MCC Baseball takes Luna series with Sunday sweep

The McCook Community College baseball team had a couple of explosive fourth innings Sunday on the way to a doubleheader sweep over Luna Community College, winning 10-4 and 13-3. The wins gave MCC a four-game sweep over the Rough Riders.

Leading 3-2 in the fourth inning of Game 1, Sunday MCC scored seven times and in Game 2 trailed 1-0 in the fourth before scoring 11 runs, then putting Luna away on the 10-run rule with a pair of runs in the fifth inning.

MCC Coach Jon Olsen said after last weekend's 0-4 series at Lamar, this weekend was just what the doctor ordered. MCC swept Luna in both games Saturday, 5-0, 10-0.

"We needed to play good and I'm glad we did," Olsen said. "We weren't perfect - we need to clean up some little things on defense - but I thought we did a good job of staying with it offensively.

MCC swept Luna in both games Saturday, 5-0, 10-0, getting a 12 strikeouts from Max Mrakovcic (Sydney, Australia) in Game 1 and a five-inning, nine-strikeout no-hitter from Alex Lozada (Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico) in Game 2.

On Sunday sophomore Ethan Fritz (Bellevue) went six innings and allowed four runs in Game 1 while freshman Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) picked up a complete-game win in Game 2. The four starters pitched 23 of the 24 innings this weekend.

"Luna had some nice starting pitching and our starters did a good job of keeping us in the game while we could get going offensively," Olsen said. "We got Alex back in the rotation this weekend which was good to have."

Sophomore Daniel Bannon (Sydney, Australia) had six hits in eight at bats Sunday with five RBIs. Caleb Eiguren, (Broomfield, Colo.) had three RBIs in Game 1 and Zach Beatty (Maple Park, Ill.) had a three-run home run in the 11-run fourth inning in Game 2.

"It was good to get back to even overall and on the plus side again in the region," Olsen said. "It's a long road to go still but this was a nice weekend for us."

MCC goes to 16-16 on the season and 10-8 in the Empire League (Region IX).

Luna goes to 5-32, and 3-15 in Empire League play.

MCC has one mid-week game this week – Tuesday at home against Garden City, starting at 3 p.m.

This weekend MCC travels to La Junta, Colo., to face Otero Junior College in a pair of doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday, starting both days at 1 p.m.

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 - McCook CC 10, Luna CC 4: After being shutout in two games Saturday, Luna took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when the first two hitters singled and doubled. MCC duplicated that formula in the bottom of the inning when Daniel Bannon singled and Markus Coronado (sophomore, Irving Texas) doubled. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Eiguren tied the game and a Luna error put MCC up 2-1.

Luna got a two-out double in the second to tie the game 2-2 but another Luna error in the bottom of the inning lead to a run and a 3-2 MCC lead. Neither team scored in the third inning and MCC starter Ethan Fritz (sophomore, Bellevue), also kept Luna of the scoreboard in the fourth inning.

In the MCC fourth, 11 batters went to the plate and had six hits and three walks leading to seven runs and a 10-2 lead.

Fritz went six innings, allowed seven hits, four earned runs and walked two while striking out four. Sophomore Jordan Muschalek (Odessa, Texas) pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out one.

MCC had 11 hits, with three from Bannon and two from Eiguren, sophomore Elijah Munoz (Big Spring, Texas), and sophomore Jordan DeMarce (Las Vegas).

GAME 2 - McCook CC 13, Luna CC 3: Luna put the leadoff hitters on base in the second and later scored a run but freshman starter Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) was able to escape the inning without further damage by getting an inning-inning doubleplay when Daniel Bannon dove for a pop fly and doubled off the runner at first.

Again in the third, Luna's leadoff hitter singled as did the second hitter, but a strikeout and a groundball doubleplay ended that threat and one inning later, Acierno was able to strand a leadoff single.

MCC broke up the game sending 16 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and scoring 11 runs on six hits, a hit batter and five walks. Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) led off with a single and after a walk and a hit batter, tied the game 1-1 on an RBI-single by Jordan DeMarce (Las Vegas). Bannon's bases-loaded single scored two and after one out, Zach Beatty's three-run home run put MCC up 6-1. After an Eiguren single, Luna walked the next four hitters and fielder's choice groundout made it 9-1. Bannon followed with his second hit of the inning, a two-run double to put MCC up 11-1.

Acierno went five innings, allowed eight hits, walked one and struck out five. He was charged with three earned runs as Luna scored twice in the fifth inning on a two-run home run.

With one out in the bottom of the fifth MCC sealed the victory with the 10-run rule when Justin Chappel, (Colorado Springs) drove home Maysonave and Munoz with a two-run single to left.

MCC had 12 hits in the game with three by Bannnon who drove in four, and two hit games from Eiguren and Maysonave and three RBI-games from Beatty and Chappel.