The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team scored five second-inning runs to earn a big 7-5 Empire Conference win over McCook Community College Wednesday afternoon at Cleveland Field.
The win moves the Cougars to a full game ahead of second place Trinidad State Junior College in conference play. WNCC is 19-9 in conference while Trinidad is 19-11. McCook sits third, just three games out with a 19-15 record followed by Northeastern Junior College at 16-13 and 3 ½ games out.
Brandon Bachar, who had a big solo home run in the third that proved to be the game-winner, said this was a big win for the Cougars, who came into the contest on a 5-game losing streak.
"This game was big. Recently we had some games get away but today we took care of business," he said. "These are very important games right now. We just need to take care of business this weekend and hopefully we can host the regional tournament here."
A big key in the win was stopping McCook's momentum. McCook went up 2-0 in the second on a 2-run home run. WNCC wasted little time in coming back with five in the second inning to retake the lead at 5-2. Bachar said it was huge that they got those early runs.
"Those early runs was really important," he said. "We came out and jumped up ahead early in the game and just took all the momentum away from them."
The second started with back-to-back singles from Isaac Taylor and Bachar. Esai Hernandez then earned a walk to load the bases with one out. Lucas Piatchek came through with a run-scoring single followed by Stuart Eurich with a 2-run single to regain the lead at 3-2.
WNCC wasn't through. Ryan Grasser came up with a big 2-out double to plate two more runs for the 5-2 lead.
The Cougars added another run in the third as Bachar lofted a solo home run to put WNCC up 6-2.
McCook came back with a single run in the fourth and two in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-5.
That was when Alex Oehme, who came in relief for Alex Achtermann, shut down the McCook bats on the mound. Oehme faced just 15 batters in 3 2/3 innings in relief, allowing two hits and striking out three.
WNCC added an insurance run in the eighth inning. Brandon Maher led off with a double and scored on a 2-out Ty Benson single for the 7-5 lead.
Jacob Pekol came in and got the same, shutting down the Indians in the ninth in inducing the game-ending double play.
Bachar said the pitchers performed well on the day.
"Pitcher's did really well today; all three of them. They came out and did their job and took care of business," he said. "They usually get guys on base and then most pitchers will get nervous, but ours minimized [the big innings] and did really well."
Achtermann started the game, going 4 1/3 innings. Achtermann allowed seven hits and five runs. He struck out three and walked five but minimized the damage with big innings.
Both teams finished with 10 hits in the game. WMCC got two hits each from Benson, Grasser, and Bachar. Grasser had two doubles and two RBIs, while Bachar had two runs scored, a RBI, and a home run. Benson had two singles with a RBI.
Eurich finished the game with a hit and two RBIs.
"We have to keep winning," Bachar said about having the chance to host regionals. "That is the goal. It is one game at a time."
McCook 020 120 000 – 5 10 1
WNCC 051 000 01x – 7 10 2
WP – Alex Achtermann, S – Jacob Pekol; 2B – Ryan Grasser 2, Brandon Maher; HR – Brandon Bachar.
Empire Conference Standings
College Conf Overall GB
WNCC 19-9 24-24 ---
Trinidad 19-11 29-20 1
McCook 19-15 26-22 3
NJC 16-13 23-21 3.5
Lamar 16-15 33-20 4.5
Otero 15-15 20-30 5
Miles 2-28 11-35 18