PUEBLO, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team is still alive at the Region IX tournament in Pueblo, Colorado, after splitting a pair of games.
WNCC opened the tournament in falling to Lamar Community College 6-3 where the Cougars managed just four hits. WNCC followed that game up winning an elimination game Thursday night and Jin Kobayakawa was a triple shy of the cycle as the Cougars registered a 6-3 win over McCook Community College, eliminating McCook. McCook fell in the first round 6-5 to Otero Thursday afternoon.
The Cougars will have another elimination game Friday at 5 p.m. against a team to be determined from the winner's bracket semifinal games that will be played earlier Friday.
Friday's schedule will pit Otero College against No. 1 Southeast Community College at 11 a.m. followed by Lamar taking on No. 2 Northeastern Junior College at 2 p.m. The lower-seed of the losers of those two games will play WNCC at 5 p.m. on Friday.
The win against McCook was one where the Cougars got timely hits and strong pitching in picking up the win.
WNCC finished with nine hits as Kobayakawa went 3-for-5 with three RBIs with a double, single, and home run. Calab Caciari and Ren Sato each had two hits. Caciari had a home run with two RBIs, while Sato had a double with an RBI.
The Cougars also got a strong pitching performance from Starter Rocco Harmon, who went 6.2 innings in allowing six hits, three runs and striking out four. Julian Garza followed with two-thirds work while Alex Renfrow closed out the game in getting the save.
WNCC scored first with two runs in the third inning. Vaughn Wilson led off with a double and then Kobayakawa took the third pitch he saw and drove it over the leftfield fence for a 2-run home run.
The Cougars plated two more in the fourth to make it 4-0. Wilson was hit by a pitch and scored on a Kobayakawa single. Kensei Oikawa later scored on a Ren Sato single.
McCook came back to make it a 1-run game when they plated two in the fifth and one in the seventh. WNCC added two insurance runs in the eighth as Cooper Burgess walked and lead-off hitter Caciari ripped a home run to rightfield to make it 6-3.
The first game saw WNCC fall behind the eight ball right away as Lamar scored three times in the first and single runs in the third and fourth to grab a 5-0 lead. WNCC finally got on the scoreboard with two in the fifth as Jase Satterfield scored on a sacrifice fly and then Caciari scored on a Kobayakawa double.
The Cougars added a single run in the sixth to make it 5-3 when the Cougars loaded the bases with one out and Austin Cooper scored Landon Lockwood with a ground ball that resulted in an error. WNCC left the bases loaded.
WNCC managed just four hits in the contest. Kobayakawa had a double with an RBI while Catcher Gladysh had a triple.
Game 1
Lamar 301100 010 – 610 1
WNCC 000 021 000 – 3 4 1
LP Clayden Brandon.
2B – Jin Kobayakawa.
3B – Catcher Gladysh.
Game 2
McCook 000 020 100 – 3 6 1
WNCC 002 200 02x – 6 8 2
WP – Rocco Harmon; S – Alex Renfrow.
2B – Vaughn Wilson, Jin Kobayakawa, Ren Sato.
HR – Calab Caciari, Jin Kobayakawa.