MCC Baseball loses to Clarendon in costly eighth inning

CLARENDON, Texas – The Clarendon baseball team scored eight runs in the eighth inning Sunday to push back McCook Community 20-14 and sweep the three-game series.

MCC had leads of 10-0 in the third inning and 14-7 in the fourth.

"It was disappointing having leads like we did and not finish it off," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen."

Clarendon got back in the game with three runs in the fifth and two in the sixth to get within 14-12 before the eight-run eighth.

The Bulldogs led off the eighth with a solo home run followed by a walk, a sacrifice bunt, an intentional walk and then tied the game on a single and took the lead 15-14 on an errant throw from the outfield. Clarendon followed with two walks and a single to go up 17-14, then with two outs got a three-run from Christian Fernandez – his second of the inning – for the final margin of victory.

"My main concern going into the day was showing our 'want to compete', I didn't feel like we'd seen that yet, and it was there today," said Olsen.

MCC opened the scoring in the third inning with 10 runs. After a Clarendon error, sophomore Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) put MCC up 2-0 on a home run. Josh Maysonave (sophomore Austin, Texas) followed with a single and scored on an RBI-double off the bat of sophomore Oliver Davies (Canberra, Australia) and a double from Alliskair Descartes (sophomore, Thornton, Colo.) to go up 4-0. After an RBI-single from Daegen Morcom (Winnipeg, Manitoba), and a pair of walks, Murdoch was hit by a pitch to give MCC a 6-0 lead and with two outs got an RBI single from Maysonave, and a bases-loaded single by Davies and an error to make it a 10-0 lead.

"We got the bats going a bit against some pretty good arms we just had a hard time slowing them down," said Olsen.

Clarendon responded with seven runs in the bottom of the inning. The Bulldogs scored five runs to chase MCC starting pitcher Mikey Acierno (sophomore. Thornton, Colo.). He went 2.2 innings and surrendered six hits and was charged with seven runs on a walk and four strikeouts.

 Up 10-7 in the fourth, MCC got a three-run home run from Trent Elshire (Plattsmouth). A Clarendon error led to another run and put MCC up 14-7.

Freshman Aiden Johnson (Westminster, Colo.) came on in the third inning and went 3.1 innings allowing three earned runs in the fifth and two unearned runs in the sixth. along with eight hits. He struck out seven and departed with a 14-12 lead.

Pitchers Blake Banello (freshman Thornton, Colo.) and sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) got MCC through the seventh inning but in the eighth, Lester gave way after facing six batters. MCC used pitchers Tyus Chudomelka (sophomore Bellevue) and freshman Victor Nane, (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) in the eighth inning.

"Outside of the loss I did see some things that are going to help us down the road, we just have to keep playing," Olsen said.

MCC had 12 hits in the game with three from Davies and two each by Murdoch, Maysonave, Descartes and Morcom. Davies, Elshire and Murdoch all had three RBIs.

Clarendon improves to 5-1 under former MCC Assistant Kregg Snook.

MCC falls to 2-5. On Wednesday the team was scheduled to travel to Garden City for a 2 p.m. game, but that game was pushed back to Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.. The team will play three games over the weekend in Parsons, Kan. with games on Saturday against Ellsworth Community College and Labette Community College and a game Sunday with Ellsworth.

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