo.) singled in Quinlivan and Jackson Yeager (Omaha Westside HS) doubled in two runs to five MCC a 7-0 lead.
Western Nebraska scored in the fifth on a walk and hit batter and a single. It was the lone run allowed by MCC starting pitcher Jereniel Herrera (sophomore, Panama City, Panama). He allowed three hits and walked five but struck out 10 Cougars.
The Indians capped the scoring with a pair of runs in the sixth inning with singles by Blake Dale (sophomore, Riverton, Wyo.) and Quick, a wild pitch and an RBI-single by Will Edwards (sophomore, Sydney, Australia).
Sophomore Ethan Badcock (Adelaide, Australia) pitched the final two innings and allowed one hit, one walk and he struck out five.
GAME 2 –Western Nebraska 15, McCook CC 4: MCC starting pitcher Cory Wouters (freshman, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) struck out the first two Cougars of the game, then allowed a single and a two-run home run as Western Nebraska took a 2-0 lead.
Western Nebraska added two more in the third on another two-out, two, run home run and scored three times in the fourth to lead 7-0. Cory Wouters (freshman, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) pitched three innings, allowing eight hits and seven runs. He struck out seven.
The Cougars scored three runs in the sixth on a three-run home run to lead 10-0.
"I'll give credit to their starter, he was really good today," said Olsen. "He had a good fastball with command and really had an excellent change up working, we just needed to have a little better approach."
MCC reached the plate three times in the sixth on a pair of walks, an RBI-ground out by Will Edwards and a two-run home run by Jackson Yeager.
Freshman Leif Friedrich (Surrey, British Columbia) pitched three innings and allowed four earned runs on five hits, one walk and three strikeouts.
WNCC scored five times in the seventh. Sophomore Blake Benallo (Thornton, Colo.) surrendered four runs in one-third of an inning and sophomore Zack Lane (Phoenix, Ariz.) pitched the final two-thirds of an inning.
MCC scored a run in the seventh on a pair of walks and an RBI single by Jake Quinlivan
The Cougars outhit MCC 17-3. MCC's three hits came from Luke Bies, Quinlivan and Yeager.
REGION IX (Empire League) STANDINGS
W-L OVERALL
Southeast CC 21-3 34-16
McCook 18-6 27-22
Otero JC 17-7 28-16
Western Nebraska 14-10 23-28
Northeastern JC 10-14 24-24
Lamar 9-15 19-31
Trinidad State 6-18 14-35
Luna CC 1-23 3-45
MONDAY GAMES
Southeast CC 16, Trinidad State 3 (at Pueblo)
MCC 9, Western Nebraska 1
Western Nebraska 15, MCC 4
THURSDAY GAMES
Otero at Lamar
Western Nebraska at NJC
FRIDAY GAMES
MCC at Southeast, 2 games (1, 4 p.m.)
Trinidad State at Luna, 2 games
NJC at Western Nebraska, 2 games
Lamar at Otero, 2 games
SATURDAY GAMES
MCC at Southeast, 2 games (noon, 3 p.m.)
Trinidad State at Luna, 2 games
Western Nebraska at NJC, 1 game
Otero at Lamar, 1 game
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REGION IX TOURNAMENT
May 9-12
At Colorado Springs, Colo.
Top 6 teams play in a single game/double-elimination tournament. The top two teams receive a first round bye, No. 3 seed plays No. 6 with the winner to play the No. 2 seed. No. 4 plays No. five with the winner to face the top seed.