WNCC baseball falls to McCook

               MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team wrapped up the regular season by dropping a 12-5 contest to McCook Community College Sunday afternoon in an Empire Conference North contest.

                The Cougars will now prepare for a weekend 2-out-of-3 first-round Region IX playoff series on the road. Official opponents will be announced later this week.

                Sunday’s contest saw the Cougars start well, but McCook plated 10 runs in the first three innings and never looked back for the victory.

                WNCC started strong as Max Adam singles and scored on a Shintaro Inoue home run for the quick 2-0 lead. It was short-lived as McCook plated six in the first and four in the third for the 10-2 lead.

                The Cougars cut the deficit in half with three in the seventh when the Cougars loaded the bases on singles by Adam, Bryce Peterson, and Inoue. Two runs came in to score on a ground ball error and Roangeraud Fraai had a singled to score Eli Hernandez to make it 10-5.

                McCook, after being held scoreless for the previously three innings, came back and added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings for the 12-5 lead.

                WNCC finished with nine hits in the contest. Inoue led the way with a 3-for-5 plate appearance with a home run, two RBIs, and a run scored. Adam also collected two hits with two runs scored from his lead-off spot.

                WNCC used five pitchers on the day. Grant DeClue got the start and went two innings in allowing three hits, six runs, and striking out three. Thibault Mercadier and Nicolas Tremblay each went two innings. Mercadier allowed four hits and four runs while striking out two, whole Tremblay allowed two hits and struck out two.

                Mytchell Pollock and Eli Hernandez each tossed an inning giving up a run. Pollock struck out one while Hernandez struck out two.

 

WNCC                   200 000 300 – 5 9 3

McCook               604 000 11 – 12 12 2

LP – Grant DeClue.

HR – Shintaro Inoue.