Trojans send MCC baseball to fourth straight loss with 17-8 setback

The Colby Community College baseball team scored four runs in the third, fourth and eighth innings and went on to a 17-8 win over McCook Community College Tuesday at the Jaycees Sports Complex.

The Trojans scored seven unearned runs on the day and mixed in a pair of grand slams and a pair of two-run home runs.

"We just really struggled in every facet today. I felt like we got behind in the count and they didn't miss pitches," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. "We didn't play very clean on defense and offensively we didn't really ever get it going."

Colby scored a pair of runs off starter Rocky Yates (redshirt freshman, Sydney, Australia) in the second of his two innings. He allowed two hits and one earned run with three strikeouts.

MCC took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the second on a leadoff double by freshman Jackson Yeager (Omaha Westside), a triple by sophomore Riley Watson (Sydney, Australia), an RBI single from Will Edwards (Sydney, Australia), a hit batter with the bases loaded and a passed ball.

"We had a few good swings in the second, back-to-back, but we just didn't stay consistent," said Olsen.

Freshman Zack Lane (Phoenix, Ariz.) pitched the third and surrendered four unearned runs with an error in front of a Colby grand slam to put the Trojans up 6-4. Lane allowed two hits, one walk and one strikeout.

Colby took a 10-4 lead with four more runs in the fourth off freshman Ethan Badcock (Adelade, Australia) freshman who allowed the first six batters he faced to reach base before ending the inning on a doubleplay ball and a strikeout. He allowed four hits and walked two with one strikeout. A pair of walks, an error, a wild pitch and passed ball gave two runs back to MCC in the bottom of the inning to cut the Colby lead to 10-6.

Freshman Blake Dale (Riverton, Wyo.) delivered a two-out, two-run double in the fifth to cut the deficit to 10-8 but Colby added two unearned runs in the sixth with Victor Nane, (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) in his second inning of relief. He allowed one hit, one walk, no earned runs and two strikeouts in his two innings of work.

Jackson Bigge (Fort Collins, Colo.) pitched a scoreless seventh inning but Colby scored four times on Ryan Heu (Brampton, Ontario) in the eighth on a pair of two-run home runs. Sophomore Jelle Bing (Heerhugowaard, Netherlands), pitched the ninth and allowed a run on one hit, one walk and one earned run.

MCC had eight hits in the game with two each by Edwards and sophomore Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan).

Colby improves to 11-29 on the season.

MCC goes to 27-19 overall and the team hits the road for an Empire League North series this weekend at Sterling, Colo. with a Saturday doubleheader against Northeastern Junior College and a single game Sunday.

"I talked to our guys about there is always a natural ebb and flow to the season, and we had a tough three days," Olsen said. "But we have a good group. We'll bounce back and have an important series this weekend and hopefully we grasp the importance of it and step up to the challenge."

MCC is in second place in the Empire League North standings at 16-11 with Northeastern Junior College third at 15-12. The top two teams in the standings will host a first-round Region IX home playoff series against the bottom two teams in the Empire League South. NJC took two out of three games earlier in the season against MCC. Southeast Community College, which just swept MCC in a three-game series Sunday and Monday, leads the standings at 24-3 with Western Nebraska in fourth place at 6-18.

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