MCC Baseball splits Tuesday twinbill with North Lake

IRVING, Texas – After a rocky start offensively Tuesday, the McCook Community College baseball team responded with a 10-run, 15-hit game to salvage the second game of a doubleheader 10-2. In the first game a pair of North Lake College pitchers combined for a three-hit shutout in a 3-0 win.

"It was a tale of two games today, but we did get great starting pitching both games," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

Sophomores Trent Elshire (Plattsmouth) and Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) registered three-hit, two-RBI games in Game 2 along with freshman Jason Serafinchon (Spruce Grove, Alberta) who hit MCC's first home run of the year.

"Game 2 was a great turnaround, and it was good to see us respond," said Olsen.

North Lake goes to 1-6 on the season,

MCC goes to 2-2, and the team will be back in Texas Friday to start a three-game series at Clarendon College where Coach Kregg Snook is the head coach. He is a former MCC assistant. The two teams play a doubleheader starting at noon Friday with a single game Saturday starting at noon.

MCC's first home series is scheduled for Feb. 25 and 26 against Northeastern Junior College.

For all the up-to-date information on MCC baseball this season including up-to-date scheduling changes, statistics, rosters and photos, please visit the official website of MCC Athletics at mccindians.com

GAME 1 –North Lake College 3, MCC 0: The Blazers took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a single, a sacrifice bunt, a groundball, and a wild pitch with two outs.

Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) lined a two-out triple in the MCC fourth but was stranded there. MCC put runners on first and second in the fifth inning with one out, but the next two batters failed to make contact.

"Offensively it's probably the worst we've struggled in a few years" said Olsen. "but hopefully we can take the lessons from it and learn."

Sophomore Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) started on the mound for MCC on kept his team in the game allowing one run through five innings, but in the sixth, after a one-out North Lake double, Acierno gave way to freshman Blake Banello (Thornton, Colo.). He walked the first hitter he faced and with a 2-0 count on the second hitter, North Lake executed a double steal. A ground out to shortstop scored the first runner and a wild pitch gave the Blazers a 3-0 lead.

Acierno pitched 5.1 innings, allowed one earned run on three hits, no walks, and four strikeouts. Banello allowed one earned run in his two-thirds of an inning, on one walk and a strikeout.

"Mikey really threw well," Olsen said.

MCC was held to three hits in the game, including Maysonave's triple and singles by sophomores Trent Elshire (Plattsmouth) and Oliver Davies (Canberra, Australia).

GAME 2 –MCC 10, North Lake College 2: MCC came out with a three-run first inning. Trent Elshire led off the game with a single and after a fielder's choice, Ethan Murdoch doubled to put MCC up 1-0. He scored on a Josh Maysonave single, and Jason Serafinchon made it a 3-0 game with an RBI-single.

Elshire doubled to lead off the second and came home on an RBI-single off the bat of Oliver Davies to give MCC a 4-0 lead.

Freshman Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia) took the start on the mound. After a leadoff single in the second, he loaded the bases with two walks, then wiggled off the hook trading a run for a groundout. A balk led to the second run, but Chabi induced a groundout and strikeout to escape with the 4-2 lead. He picked up the win, hurling four innings, allowing one hit, two walks, two earned runs and he fanned four.

Murdoch tripled with one out in the fourth and scored on RBI-single from Riley Watson (sophomore, Sydney, Australia) to put MCC up 5-2.

Serafinchon hit a home run leading off the fifth and Murdoch singled in Oliver Davies with two outs to give MCC a 7-2 edge. Three walks in the sixth, a Serafinchon double and a two-run RBI single from Elshire gave MCC its final three runs of the game.

Freshman Aiden Johnson (Westminster, Colo.), pitched the final three innings of scoreless, hitless relief. He struck out six and didn't walk a hitter.

"Myles outside of the second inning was really good and Aiden was lights-out in his three innings," Olsen said.