MCC pitchers shine in double shutouts over Luna CC men

The McCook Community College baseball team posted a pair of shutouts to take two games from Luna Community College Saturday, winning 5-0 and 11-0.

Sophomore Max Mrakovcic (Sydney, Australia) tossed a four-hit shutout in Game 1 with 12 strikeouts and sophomore Alex Lozada (Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico) tossed a five-inning no-hitter in Game 2 with nine strikeouts.

In Game 1, the MCC offense manufactured runs five of the six innings they batted in and in Game 2, ended the game on the 10-run rule with a six-run outburst in the fifth inning when all seven batters reached base safely.

MCC out-hit Luna 19-4 on the afternoon while MCC pitchers struck out 21 Rough Riders in 12 innings.

Lozada's no-hitter is the second one this season he has been a part of. He started a game Feb. 18 against Clarendon College but had to leave after one inning pitched because of an injury. Relievers Cade Webber (freshman, Kelowna, British Columbia) and sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) finished out the 16-0 no-hitter that day without allowing a hit in the seven inning game.

With Saturday's wins, MCC improves to 14-16 for the season and 8-8 in the Empire League (Region IX).

The Rough Riders fall to 5-30, and 3-13 in Empire League play.

The two teams play another doubleheader Sunday starting at noon.

McCook CC 5, Luna CC 0: Luna's best offensive threat all day came in the first inning. MCC starter Max Mrakovcic surrendered a leadoff single, the runner stole second, and went to third on a groundout. With one out, the next batter hit a dribbler to Mrakovcic who threw home to nail the runner attempting to score, then ended the inning with his first strikeout.

MCC pushed across single runs in the first and second innings to give Mrakovcic all the runs he would need.

Markus Coronado (Irving, Texas) got the MCC offense started with a one-out single in the first, went to third on a Zack Beatty (Maple Park, Ill.) single and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Caleb Eiguren, (Broomfield, Colo.). With two outs in the second, freshman Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) and sophomore Jordan DeMarce (Las Vegas) singled and sophomore Daniel Bannon (Sydney, Australia) doubled home Maysonave to put MCC up 2-0.

After striking two Rough Riders in the second, Mrakovcic three batters in the third, and two more in the fourth.

MCC plated a two-out run in the fourth. After Elijah Munoz (Big Spring, Texas) lined a one-out single, three MCC straight batters walked, the final one from Coronado brought home Munoz and put MCC on top 3-0.

After a leadoff double in the fifth, Mrakovcic struck out two batters and got a popout to end the inning.

Eiguren and Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) walked and singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Both runners advanced on a fly out. Eiguren scored on a passed ball and Murdoch scored on a dropped third strike to make it a 5-0 game

Mrakovcic retired Luna in order in the sixth and seventh and finished the game with two strikeouts to give him 12 for the game. He allowed four hits and didn't walk a batter.

MCC had eight hits in the game, including two by Bannon, who had the only extra-base hit in the game with his second-inning double.

McCook CC 11, Luna CC 0: The home team scored a pair of runs in the first inning, one in the second, two more in the third and ended the game in the fifth inning when all seven batters reached base, four via hits, one by walk and two hit batters.

MCC scored on an RBI-single by Caleb Eiguren in the first inning and added another on a wild pitch to take a 2-0 lead. In the second, a two-out double by Markus Coronado put MCC up 3-0 and Ethan Murdoch powered up a two-run home run in the third to give the hosts a 5-0 lead.

Alex Lozada struck out two Rough Riders in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings and fanned one in the third to finish with nine in five innings of work. He walked five.

MCC put the game away in the bottom of the fifth with a walk and a hit batter to start the inning, a single by Josh Maysonave, a two-run double by Jordan DeMarce, a two-run single by Coronado, and the final hit came from Zach Beatty.

MCC had 11 hits in the game with two apiece from Bannon, Coronado, Eiguren, Maysonave.