Big hits, great pitcher lead MNB home win

Pitcher Konor Rakes made Lexington’s bats look like rusty yard tools while pitching a five-hitter and striking out 12 for the McCook National Bank Seniors Wednesday night at the Jaycees Complex.

Steve Towery/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — Hitting Konor Rakes with an early pitch turned into six innings of sting for Lexington Wednesday evening.

The bases-loaded “plunk” not only plated a McCook National Bank run, it turned into one more than Lex would produce all game against Rakes.

His 106 pitches didn’t strike one Lexington batter — but Rakes strike out 12 during the 7-0 Seniors’ victory at McCook’s Jaycees Complex.

Rakes only walked one while firing 71 strikes. He permitted one double which didn’t match an MNB barrage of clutch extra-base hits.

Drew Harvie’s double started the fun following a Cameryn Berry leadoff single in that first inning.

James Mockry and Logan Barenberg walked to load the bases in front of Rakes “wear one for the team” RBI.

The ensuing MNB runs reached home on a Mockry double, Seth Dugger single, Kaleb Gillen single, Dugger triple and Barenberg single.

Rakes was mowing down Lex batters faster than most parents can inspire their kids to rake leaves on autumn Saturdays.

The final three visiting batters went down on a grounder back to Rakes, strikeout and an easy pop fly into third baseman Dugger’s glove.

Game over.

Not surprisingly, McCook didn’t commit a single defensive error among the nine outs that Lex actually put into play.

The 7-0 win was a great response to last weekend’s tournament at Waverly where MNB went just 1-3.

Now they’ll focus on the busy “Border Wars” home tournament featuring three MNB home games in three days.

The Seniors host Colby, Kan., Friday night, who they defeated twice at Colby less than two weeks ago.

Brush, Colo., arrives to play Saturday including an 8 p.m. game vs. MNB.

On Sunday, the round-robin tourney concludes with McCook taking on a Lincoln North Star team at 2:30 p.m.

The complete Border Wars lineup of games appeared in Wednesday’s Gazette.

McCOOK (10-8)

Beat Lexington 7-0

AB R H RBI

Berry 2 2 1 0

Harvie 4 2 2 1

Mockry 3 1 1 1

Gillen 3 1 1 1

Dugger 4 1 2 2

Barenberg 3 0 1 1

Rakes 2 0 0 1

Koetter 2 0 0 0

Armstrong 2 0 0 0

WP: Rakes (2-1).

Best mound work: Only one MNB Senior was needed since Konor Rakes was striking out 12, walking just one and pitching seven shutout innings.

Doubles: Harvie (5), Mockry (3).

Triples: Dugger (2), Harvie (2).

RBIs: Dugger (8,9), Mockry (12), Rakes (10), Harvie (10), Gillen (7), Barenberg (4).

Stolen bases: Berry, Mockry.