The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team will be looking to capture a Region IX title when the regional tournament kicks off Thursday in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

                WNCC, who defeated Trinidad State Junior College last weekend in the first-round games in Trinidad, Colorado, come into the contest with a 23-27 overall record. WNCC will face Southeast Community College in the semifinals at 10 a.m. at the UCHealth Field. Southeast is the top seed and enters the contest with a 36-13 overall record.

                The Storm earned a trip to the semifinals after they needed an if-necessary game in defeating Otero Junior College in first-round action last weekend.

                The other semifinal pits Lamar Community College, 29-26, against McCook Community College, 30-25, at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

                The double elimination tournament runs through Sunday with the if-necessary championship contest.

                Southeast won the regular season series against WNCC, but the contests were close. WNCC won five of the six meetings. WNCC captured a 5-4 win on April 22 in Beatrice. The Storm won over WNCC by scores of 9-5, 8-5, 15-11, 10-7, and 14-8.

                WNCC is 1-3 against Lamar over the season, while the Cougars are 2-4 against McCook.

                WNCC does have plenty of offensive weapons this season. The Cougars have eight players hitting above .300 this season. Mikey Felton leads the way with a .425 batting average. Felton has a 29-game hitting streak going right now along with four home runs, 40 RBIs, 47 runs scored, and 12 doubles.

                Felton was named the Region IX Player of the Week for his performance in a 17-14 win over Trinidad last weekend when blasted two home runs and had five RBIs.

                Right behind Felton is Jordan Orozco, who is batting .273 with nine home runs and 34 RBIs along with eight doubles.

                Dillon Fabricus is right behind at .355 followed by Luis Alcantara at .345, Matt Womack at .333, Joey Olson at .331, Jordan Rollins at .328, and Riley Schanaman at .306. Olson and Rollins lead the team with 10 home runs each. Alcantare leads the team in RBIs with 45 and runs scored with 50.

                Thursday's winners will play in the winner's bracket final Friday at 2 p.m. while Thursday's losers will face off at 10 a.m. Friday in an elimination game.

This weekend's Region IX winner will advance to the District Championships May 20-22 at the Region 1 host school. The district championship will determine the winner of teams from Regions 1, 9 and 18. Region I includes seven Arizona schools. Region 18 includes five schools from Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

The NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series is set for May 29-June 4 at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colo.