MCC Baseball surrenders 4-0 lead in the sixth and fall to Southeast 5-4

BEATRICE – The Southeast Community College Storm downed McCook Community College Monday 5-4 to sweep the three-game Empire League North series. The Storm overcame a 4-0 deficit with a run in the sixth inning, tied the game with three in the seventh and scored the game-winner in the eighth inning.

MCC got the scoring started in the third inning with a leadoff double by freshman catcher Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.) who scored on a one-out single by freshman Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario). Sophomore Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.) gave MCC a 2-0 lead with an RBI-single and a two-run error by the Storm put MCC on top 4-0.

Freshman starting pitcher Aiden Johnson (Westminster, Colo.) kept the Storm in check until he hit a batter with bases loaded and two outs in the sixth inning to make it a 4-1 game.

Southeast shifted the momentum of the game shutting down MCC in order in the top of the seventh then started the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles to knock Johnson out of the game in favor of freshman reliever Ethan Badcock (Adelade, Australia). Badcock walked the first hitter he faced then the Storm got a run on a groundout then tied the game on a two-run single.

"I thought we got an excellent start from Aiden, he was really good through six innings and I thought he could get us one more, they got a couple good swings off and we just couldn't hold the lead," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

Johnson was charged with three earned runs in his six innings of work, allowing eight hits, one walk and he struck out four. Badcock faced three batters and allowed a run on a hit and a walk in one-third inning pitched. Freshman Jereniel Herrera (Panama City, Panama) finished out the inning.

MCC managed a two-out walk in the eighth but that's as far as the runner went. In the bottom of the inning Southeast got a two-out RBI single by Danny Spongeberg to go up 5-4.

Herrera went 1.2 innings, allowing two hits one earned run and he struck out four.

Minic drew a leadoff walk in the ninth but MCC didn't get the ball out of the infield.

"We just didn't do a good job of continuing to score after we went up 4-0, and that ended up doing us in," said Olsen.

Southeast outhit MCC 11-5. Descartes had two hits for MCC.

Southeast improves to 24-3 to lead the Empire League North (Region IX) standings and go to 34-10 overall.

MCC goes to 16-11 in the standings and 27-18 overall.

MCC will be home Tuesday for a 3:30 p.m. game against Colby and then is on the road for more Empire League North play this weekend at Sterling, Colo. with a Saturday doubleheader against Northeastern Junior College and a single game Sunday.

"We need to bounce tomorrow and then obviously have a big weekend up in front of us," said Olsen.

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