There was plenty of offense at Volunteer Field Tuesday between the Western Nebraska Community College and McCook Community College softball teams as the two Region IX elite teams combined for 50 hits and 40 runs as the two teams split a conference doubleheader.
McCook pounded out 12 hits and held off a WNCC seventh-inning rally to win 9-8. WNCC rebounded in the second game behind Kenzie Sawyer's four-hit attack with two doubles and a triple to run over the Indians 18-5.
While there was plenty of runs and base hits, WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff credited McCook for coming out and playing a good first game.
"I thought Robin Harrison did a great job of keeping us at bay until the seventh inning," she said. "Haille comes out and gets a 2-run bomb and Andy comes out and keeps them off base in the first, and then we lost our focus for a little bit.
"McCook was extremely hungry. They were dealing with a little bit of adversity today. Their head coach didn't make the trip because of a death in the family. They also had a chip on their shoulders remembering that we ended their season last year. They just out played us the first game. Plain and simple. We tried to fight in the seventh and unfortunately we ran out of outs. I liked the fight that we had late in the game."
The second game was a totally different story for WNCC. WNCC pounded out 19 hits including seven doubles and a triple and a home run to earn the win.
"We swung the bat a little bit better the second game," Winn-Ratliff said. "We have to continue to make crucial plays at key times and I don't feel like we did that during the course of the day. I said this earlier that if you can get good pitching and great defense and timely hitting, you can beat anybody in the country. I just don't think we saw that from start to finish today. We are fortunate that we won a ball game and ecstatic about that. But we have to get better. We are over the halfway point and we have to be clicking on all cylinders and I just didn't feel today we were where we were supposed to be where we had been playing."
The second game definitely a lot better for the Cougars, scoring runs in the all four innings that they batted. WNCC got things going quickly, plating five in the first and six more in the second to grab an 11-2 lead. WNCC never looked back after that to cruise to the win.
Sawyer had the hot stick going 4-for-4 with four RBIs, four runs scored, a stolen base, two doubles and a triple.
Six other Cougars also tallied more than one hit in the win. Courtney Medina, Haille Weber, and Celyn Whitt each had three hits. Medina had a double with two runs scored, while Weber had a double, two RBIs, and three runs scored. Whitt had a double with three RBIs and a run scored.
Collecting two hits each were Christian Bobian, Jade Morton, and Payten Davies. Davies had a double, home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Bobian had a double with three runs scored and a RBI, while Morton had two singles with a run scored and a RBI.
Hancock picked up the win. The righthander went four innings, scattering 10 hits with five runs and striking out one. Davies tossed a perfect fifth inning.
WNCC started the first game on a upbeat as Weber blasted a 2-run home run for a 2-0 lead. After that, McCook found the offense, scoring runs in the next five innings. McCook tied the game with two in the second and then took a 5-2 lead with three in the third.
WNCC answered to cut the lead to a run, 5-4, with two in the third. McCoo vaulted to a 9-4 lead in the sixth. WNCC got one run back in the sixth and then made a seventh-inning comeback that saw Sawyer rip a 3-run home run to bring the Cougars back to 9-8.
McCook outhit WNCC 12-9. Only Bobian, Sawyer, and Jasmine Wessel had two hits each. Sawyer finished with four RBIs with a double and a home run, while Weber had a home run with three runs scored and two RBIs.
WNCC, 27-7, will be back in action Saturday and Sunday when they host Lamar Community College in conference doubleheaders.
"Lamar is playing much better than when we played them earlier," Winn-Ratliff said. "They are a gritty team. If you allow them that they can play with you they will and it will turn around and bite you in the rear end. We have just have to go out and pitch well and make fundamental plays and get timely hits."
First Game
McCook 023 211 0 – 9 12 2
WNCC 202 001 3 – 8 9 2
WP – Robin Harrison, LP – Andy Hancock; 2B – WNCC (Christian Bobian, Kenzie Sawyer), McCook (Mackenzie Bilger); 3B – McCook (Kendall Yasui); HR – WNCC (Kenzie Sawyer, Haille Weber), McCook (Mackenzie Bilger).
Second Game
McCook 022 10 – 5 10 3
WNCC (27-7) 564 3x – 18 19 0
WP – Andy Hancock, LP – Sadee Sorenson; 2B – WNCC (Christian Bobian, Courtney Medina, Kenzie Sawyer 2, Haille Weber, Celyn Whitt, Payten Davies), McCook (Angelica Evans, Samantha Kalinski, Kylie Allen 2); 3B – WNCC (Kenzie Sawyer), HR – WNCC (Payten Davies).
