Northeastern baseball finished up their regular season this past weekend as they hosted Region leading Southeast Community College for a 3-game series.  In what was an important series for the Plainsmen, they won the series by taking 2 of the 3 games in weather that was not exactly cooperative.  By winning the series, Northeastern held their ground for a 3rd place finish in Region IX, which allows them to host a first round playoff game.  Playoffs will begin this Friday for NJC as they host the Otero Rattlers on Friday, May 6th (3pm) and Saturday, May 7th (1pm).  An "if necessary" game will take place at 3:30pm on Saturday.

(Game Recap 4/29) Plainsmen vs. Southeast CC = Win 9-2

Breakdown: A monster 8-run 1st inning pretty much shut the door on any hopes for SECC making a comeback to win the first game.  A mostly quiet game ensued after the 1st inning for both teams.  Sage Ferguson took the mound and pitched 6 solid innings that resulted in 7 strikeouts and only 2 earned runs.  It was Ferguson's 5th win of the season.  Alex Alva went 3-4 from the plate with a double, triple, a stolen base and 2 RBI's.  Caleb Rozier also had a good day at the plate going 3-4 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI's and 2 stolen bases.  Northeastern out hit SECC 12-3.

(Game Recap 4/29) Plainsmen vs. Southeast CC = Win 10-8

Breakdown: NJC found themselves up 8-0 before almost letting the game slip away by giving up 7-runs to SECC in the 5th inning.  Timely hitting and solid pitching kept Northeastern afloat as they took the win.  Alex Alva again had a great game from the plate as he went 4-6 that included a double, homerun and a RBI.  He also stole another base.  Jackson Trout hit a 3-run homer in his only hit of the game.  Zach Boone had himself a game at the plate going 3-4 with a double, homerun and a RBI.  Clay Sanger and Ryan Jones shared pitching duties and had a combined 10 strikeouts.  Jeffrey Behrends closed the game out and took his 6th save on the season.

(Game Recap 4/30) Plainsmen vs. Southeast CC = Loss 21-11

Breakdown: The Plainsmen scored all 11 runs in the first 2 innings, and then it was a landslide of runs from SECC as they polished off Northeastern, beating them by 10 runs.  Calvin Davis went 2-4 from the plate with 3 RBI's.  Donovan Jackson went 3-3 from the plate with 2 RBI's while hitting in the DH postion.  NJC used 5 different pitchers during the game to try and stop the on-slought of runs from SECC.  Mark Thurman took his 2nd loss on the season for NJC.  Hitting was even between the teams, but it was SECC who ended up with the bigger situational wins.

Alex Alva Gets Region IX Player Of The Week

Northeastern's 5'9" sophomore Alex Alva got the Region IX Player of the Week nod as he had a solid week of the season at the plate.  Alva comes to NJC from Littleton, Colorado and plays the infield position for the Plainsmen.  During the past week of the 2022 season for the Plainsmen, they played Region leading Southeast Community College to finish off the regular season.  This is the fifth Plainsmen to receive the Region IX Player of the Week award this season.

During the week, Alva played all 3 games Northeastern competed in during the stretch.  In those games, Alex went to the plate 11 times, got a hit in 8 of those at bats and scored 6 times.  Those 8 hits included 2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homeruns and 4 RBI's.  He also stole 2 bases as well bringing his season total to 32.  Big time batting rewarded Alva with a .727 batting average during the stretch.  Overall this season, Alva has a .389 batting average, .461 on-base percentage and a .558 slugging percentage.  Northeastern went 2-1 over the 3-game stretch with Alva's high level of play.

Northeastern needs players like Alex to continue the big play as the post season progresses to give the team a threat in the lineup in which other teams will have to be aware of.

Congrats to NJC infield player Alex Alva on being named Player of the Week for Region IX!  Keep up the great work!

The Plainsmen next take on Otero College at home this coming weekend for the 1st round of the Region IX baseball tournament.

Men's Golf Finishes in 2nd Place

Men's golf finished out their regular season play this past week as they competed in Torrington, Wyoming for the Eastern Wyoming College tournament.  NJC had another outstanding showing as they took 2nd place, finishing only 3 strokes behind the Region leading Eastern Wyoming.  Jackson Rottschafer finished with a tie for 1st place shooting 6 under par over the two days. 

It was a tight race between McCook Community College and Northeastern for 2nd place overall this season, and by beating out McCook in Torrington, they achieved that feat.  It was the highest finish in Region IX play for the Plainsmen in several seasons.  Matt Campbell ended the regular season by making 1st Team All-Region while Jackson Rottschafer made 2nd Team All-Region.  NJC also qualifed for the National Tournament which is a huge accomplishment for this young team.  The National Tournament takes place in Odessa, Texas May 10th through the 13th and Northeastern will be taking 6 players to compete.

Men's Results

Jackson Rottschafer - 138 (68-70) Tied for 1st Place

Matt Campbell - 144 (72-72) 5th Place

Trey Kuntz - 148 (75-73) Tied for 7th Place

Alex Tanner - 153 (78-75) 17th Place

Mason Bernard - 155 (78-77) Tied for 21st Place

Mateo Salcido - 157 (77-80) Tied for 26th Place

Philip Arnold - 164 (85-79) Tied for 33rd Place

Jacob Dollarhide - 170 (82-88) 36th Place