Dionisio Diaz and Joe Moran came up with clutch walk-off base hits to help the Western Nebraska Community College baseball team earn a sweep of Northeastern Junior College Monday in Empire Conference contests at Cleveland Field.
Diaz had a pinch-hit double to score Tanner Thompson with the winning run in the 8th inning to give the Cougars a 5-4 first-game win. The second game had the same heroics. This time, Moran had a 2-run single in the 7th to give the Cougars a come-from-behind 5-4 win.
WNCC has now won three straight after beating Trinidad State 3-2 on Sunday. The Cougars will hope to keep the winning going when they step out of conference play on Wednesday against Colorado State Club at 6 p.m. at Cleveland Field.
For now, though, the Cougars are thrilled to no ends of how they kept believing to capture the two exciting wins Monday.
“These wins are huge. We struggled all year, really, at least for a long time,” Moran said. “These guys are pretty good and how we won because these are tough games. We kept playing the whole time.”
Big base hits is what propelled the Cougars to the win. The first game, Oscar Perez had a solo shot in the sixth to tie the game before Dionisio Diaz had a pinch-hit double to score Tanner Thompson with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth for the win.
The second game, Oscar Perez started things after being hit by a pitch. Landon Lybeck then followed with a double. Moran, who struck out two times before, hit a single up the middle that scored both runs for the win.
Moran said when he went to the plate in the seventh, he knew what he had to do, forget about striking out and put the ball in play.
“I knew the situation with a runner on second and third and I was just going to try to work up the middle and get a base hit,” he said. “I had to try to forget about the bad at bats and that is what I always try to do.”
NJC outhit the Cougars in the second game 7-5. But what WNCC did was get the hits when they needed, including picking up three doubles from Lybeck, Thompson, and Jayden Holman. Moran and Austin Michaud each had two RBIs in the contest. Michaud two RBIs came in the third when he had a big 2-run single.
Dalton Pflughaupt picked up the win, tossing the seventh in allowing one run, three hits and striking out two. Mason Munford started and went five innings in allowing just three hits and three runs while striking out one. Montana Giesbrecht pitched one inning in allowing a hit and a strikeout.
The first game was even more dramatic. NJC struck first with a single run in the third. WNCC came back to grab a 3-1 lead by plating three in the fourth on four hits. WNCC started things with three straight singles by Michaud, Matt Maestas, and Holman. Oscar Perez then walked to force in a run before Matt Zilla and Brian Kelley each had run-scoring singles.
NJC came back to plate three in the fifth to lead 4-3. WNCC’s tied the game with one swing of the bat as Perez ripped a solo home run to right field in the sixth. Neither team scored in the seventh. After Jose Monge shut down NJC with three quick outs in the eighth, WNCC mounted their comeback with two outs. Thompson started things with a single and then Diaz ripped a double that hit the fence to easily score Thompson with the winning run.
WNCC finished with nine hits to eight for NJC. Michaud and Thompson led the way with two hits each. Thompson had a double and a run scored while Michaud had two singles and a run scored.
Jose Monge picked up the win, tossing the last two innings in relief of Isaac Block. Monge didn’t allow a hit or run while striking out one. Block tossed six innings in giving up four runs on eight hits, including a home run. Block struck out three.
Moran said it feels good to finally start winning after suffering through 13 straight losses.
“it is good to finally win some games and I think it will really help us through the year,” he said. ” It was real frustrating there for a while, but now everybody is picking it up and doing their job. Everything is coming together finally.”
First Game
NJC 001 030 0 — 4 8 1
WNCC 000 301 01 — 5 9 0
WP — Jose Monge; 2B — Tanner Thompson, Dionisio Diaz; HR — Oscar Perez.
Second Game
NJC (12-14) 000 300 1 — 4 71
WNCC (8-20) 003 000 2 — 5 5 0
WP — Dalton Pflughaupt; 2B — Landon Lybeck, Tanner Thompson, Jayden Holman.