MCC Baseball sweeps Western Nebraska; assured of home-field playoff series

The McCook Community College baseball team swept a pair of games from Western Nebraska Saturday winning the first game 6-5 and taking the second game 14-4 in eight innings on an afternoon with steady 25-30 mph winds at the Jaycees Sports Complex.

With the Game 1 win, MCC clinches a home-series next weekend to start the Region IX playoffs. MCC will host the third place team from the Empire League South conference in a best-of-three series. MCC also clinches second place in the Empire Conference North behind Southeast Community College.  

"It was a tough day to play today," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. "I thought our guys did a nice job defensively, and on the mound. Playing in the wind, it's not easy on fly balls on a day like today and I thought we hung tough."

On Saturday, three MCC pitchers combined to strike out 18 Cougars on the afternoon and sophomore Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) drove in four runs in each game to pace the MCC offense.

In Game 1, Murdoch tripled in a run in his first at bat and doubled in three in his second at bat to back the pitching of Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia) who went into the seventh inning before needing relief help from freshman Jereniel Herrera (freshman, Panama City, Panama).

"Ethan had a couple big swings and Myles had a good start, he tried to finish it off just ran in to a little trouble in the seventh seventh, but Herrera did a nice job of coming in and closing it out," Olsen said.

In Game 2 sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) fanned 11 hitters in six innings and sophomore Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) pitched two scoreless relief innings.

"We just really pitched it, Owen and Mikey were really good today," Olsen said.

The Cougars go to 11-36 overall and 9-22 in Region IX play.

MCC improves to 32-20 and 21-12 in the region.

"That wrapped up the two seed for us today to be at home next weekend, that is a really good thing," Olsen said. We have two more games in the regular season, and it would be good to go out and finish off what's been a really nice year."

MCC and Western Nebraska will wrap up their series Sunday with a single game starting at 1 p.m. MCC will close out the regular season Monday at home against Colby starting at 2 p.m.

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 – McCook CC 6, Western Nebraska 5: MCC scored a pair of first-inning runs on a single by sophomore transfer Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.), a triple by Ethan Murdoch and a two-out single by Abel Reyes (sophomore, Puerto Caimito, Panama).

Freshman Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.) was hit by a pitch to lead off the second inning and sophomore Daegen Morcom (Winnipeg, Manitoba) singled. After a walk, Murdoch smashed a two-out, three-run double to put MCC on top 5-0.

The Cougars scored twice in the third off MCC starting pitcher Myles Chabi  to make it a 5-2 game.

MCC scored a run in the sixth on singles by Reyes and freshman Jason Serafinchon (Spruce Grove, Alberta), and a two-out RBI from Tyus Chudomelka (sophomore, Bellevue).

Trailing 6-2 in the seventh, Western Nebraska got a three-run home run from Hunter McCollum to cut the MCC lead to 6-5 and chase Chabi from the game. He went 6.1 innings, allowing seven hits, no walks and he struck out five. All five of the runs he allowed were earned.

Jereniel Herrera came on in relief and walked the first hitter he faced. After a lineout and an intentional walk, he saved the game with a flyout to right field.

MCC had nine hits in the game with two each by Murdoch, Reyes and Morcom. Murdoch drove in four runs.

GAME 2 – McCook CC 14, Western Nebraska 4: The Cougars took the lead with a run in the first. MCC tied the game in the second with a leadoff double by Abel Reyes, a single from Jason Serefinchon and a sacrifice fly by Zeke Minic.

In the third MCC launched a two-out rally. Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) hit a two-run home run, Reyes singled and later scored on an RBI from Minic to put MCC up 5-1. An inning later MCC upped the lead to 6-1 on a single by Tyus Chudomelka and later a wild pitch.

The Cougars cut the lead to 6-4 in the sixth with a pair of unearned runs. Owen Lester allowed two earned runs in six innings, five hits, a walk and he fanned 11 Cougars.

MCC got three runs back in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, a walk, a Murdoch single and an error gave MCC one run, Reyes singled to score Murdoch and a wild pitch let the third run score to put MCC up 9-4. In the seventh, MCC scored four runs without a hit with a hit batter, four walks, a Cougar error and a sacrifice fly.

MCC scored a run in the eighth to end the game on the 10-run rule.

Mikey Acierno came on in relief and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, one walk and he struck out two.

MCC had nine hits in the game with two each by Murdoch, Reyes and Morcom.