Southeast Storm take pair of Sunday games from MCC Baseball

BEATRICE – In a battle for first place in the Empire League North standings, the McCook Community College baseball team dropped a Sunday doubleheader to Southeast Community College 12-2 and 16-13.

"We just had a really bad day today against a good team and it wasn't a good combo," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

In Game 1, the Storm applied the pressure early and scored in every inning in a 12-2 win in six innings.

"In Game 1 we just never competed at the plate, their two guys did a nice job, but I thought we could have been better," said Olsen.

MCC had leads of 5-0 and 10-3 in Game 2, but gave up 10 runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth inning in the nine-inning game.

"In Game 2 we fought to build a nice lead and then let it slip away in one inning," said Olsen. "I was super disappointed in the fifth inning, we just abandoned everything we had been doing so well over the past 20 some games. We know we need to eliminate the big inning and we just made errors and walked guys, got behind in the count had multiple mental errors -- everything that you could do to give up a big inning."

Southeast extends its lead in the Empire League North (Region IX) standings over MCC. The Storm are 23-3 in Region IX play and 33-10 overall.

MCC, second in the standings, goes to 16-10 in the region and 27-17 overall.

"I do think we can learn from it and get better down the road if we get into that situation again, have to be able to try and make something good out of it," said Olsen.

The two teams conclude their six-game season series Monday at noon. MCC will be home Tuesday for a 3:30 p.m. game against Colby.

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 – Southeast CC 12, McCook CC 2: Southeast scored runs in the first and second to take a 2-0 lead.

In the third, sophomore Abel Reyes (Puerto Caimito, Panama) led off the MCC third with a solo home run but the Storm scored five runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 7-1.

MCC got a run back in the fourth on a single by Ethan Murdoch (sophomore Swift Current, Saskatchewan) and a two-out, RBI-double by Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.).

Southeast put the game away with three runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the sixth to put the game away on the 10-run rule.

MCC starter Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) went three innings, allowed 11 hits, three walks and three strikeouts. Freshman William Coe (North Platte, Neb.) pitched the final two innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs.

MCC was limited to four hits in the game with two from Reyes.

GAME 2 – Southeast CC 16, McCook CC 13: Ethan Murdoch homered in the first and Able Reyes high a two-run homer in the second and MCC added two more on a pair of wild pitches and a passed ball to take a 5-0 lead.

The Storm scored three on MCC starter Myles Chabi (freshman, Sydney, Australia) in the bottom of the second to cut the gap to 5-3.

Sophomore Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) slashed a three-run home run in the fourth with two outs to give MCC an 8-3 lead.

Sophomore Trent Elshire (Plattsmouth) led off the fifth with a single. Freshman Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario) hit a one-out double. Sophomore Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.) doubled home Elshire, and Quick scored on a wild pitch to put MCC ahead 10-3.

An MCC error, a home run and another error started off what was a 10-run inning for Southeast. Chabi left after four batters in the fifth inning. He allowed seven hits and four earned runs in four innings, with two walks and two strikeouts. Redshirt freshman Rocky Yates (Sydney, Australia) faced four batters but was unable to record an out, allowing three hits and a walk. Sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) pitched the final four innings, allowing five hits, four earned runs, four walks and five strikeouts.

Down 15-10 in the seventh inning, Quick delivered an RBI-triple and a wild pitch and a bases-loaded walk cut the margin to 15-13, but MCC was unable to score in the eighth and ninth innings.

MCC had 13 hits in the game with five by Quick and two by Minick. The team committed four errors in the game leading to four unearned runs.