STERLING, Colo. — The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team’s end of the season flurry was ended Saturday afternoon after the Cougars dropped the second game to No. 1 seed Northeastern Junior College in the in the first round of the Region IX playoffs.
The Cougars gave up 11 runs in the first three innings to NJC and now the Plainsmen move on to host the winner of the Lamar Community College and Otero Junior College series. The Cougars’ season ends at 20-34, but the Cougars did win six of their last nine games to finish the campaign with a flurry.
“I definitely think our team showed a lot of character. We were put in a situation where we had to start winning ball games. We put our backs against the wall a little bit and our guys responded well in that situation,” WNCC coach Mike Jones said.
“That showed that they are good character young men. They were guys that weren’t going to give up or give in to any adversity and they fought through it. Game after game they continued to stay strong and battle through their mistakes. I am proud of them and I thought they played well down the stretch.”
Unfortunately, Jones said they couldn’t slow down a potent NJC offensive attack. “NJC has a powerful line up. They have powerful guys in the middle and they have some guys that can be patient and find ways on base ahead of those guys,” Jones said.
“They are a tough offensive team to slow down because just if you get one guy out there is another guy right behind him that is also a strong hitter. They are a good offensive team. We made a few mistakes and they didn’t miss.”
They did, however, stay with the Plainsmen for the most part and never quit despite falling behind 11-2 after three innings.
“We were able to score runs and I thought offensively we executed our game plan off of their left-handed pitcher fairly well,” Jones said. “I thought we made some nice adjustments in our offensive approach. Unfortunately we couldn’t slow down NJC’s offense.”
WNCC got on the scoreboard first as Ozzy Gonzalez hammered a 2-out home run for a 1-0 lead. The lead was short-lived as NJC scored four times in the bottom of the opening inning, including a home run by Ben Chamberlin and a 2-run double by Jerid Huggins for a 4-1 lead.
The Cougars cut the lead in half as Keeton Krause scored on an error, but the Plainsmen kept their offense hot, scoring three times in the second and four times in the third for an 11-2 lead.
WNCC made a rally scoring once in the fourth and four times in the seventh to cut the lead to 11-7. Krause scored the lone run in the fourth as he had a 2-out double and game around to score on a Ernesto Punales single.
The seventh inning saw Zach Ostergard blast a 2-run home run and then Gonzalez set a pitch over the fence for a 2-run shot. It was Gonzalez second of the game. NJC added four insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh to get the win.
WNCC pounded out 10 hits in the contest with six going for extra bases. Four Cougars finished with multiple hits. Gonzalez led the way with a 2-for-5 game with two home runs, three RBIs, and two runs scored.
Anthony Delgado also finished the game going 2-for-5 with a run scored. Krause and Punales each went 2-for-4. Krause had a double and two runs scored, while Punales had a double, RBI, and a run scored. Ostergard had a home run and two RBIs, while the only other extra base hit came from Cameron Snyder with a double.
Grant Piccolli picked up the loss, going just a third of an inning in giving up four runs on one hit and walking three. Grant Rimington followed, going 2 2/3 innings in scattering five hits and giving up seven runs. Rimington walked two and struck out two.
Jason Palser also tossed 3 2/3 innings in allowing four runs on four hits, while striking out four and walking two. John Timmins finished off the game going the last 1 1/2 and allowing three hits and striking out one.
The Cougars will say goodbye to several key sophomores but Jones said they have some talented freshmen ready to step up next year.
“We have some guys that played a lot of innings for us this year, freshmen that will come back as sophomores, so we expect those guys to be stronger and better,” Jones said. “We will lose some sophomores that had big roles within this year’s team, but that is what it is about in college athletics. We are going to go out and recruit some other good players and good people to keep our program strong.”
WNCC 110 100 400 — 7 10 3
NE Colorado 434 000 40x — 15 13 2
LP — Grant Piccolli; 2B — Cameron Snyder, Keeton Krause, Ernesto Punales; HR — Ozzy Gonzalez 2, Zach Ostergard.