MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College softball team opened the Region IX tournament in McCook with an 11-5 win over No. 2 Otero College Friday.

                The Cougars, who pounded out 11 hits in the win, will face McCook Community College in the winner's bracket final at 1:30 p.m. MST on Saturday. The winner of that game advances to the championship game slated for 11 a.m. MST on Sunday. McCook defeated Trinidad State 10-3 on Friday in the other first-round game.

                Trinidad and Otero will play an elimination game Saturday morning. The winner of that game will then play another elimination game against the loser of the WNCC/McCook contest Saturday evening with the winner of that game going to the championship on Sunday.

                Friday's win was one where the Cougars took control early with three runs in the first inning after Lydia Tibbals blasted a 3-0 home run. The Cougars went up 9-0 with a 6-run third inning.

                WNCC loaded the bases as Tibbals singled, JoLee Huffaker had a double and Mykah Klumpp earned a walk. Tori Travers followed with a 2-run single. After a single by Alyssa Albaugh, Randi Mitchell singled to score two more runs. Albaugh made it 8-0 after tagging up on a sacrifice fly and Mitchell closed out the scoring, scoring on a passed ball.

                Otero came back with two in the fourth to make it 9-2. WNCC responded with one in the fifth when Tina Horton double in Mitchell.

                The Rattlers plated three in the fifth to slice the deficit in half at 10-5. WNCC followed with a run in the sixth. Huffaker led off with a triple and scored on a Klumpp sacrifice fly.

                WNCC then got the Otero hitters to go 1-2-3 in the final inning as starting pitcher Kayli Cooper got the last batter to strikeout. It was Cooper's seventh strikeout of the game. Cooper scattered eight hits in the contest and walked just one.

                Offensively, Huffaker led the way with a 3-for-3 ocntest with two runs scored with a double and triple.

                Mitchell, Horton, and Tibbals all had two hits on the day. Mitchell had a double with two runs scored and two RBIS. Horton tallied a double with two RBIs, while Tibbals had a home run with three RBIs and two runs scored.

                The win moves the Cougars to 26-23 on the season.

WNCC                306 011 0 – 11 11 2
Otero                   000 230 0 – 5 5 4
WP – Kayli Cooper.
2B – Randi Mitchell, Tina Horton, JoLee Huffaker.
3B – JoLee Huffaker.
HR – Lydia Tibbals.