Indians' bats clicking in 17-7 win at Heston College

HESSTON, Kan. – The McCook Community College baseball team banged out 21 hits Wednesday in a 17-7 win at Hesston College. The game was shortened to eight innings by the 10-run rule.

"I thought we played pretty good today, offensively we swung the bat extremely well, had a few guys that had really good days which was good to see," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. "Offensively we are getting to where we need to be."

A pair of Riverton, Wyoming players delivered back-to- back home runs in the fourth inning to give MCC starting pitcher Aiden Johnson (sophomore, Westminster, Colo.) the cushion he needed to pick up the win.

Sophomore Blake Dale lined a homer to right field and Nathan Hutchison followed with a four-bagger to left field – part of MCC's seven extra-base hits on the day.

"Defensively we only made one mistake and that phase had been getting better as well, on the mound it was good to get Aiden back out there, we cut down the free passes which was good to see," said Olsen.

Sophomore Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario) and freshman Luke Bies (Omaha Gross) both had four hit games. Dale drove in four runs on the day. Quick and sophomore Jackson Yeager (Omaha Westside) both drove in three runs.

Hesston College goes to 2-12 on the season.

MCC improves to 4-9. The Indians have a week off before heading south for a six-game spring break trip. On March 13 they play twice against the Northwest Oklahoma State JV team in Alva, Okla. On March 15 it's on to Dallas for a pair of games against Dallas College North Lake play Dallas College-Richland on March 16.

The Indians will be home March 23-24 to start the Region IX schedule for a four-game series against Lamar Community College. Doubleheaders both days start at 1 p.m.

On Wednesday Hesston took a 2-0 lead in the first with two-out double in the first but MCC came back with the game's next 10 runs.

In the second MCC got three runs with two outs. Quick led off the inning with a single. With one out Bies drove Quick home on a single. Quick scored with two out on a single from Jake Quinlivan (Sydney, Australia). Dale put MCC up 3-2 with his RBI-single.

In the MCC third, Quick delivered an RBI-single to make it a 4-2 Indian lead.

Quinlivan singled to lead off the fourth and Dale followed with a two-run home run give McCook a 6-2 edge and Hutchison followed it with a homer of his own. A Hesston error extended the inning and MCC took advantage with an RBI-single by Bies and a two-run double from Yeager to give MCC a 10-2 lead.

The Larks scored two in the bottom of the inning, one unearned but MCC responded in the top of the fifth with two, two-out runs on an RBI single by Quick and an RBI-double by Jason Serafinchon (sophomore, Spruce Grove, Alberta) to put the Indians in front 12-4.

Johnson pitched through the fifth for MCC and allowed five hits on three earned runs, two walks and he struck out six.

Yeager tripled home Bies in the sixth and Dale made it a 14-4 lead with a sacrifice fly to bring home Yeager.

Hesston scored three times in the sixth on a two-out home run off MCC sophomore reliever Zack Lane (Phoenix, Ariz.). Lane went two innings, allowing two hits and three runs.

The Indians were able to put the game away on the 10-run rule with three in the eighth inning keyed by a two-run single by freshman Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), and an RBI-single from Quick.

Freshman Tobey Cassino (Arvada, Colo.) closed out the game retiring the Larks in order in the eight with two strikeouts.

"I thought Tobey's inning was really good, we need to continue to create depth on the mound," said Olsen.