Southeast rallies twice to sweep MCC baseball; win streak at 20

Southeast Community College continued their winning ways on the baseball field, extending their winning streak to 20 games with a pair of wins over McCook Community College. The Storm picked up a 7-6 win in extra innings in Game 1 and broke up a see-saw affair in Game 2 scoring three runs in their final at bat to down MCC 7-5.

"I'm just really disappointed for our guys -- not in our guys, said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

"We put ourselves in position to win both games today, a swing away from the win in Game 1 with the winning run on second base -- in Game 2, we're two outs away from putting it away, but they caught a break and then made a swing, to tie it,"

The Storm improve to 34-6 and 24-1 in the Empire League (Region IX). MCC goes to 22-23 overall and 14-14 in the Region.

"We deserved a better fate today but that's baseball too, we'll get back up and get after it again this week," Olsen said.

MCC goes on the road Monday for a game at Crete against the Doane University JVs, then return home for a 3 p.m. game Tuesday against Colby.

This weekend MCC hosts Northeastern Junior College in three-game Empire League series starting with a Saturday doubleheader at 2 p.m. and a single game Sunday 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 – Southeast CC 7, McCook CC 6 (eight innings): The Storm scored a pair of runs in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Freshman Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) cut the lead in half with a fourth-inning solo home run.

Southeast scored two more runs in the sixth inning of MCC sophomore starter Alex Lozada (Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico) on single and a two-out solo home to put the Storm up 4-1. Lozado went six innings, allowed six hits. He walked one and struck out 10. SECC made it 5-1 with a run in the seventh off reliever Jordan Muschalek (sophomore, Odessa, Texas).

In the bottom of the seventh inning (the game was a seven-inning game), MCC got an RBI-double from Markus Coronado (Irving, Texas) to start the rally. After a two-out single by Caleb Eiguren, (sophomore, Broomfield, Colo.), Murdoch was hit by a pitch to load the bases and freshman Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) singled home three to tie the game 5-5 and send it into extra innings.

With two outs in the eighth Southeast scored two runs on consecutive hit batters with the bases loaded.

MCC put two runners on in the eighth with walks and with two outs, sophomore Zack Beatty (Maple Park, Ill.) doubled in one run but MCC left the tying run stranded on third base.

MCC had nine hits in the game with two each by Eiguren, Masonave and Daniel Bannon (sophomore, Sydney, Australia).

Muschalek pitched two innings, allowed two earned runs three hits, he walked three and struck out three.

GAME 2 – Southeast CC 7, McCook CC 5: Southeast scored two run in the third off MCC starter Ethan Fritz (Bellevue, Neb.) but MCC got those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a two-run home run by Daniel Bannon.

Ethan Murdoch led off the fourth with a home run and later Bannon delivered a two-out RBI double to put MCC out in front 4-2.

Southeast cut the gap to 4-3 scoring a run in the fifth on a dropped third strike with two outs. MCC got that run back on a Zach Beatty solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth. The Storm got a run back on a solo home run in the sixth and then went ahead with three runs in the seventh.

Fritz went 6.1 innings, and allowed eight hits, didn't walk a batter, surrendered four earned runs and struck out six. Cade Webber (freshman, Kelowna, British Columbia) finished out the game on the mound allowing one run in two-thirds of an inning, he walked one and struck out one.

MCC had eight hits with two each from Bannon and Beatty.