MCC Baseball opens post-season series against Lamar Friday at home

The McCook Community College baseball team will open the post-season at home Friday to start a best-of-three series against Lamar Community College. First pitch Friday is set for 2 p.m. with action Saturday starting at 1 p.m. with a second game (if necessary) to follow. The Jaycees Sports Complex has been a true home-field advantage as MCC has gone 16-4 at home.

This is the third year using the post-season format to include all eight Region IX teams, grouped into two four-team conferences. They are seeded in the first round and play a cross-conference playoff. MCC finished second in the Empire Conference North Division behind Southeast Community College. Both those teams earned first round home series along with the top two teams in the Empire Conference South Division, Trinidad State and Otero Junior College.

Luna Community College (Las Vegas, N.M.) actually finished with the second-best record in the South Division but was ruled ineligible for the post-season because of a coaching suspension issue. Because of that, Southeast Community College, the top team in the North Division received a first-round bye and moves into final-four playoff the following week in Windsor, Colo.

Other first-round matchups include Western Nebraska at Trinidad State and Northeastern Junior College at Otero Junior College.

On March 14, after losing a pair of home games to top-seeded Southeast Community College, MCC's record fell to 8-13 overall and 3-7 in the region. The next day MCC traveled to Alva, Okla. where they swept a doubleheader and didn't lose again until April 2. The 16-game winning streak was the most in MCC baseball history and included home-series sweeps of Lamar March 19-20 (four games), Luna March 24-25 (three games) and Otero April 1-2 (four games).

MCC's 33 wins this season is the most in the past 10 years and the 22-12 record against Region IX opponents is also the best in the past 10 years.

Offensively MCC has a team batting average of .313, and is 10^th in the nation among 170 Division I schools, with 495 runs, averaging 9.1 runs per game, 122 doubles (ninth most in the nation), 81 home runs (sixth highest total in NJCAA), as well as top-10 totals in extra-base hits, total bases, 12^th in walks, and 16^th in slugging percentage.

MCC pitchers have a 6.35 team ERA and have struck out 381 hitters in 377 innings.

Sophomore right fielder Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) leads the team with 16 home runs on the year and 71 RBIs in 53 games, and a batting average of .413. He's eighth in the nation with 160 total bases, 13^th in RBIs and 20^th in home runs. He has a .506 on-base average and an .800 slugging mark. He is a three-time Region IX player of the week. He is flanked in left field by sophomore Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) batting .297 with 11 homers and 41 RBIs in 49 games. Murdoch and Maysonave have batted third and fourth in the batting order most of the year.

Freshman Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario) Michael has occupied the leadoff position as designated hitter for much of the season and is batting .354 with a .440 on-base percentage with six home runs and 45 RBIs in 46 games. Sophomore shortstop Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.) has batted second in the order and has a .289 batting average with eight home runs and 45 RBIs in 53 games.

At third base, Abel Reyes (sophomore, Puerto Caimito, Panama) has settled in as the No. 5 hitter, batting .333 with eight home runs and 40 RBIs in 43 games. Freshman Jason Serafinchon (Spruce Grove, Alberta) holds down first base and is batting .336 with five home runs and 34 RBIs in 39 games. Freshman catcher Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.), is batting .328 with 12 home runs and 42 RBIs in 42 games.

Leading the pitching staff, Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) started 11 games and leads the team with 61.2 innings pitched with a 5-4 record, a 6.42 ERA and 59 strikeouts. Freshman Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia), leads MCC with eight wins and an 8-3 record and a 4.23 ERA in 13 starts. He has fanned 47 in 55 innings. Freshman Aiden Johnson (Westminster, Colo.) leads the team with 71 strikeouts in 50.1 innings pitched, with a 3-1 record and a 4.29 ERA. Sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation and went 5-2 in eight starts (13 appearances) with a 4.70 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 46 innings.

Redshirt freshman Rocky Yates (Sydney, Australia) and freshman Jereniel Herrera (Panama City, Panama) head the bullpen where they each have three saves. Yates also started three games and went 3-0 overall with a 8.38 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 19.1 innings. Herrera went 3-1 and struck out 16 hitters in 16.1 innings with a 4.96 ERA.

MCC vs. Lamar: The two teams faced off in McCook March 19-20 with MCC winning all four games by the scores of 19-5, 5-2, 6-4 and 13-10. At that time it brought MCC to a six-game winning streak which began on March 14 and reached 16 games on April 2.

The Runnin Lopes are 17-37 overall and went 13-21 in Region IX. They have scored 378 runs (7.0 per game) with a .291 batting average and a .496 slugging average with Lamar pitchers at a 12.72 ERA.

The Lopes are 5-23 on the road this year and are led offensively by sophomore catcher Brian Dedezma who is batting .406 with 17 homeruns and 65 RBIS in 48 games and sophomore shortstop Garret Rede, batting .343 with 15 homers and 53 RBIs in 54 games. Freshman Damien Ashley leads the pitching staff with four wins and 54 strikeouts.

In 2022, after Lamar took all four of the regular season games, the two teams met in Lamar for the opening round of the post-season best-of-three series and the Runnin Lopes ended MCC's season winning the first game 8-5, losing the second game 10-3 and winning the series clincher 16-13.

In 2021, after MCC opened the post-season with a 2-0 series sweep over Luna Community to advance to the final four in Colorado Springs, Lamar knocked off MCC 9-8 in the double elimination tournament and MCC's season then ended with an 8-7 loss to Southeast Community College.

In 2019 Lamar swept all four of the regular-season games before the coronavirus shut down the season.

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