MCC baseball gets strong pitching in sweep over Trinidad

MCC scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Friday to pick up a 2-1 win in Game 1 of a doubleheader with Trinidad State and put up early runs in Game 2 for a 7-1 win.

"We got two pretty good performances on the mound obviously," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

MCC sophomore Max Mrakovcic (Sydney, Australia) struck out 10 hitters and held TSJC to three singles and a double in the first game.

 "It was good to see Max so good, he's been building up the past few weeks and today was as good as I've seen him since he's been here," Olsen said.

Freshman Cade Webber (Kelowna, British Columbia) struck out 10 in six innings to pick up the win in the second game.

 "Then Cade followed it up with a strong outing, he's been pretty good his last three outings, but free passes had been plaguing him," Olsen said. "He cut those out today and he really had his changeup going."

Trinidad State entered the game leading the south division of the Empire League (Region IX) with a 3-0 record and 15-3 overall. They go to 3-2 and 15-5.

MCC improves to 9-7 and 4-1 in the Empire League North Division.

The teams are scheduled to play two more games Saturday but the coaches are keeping a close watch on the weather forecast. Tentative plans call for the games to be moved up to an 11 a.m. start time, but they will meet early Saturday morning to make a decision. Any postponements or change of schedule will be announced on the MCC Athletics website at: https://mccookcc.prestosports.com/landing/index

For more photos from today's games, please visit the MCC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook

GAME 1 – McCook CC 2, Trinidad State 1: After Trinidad State scored an unearned run in the first, the two teams were held scoreless until MCC took advantage of a couple Trojan errors in the sixth inning and pushed two runs across to pick up the series-opening win.

  "Game 1 was just a really good baseball game, their arm was really, really good." Olsen said. We just caught a couple breaks in the bottom of the sixth."

Trinidad State took the 1-0 lead in the first on a walk and two errors with Max Mrakovcic on the mound. After allowing a single to the leadoff hitter in the second, Mrakovcic struck out the final three hitters of the inning. He struck out two more in the fifth and sixth innings.

Sophomore Jordan Demarce (Las Vegas) drew a one-out walk in the sixth and Trinidad committed an error with sophomore Daniel Bannon (Sydney, Australia) batting. Sophomore Markus Coronado (Irving, Texas) fouled off two two-strike pitches and drove a ball to right field and both base runners were able to move up a base. With two outs, The Trojans committed an infield error with Zack Beatty (sophomore, Maple Park, Ill.) batting and both MCC runners came home.

In the seventh, Mrakovcic retired the first two batters and after allowing his fourth hit of the game induced the final hitter to ground out to second base.

Mrakovcic struck out a season-high 10 batters, allowed four hits, and walked one.

MCC had just two hits in the game – singles by Coronado and Beatty.

GAME 2 –McCook CC 7, Trinidad State 1: MCC jumped out in front 4-0 in the first inning. Markus Coronado lined a one-out single and came home on a two-run double off the bat of sophomore Caleb Eiguren, (Broomfield, Colo.). Freshman Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) followed that with a two-run homerun – his fifth long-tripper of the week.

"We got two big swings in the first inning from Caleb and Ethan and the staff and defense did the rest," Olsen said.

A two-out error opened the door in the second inning and Zach Beatty delivered an RBI-single to put MCC up 5-0. Murdoch capped the inning with an RBI-single.

MCC added the final run in the sixth with a leadoff single Jordan DeMarce and a two-out RBI single by Eiguren.

Cade Webber allowed his first hit one out into the third inning, struck out the side in the fifth and carried a shutout into the seventh. He walked the first hitter and hit the second hitter before giving up the shutout on another single. He finished allowing two hits and one earned run while walking four and striking out 10.

Sophomore Jordan Muschalek (Odessa, Texas) came on to finish out the game striking out two of the three hitters he faced.

MCC had eight hits in the game with two each from Eiguren and Murdoch. Both had three RBIs.