MCC Baseball takes pair of Tuesday games at Colby

COLBY, Kan. – The McCook Community College baseball game won a pair of games on the road Tuesday sweeping Colby Community College 7-6 in eight innings and 7-4.

"We just had a really fun day today," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen, "The guys were loose and played hard, we got really a good effort on the mound both games, and it was a really nice bounce-back day after tough day Sunday."

Game 1 was tied at 6-6 after four innings and after three scoreless innings by both teams, MCC scored the game-winner in the extra inning on a double play ball. In Game 2 MCC put up three-run innings in the first and fourth innings and three pitchers held the Trojans to five hits in the game.

"We just kind of scrapped all day and didn't hang our heads if something went wrong," Olsen said. "We just kept playing, which was really good to see."

Colby goes to 29-16.

MCC climbs to .500 on the season going to 26-26.

The two teams will play one more time Tuesday, May 3 at 4 p.m. in Colby.

MCC's scheduled game at Hastings on Wednesday has been cancelled.

On Saturday, MCC plays its final Empire League games of the regular season, traveling to Scottsbluff to take on Western Nebraska in a three-game series.

Both teams are fighting with Northeastern Junior College for second place in the final standings in the North Conference of the Empire League, behind Southeast Community College. The top two teams in the standings will host first-round post-season games against the third and fourth place teams in the South Conference.

"We have another good region weekend coming up, I'm really looking forward to getting out and competing," Olsen sad.

Southeast has clinched the north standings at 27-2 and will host the south's fourth-place team in a best-of-three, first-round series in the post-season tournament. NJC is second at 16-15, MCC third at 15-16 and Western Nebraska is fourth at 14-15. The second place team in the north will face the third place team in the south in the post season.

The Cougars are 19-28 overall and host Southeast in a makeup doubleheader Thursday. The MCC series starts with a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. (CT) and a nine-inning game Sunday at 1 p.m.

 NJC hosts SECC this weekend with two games on Friday and one on Saturday.

Trinidad State has locked up the top spot in the south standings at 20-11, Lamar is second at 14-16, Otero third at 10-21 and Luna fourth at 5-25.

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 mccindians.com

GAME 1 – McCook CC 7, Colby CC 6 (8 innings): Freshman Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) put MCC out in front with a solo home run in the first, but Colby came back with two runs off starter sophomore Eduardo Ojeda (Coral Springs, Fla,) to take a 2-1 lead.

MCC tied the game in the third on a wild pitch and took a 4-2 lead on a two-run double by Kade Poteet-Herrera (Pueblo, Colo.), but Colby scored three times in the bottom of the inning to lead 5-4..

In the MCC fourth, three straight batters singled to lead off the inning and a bases-loaded walk by Maysonave tied the game and an RBI-groundout by freshman Brett Cyprien (Flower Mound, Texas) put MCC up 6-5.

Colby tied it up with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Ojeda pitched four innings, allowed four hits, walked three and struck out six. He was relieved by Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) who pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, walking three and striking out three.

Freshman Jelle Bing (Heerhagoaard, Netherlands) came on in the seventh and held Colby scoreless to send the game into an extra inning.

Sophomore Jordan DeMarce (Las Vegas) led off the eighth with a walk, advanced to third on a single by sophomore Markus Coronado (Irving, Texas) and scored the winning run on a double play.

Bing allowed an eighth-inning double but finished two strikeouts to pick up the win on the mound. He went two innings allowed one hit, no walks, and he struck out three.

MCC outhit Colby 9-6 with two-hit games from DeMarce and Poteet-Herrera.

GAME 2 – McCook CC 7, Colby CC 4: MCC posted three first-inning runs on two Colby errors, four wild pitches and three walks.

Colby came back with two runs off MCC freshman starter Cade Webber (Kelowna, British Columbia) who allowed one hit, one walk, one strikeout and two runs in his inning of work.

Two more walks and three more Colby wild pitches led to another MCC run in the second. Reliever Jackson Bigge (freshman, Fort Collins, Colo.) came on in the second and allowed back-to-back leadoff doubles and a run before settling down to retire the next three Trojans. He went two innings, allowed just the one run and two hits, one walk and four strikeouts.

Leading 4-3 in the fourth, MCC got a leadoff home run by Persio Quezada, (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), an RBI-double off the bat of Oliver Davies (Sydney, Australia) and took a 7-3 lead on a fielder's choice.

Freshman Rylan Wallingford (Fort Calhoun, Neb.) pitched the final four innings allowing one run in the first inning he pitched and finished allowing two hits, two walks and he struck out six.