MCC Baseball loses pair of games to Clarendon College

CLARENDON, Texas – The McCook Community College baseball team lost a pair of one-run decisions Saturday to Clarendon College. MCC lost the first game 5-4 and the second one 13-12.

"We lost two tough ones today. We had a one-run lead going into the last inning in Game 1 and made two defensive miscues to do us in," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. "In Game 2 we battled all game to stay in it offensively, but again walks and defense ended up costing us."

Clarendon goes to 3-6 on the year

MCC goes to 5-4.

"Our level of concentration and mental toughness was about as bad as it could be so that will have to be addressed and fixed before next weekend," Olsen said. "We just really made some inexcusable miscues that allowed us to get beat today."

MCC was scheduled to play its first home game Tuesday against Garden City but cold weather postponed that game and the coaches are working to reschedule that game. MCC would next play Northeastern Junior College to open the Region IX slate at Sterling, Colo. in a three-game series starting Saturday with a Sunday doubleheader.

For all the up-to-date information on MCC baseball this season including, schedules, statistics, rosters and photos, please visit the official website of MCC Athletics at: https://mccookcc.prestosports.com/landing/index

GAME 1 -- Clarendon College 5, McCook CC 4: Clarendon took a 2-0 lead in the second. MCC came back to score a pair of runs to tie the game with a walk and a single, a wild pitch and an RBI single from Markus Coronado (sophomore, Irving, Texas).

The Bulldogs took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third, where the score remained until the MCC sixth inning. Freshman Riley Watson (Sydney, Australia) led the inning off with a single and went to third on a double off the bat of sophomore Matt Hamilton (Aurora, Colo.). A wild pitch tied the game and an RBI-single from sophomore Daniel Bannon (Sydney, Australia) put MCC up 4-3.

The Bulldogs pushed across the winning run the in the bottom of the seventh with two outs.

Sophomore Ethan Fritz (Bellevue, Neb.) pitched six innings allowed two earned runs, didn't walk a hitter and struck out eight.

"Ethan Fritz was really good in a game he deserved a win," Olsen said.

Jordan Muschalek (Odessa, Texas) went the final two-thirds of an inning allowing two hits and one earned run.

MCC had six hits and three errors in the game. Coronado had two hits and sophomore Caleb Eiguren, (Broomfield, Colo.)  added a double for MCC.

GAME 2 -- Clarendon College 13, McCook CC 12: After playing to a 3-3 game through the first five and a half innings the two teams exploded for 19 runs in the final three innings.

Clarendon broke up a 3-3 game with five runs in the sixth inning of MCC starter Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) who went four innings and was tagged with three earned runs, walking four and striking out seven.

"Mikey didn't have his best stuff but he really battled to give us a chance but like I said when you give up a five-run inning and a four-run inning in the same game your chances of winning that game are not very good," Olsen said.

MCC responded with two in the seventh on a two-run home run from Zack Beatty (Maple Park, Ill.) to make it an 8-5 game then the Bulldogs scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to stretch the lead to 9-5.

MCC scored seven times in the eighth to take a 12-9 lead. Bannon drove home two with a double and then MCC scored five more runs with two outs. Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) doubled in two more to make it a 9-9 tie and Riley Watson followed with a three-run home run, to put MCC up three runs.

The Bulldogs scored a run in the seventh and four more in the eighth to take a 13-12 lead going to the ninth but after a walk and a single to start the frame, the final three MCC batters went down in order.

C.J. Allen (Salado, Texas) went three innings, Eduardo Ojeda (Coral Springs, Fla) pitched one-third of an inning and Muschalek two-third of an inning for MCC. All three gave up two earned runs.

MCC had 13 hits and three errors in the game.

Bannon led MCC with three hits, Beatty, Caleb Eiguren and Melwin Perez (San Sebastian, Puerto Rico) all had two-hit games