Christian Bobian had three doubles and Lauren Oxford had two home runs as the Western Nebraska Community College softball team started a four-game series with Lamar Community College with a 19-2 win in the first game of a double-dip at Volunteer Field on Saturday.

                WNCC made it a sweep over Lamar behind Jade Morton's three-hit attack in capturing the 11-3 second-game win.

                WNCC moves to 29-7 on the season and vaults into first place in conference play with an 11-3 record over Trinidad State, who split a doubleheader with McCook on Saturday earning an eight-inning 6-3 win over McCook before falling to the Indians 7-6.

                Lamar and the Cougars will be back in action Sunday for the final two games of the series at 11 a.m. at Volunteer Field.

                Bobian, who finished the first game with four hits with her three doubles and three runs scored, said the team played pretty good.

                "I think everything came together. Our hitting was good and our pitching was good," the sophomore infielder said. "I think it was a pretty good day for the Cougars."

                What stood out in this game was the intensity and staying mentally and focused in the game as they plated runs in every inning in the first game. Bobian said that is key for them.

                "That is a big goal for us to score every inning and to stay intense through every play in every game," she said. "We should have never lost to McCook [on Tuesday] and that was a wake-up call for us to go hard every single play."

                That is what they did on Saturday especially in the opening game where they pounded out 17 hits with seven doubles and two home runs.

                Bobian led the attack with a 4-for-4 game with three doubles, three runs scored and a RBI. Oxford finished with two home runs, three runs scored and six RBIs.

                Also collecting two hits in the first game were Kenzie Sawyer, Jasmine Wessel, and Jade Morton all with two hits and a double. Sawyer scored three runs, while Wessel had three RBIs and three runs scored.

                The offensive attack was more than what pitcher Andy Hancock needed in the circle. Hancock allowed just two runs while giving up two runs. Hancock also struck out five and walked one in facing just 16 batters in four innings of work.

                Lamar scored one in the first inning only to watch WNCC come back strong with five in the first, three in the second, and eight in the third for a 16-1 lead. The big blast in the first inning was a Oxford 3-run homer to rightfield. Whitt and Bobian each had doubles in the frame.

                WNCC's eight-run third inning saw the Cougars pound out seven hits, including scoring all eight runs with two outs. The big hits included a 2-run Wessel double and a 2-run Payton Davies single.

                Oxford finished off WNCC's scoring with a 3-run blast to leftfield.

                Whitney Fields was dominating in the circle in game two. The sophomore right-hander allowed four hits and a fifth-inning three-run homer, but it was the first four innings that had Fields on the mark, striking out six.

                Offensively, WNCC finished with nine hits. Morton led the attack with three singles with a run scored and RBI. Weber finished the game with a triple and three RBIs, while Jasmine Wessel ahd two RBIs.

                WNCC took control of the game early, scoring five in the first before plating another four in the fourth and then capping it off with two in the fifth as Payten Davies had a double to score the game-ending run.

First Game

Lamar                    100 10 – 2 2 2

WNCC                   538 3x – 19 17 4

WP – Andy Hancock; 2B – Christian Bobian 3, Jasmine Wessel, Kenzie Sawyer, Celyn Whitt, Jade Morton; HR – Lauren Oxford 2.

Second Game

Lamar                    000 03 – 3 4 3

WNCC (29-7)      500 42 – 11 9 1

WP – Whitney Fields; 2B – Celyn Whitt, Payten Davies; 3B – Haille Weber.