(Courtesy: Mark Rein, WNCC Sports Information)
The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team fought hard, but couldn’t manage to pick up wins in the regular season final contests with Northeastern Junior College Sunday afternoon at Cleveland Field.
The Cougars managed nine hits in game one, but fell 5-2 to the Plainsmen. The second contest saw WNCC make a seventh-inning rally. Trailing 7-1, the Cougars had the tying run at the plate before falling 7-5.
WNCC ends the season at 20-35 and just a few wins shy of making the 4-team Region IX playoffs.
WNCC coach Mike Jones said it was nice how the sophomores fought hard in their final games.
“The sophomores went out with a real positive offensive approach,” Jones said. “It is pretty cool to see Joe Moran hit a triple in his last at bat at Cleveland Field and then Ty Wilson hits a double for his last at bat at the field. I thought that was really cool. It was really symbolic of all the hard work those guys put in.”
The fight the Cougars had in the final games of the season came down to the final inning even though they couldn’t get the wins.
“We were able to rally back both times, which shows that we had the ability to compete,” Jones said. “We always competed at our best when we were down by four or five runs. We just needed to find a way to compete a little bit tougher at the beginning of games and not at the end. You have to give our guys some credit for not giving up and competing at the end.”
The second game was hard-fought with Northeastern Junior College scoring five runs in the fifth on a grand slam by Munford for the 7-0 lead. After that, the Cougars finally got some hits to drop, scoring one in the sixth and four in the seventh.
The shutout was stopped in the sixth as Moran doubled to leftfield and scored on the next pitch as Ty Wilson doubled to the cap in leftfield.
WNCC wasn’t about to quit in its final at bat. Landon Lybeck opened the frame with a double. Beau Lofink and Aaron Morrison drew walks. After Lybeck scored on a balk, Moran came to the plate and delivered on a triple that scored two runs. Moran scored on a Wilson single. But that was all the scoring they could get with the tying run at the plate.
WNCC outhit NJC 9-7, including five extra base hits. Moran and Wilson wrapped up their Cougar baseball careers on the field they played American Legion ball on in fine fashion. Moran finished with three hits, including a double, triple, two runs scored, and two RBIs.
Wilson had a double with two RBis. Also collecting two hits was Landon Lybeck with a double and a run scored.
Lofink had the other extra base hit with a double.
Montana Giesbrecht suffered the loss on the mound, tossing five innings in allowing seven runs on six hits, while striking out four. Isaac Block finished the game, tossing two innings in allowing just one hit.
The opener was the same deal as the second game, where NJC one big inning, scoring four times in the fifth inning. Up until that point, WNCC held a 2-1 lead and receiving a stellar outing from pitcher Brett McPhail.
NJC plated one run in the first, only to watch the Cougars come back with single runs in the second and third for the 2-1 lead. Jayden Holman led off the second with a single and scored on a Tanner Thompson double to tie the game.
WNCC took the lead in the third. Matt Maestas started things with a 2-out triple and scored on a Holman single. WNCC had runners in scoring position but couldn’t score any more to have the 2-1 lead.
NJC retook the lead with the four-run fifth for the win. WNCC even tried a seventh inning comeback in game one as Wilson and Morrison had 2-out singles with the tying run at the plate, but couldn’t get the clutch hit.
WNCC even outhit the Plainsmen in game one 9-4. Jayden Holman and Matt Zilla were the only Cougars to finish with multiple hits. Holman had a run scored and RBI.
McPhail took the loss, tossing 4 1/3 innings in allowing just two hits in giving up four runs. Lofink tossed the final two innings, allowing two hits.