MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team dropped an Empire Conference doubleheader in contrasting fashion Saturday in McCook.

                The first game saw WNCC come back with three runs in the seventh only to fall short to the Indians 6-5.

                The second game was all McCook as the Indians claimed the 14-4 win with eight runs in the last three innings.

                The first game saw McCook score twice in the first and three times in the second to take an early 5-0 lead.

                WNCC got on the scoreboard with two in the third when Tyler Easter and Ethan Johnson each singled. Easter would later score as he stole home and then Johnson later scored on an error by the catcher.

                After that, neither team scored in the fourth and fifth inning. McCook added an insurance run that was needed to go up 6-2. WNCC mounted a seventh-inning rally with three runs. Easter started things with a one-out double followed by a Johnson single. That set up the heroic swing of a bat by Scottsbluff's Hunter McCollum as he rocketed a 3-run home run to make it 6-5. Max Adam and Shintaro Inoue each walked, but were left stranded on base.

                WNCC finished with seven hits. Johnson and Easter each had two hits and two runs scored. McCollum also had two hits with a home run and three RBIs.

                The second game saw WNCC finish with six hits with Adam and Ashton Ross each collecting two. Ross had a double with two RBIs and a run scored.

                WNCC started the second game with a run in the first when Ross had a 2-out double to score Adam. McCook came back and added a single run in the second and then plated four in the third to lead 5-1. McCook added another in the fourth for a 6-1 lead. That was when WNCC mounted a comeback with three in sixth.

                Bryce Peterson and Inoue led off with singles. Peterson scored on a Ross single. Garrett Dodd then scored two with a hit that resulted in an error to slice the deficit to 6-4.

                McCook came right back with three in the bottom of the sixth and then added four in the seventh and ended the game on the 10-run run in the eighth and scored the game-ending run on a bases-loaded, one-out walk.

                WNCC and McCook will be back in action Sunday with one game to wrap up the regular season. The post-season begins next weekend with first-round games with the top two seeds from the North and South hosting the best 2-of-3 series.

Game 1
WNCC                   003 000 3 – 5 7 0
McCook               230 001 x – 6 9 2
LP – Adrian Short.
2B – Tyler Easter.
HR – Hunter McCollum. 

Game 2
WNCC                   100 003 00 – 4 6 2
McCook               014 103 41 – 14 10 1
LP – Firmin Haased.
2B – Ashton Ross.