MCC baseball loses twice on Opening Day

DALLAS, Texas – The McCook Community College baseball team opened the season Friday with a pair of losses to Dallas College Brookhaven.

The Bears won the first game 5-4 and took the second game 9-4.

"Obviously it's not the way we wanted to start the season, but it was just kind of a different day," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. "If we made a mistake they capitalized and we couldn't get off the field with two outs."

Of the 14 runs the Bears scored, 10 came with two outs.

"We just had one bad inning each game, and that happens early but doesn't mean it's not frustrating," said Olsen.

The Indians had a 3-2 lead in Game 1 in the fourth inning when DCB's ninth-place hitter drew a four-pitch walk. The leadoff hitter was down 0-2 but MCC served up a bad pitch to surrender a three-run home run.

"Then we had a great opportunity to take the lead in top seventh with two guys on and no outs and the top of lineup coming up, they just got a couple big outs," said Olsen.

In Game 2, the Bear's five-run second inning started with an error but then MCC walked the next two hitters. After two outs, Dallas had three straight two-out hits.

"We just can't combine the mistakes," said Olsen.

MCC hitters only struck out six times in the doubleheader, hit four home runs but only scored eight runs.

"I thought it was a very weird day offensively," said Olsen. "A lot of times those numbers will be different, especially in Game 2, we hit probably six or eight balls hard right at them, but they don't walk guys and made plays and that's the way baseball goes certain days," Olsen said.

The Bears improve to 7-1 on the season.

MCC will close out the three-game series Saturday in a 1 p.m. game.

"We need to have a good day tomorrow," said Olsen.

All the latest information for MCC baseball including up-to-date schedule and changes as well as statistics, rosters and photos can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com

GAME 1 – Dallas College Brookhaven 5, McCook CC 4: MCC started the season with a pair of first-inning runs. On the game's third pitch freshman Maddox Shaver (Belleville Ontario) hit a solo homerun to left field. With two outs freshman Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) singled and scored on a double by sophomore Jason Serafinchon (Spruce Grove, Alberta).

Sophomore Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia) pitched the first four innings for MCC, giving up a run in the first and second innings.

MCC took a 3-2 lead in the third with a Shaver single, an error and a fielder's choice.

Dallas College took a 5-3 lead with three runs in the fourth inning. Chabi left the game allowing four earned runs on five hits, two walks and four strikeouts. Sophomore Ethan Badcock (Adelaide, Australia) came on in relief.

Wouters drilled a leadoff home run in the sixth to make it a 5-4 game.

In the seventh, MCC put the first two hitters of the seventh inning on base with walks, but the heart of the batting order was unable to push the tying room home.

Badcock pitched two innings, walked one and struck out three.

MCC was held to five hits with two each by Shaver and Wouters and one by Serafinchon.

GAME 2 – Dallas College Brookhaven 9, McCook CC 4: Sophomore Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario) put MCC up 1-0 win a solo home run in the first.

Dallas College Brookhaven scored five runs in the second and added two each in the third and fifth innings.

MCC came back with three runs in the sixth. Wouters had a one-out single followed by a two-run home run by Serafinchon. With two outs freshman Jean Duran (San Carlos, Dominican Republic) hit an RBI-double.

Sophomore Ryan Malone (Bennington) pitched the first four innings for MCC, allowing two earned runs on four hits, three walks and six strikeouts. Freshman Tobey Cassino (Arvada, Colo.) allowed two earned runs in his two innings of work, allowing two his and striking out two.

Both teams had six hits in the game.