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Dramatic win lifts Indian baseball men up standings
The McCook Community College baseball team came from an 11-4 deficit in the sixth inning Sunday to down Northeastern Junior College 13-11, and win the three-game series with the Plainsmen 2-1.
The Indians scored four runs in the sixth inning, four more in the seventh to take the lead and pushed another run home in the eighth.
“We knew it was an important series, and felt like we needed to get two out of three,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “Just one win would make it hard and if we got beat all three we wouldn’t have had a chance to host, a first-round Region IX tournament game.”
After splitting a doubleheader with Northeastern Saturday, MCC improves to 17-14 in the Empire League and moves into the second-place spot. The top two teams in the Empire League’s North Division will get to host a first-round Region IX Playoff series.
Southeast Community College leads the standings at 20-6. With the two losses this weekend, NJC slides to third place at 16-14 and Western Nebraska fourth at 14-15.
“Our guys came ready and we got a great game on the mound yesterday in Game 1, NJC has a good team it was a tough series for sure,” Olsen said.
The Indians and will host Western Nebraska this weekend with a three-game series starting with a doubleheader at noon Saturday and a nine-inning game Sunday. Southeast hosts NJC in a three-game set to close out their Region IX schedules.
On Sunday, MCC got up 1-0 in the first and 4-2 in the third.
Arjun Huerta, (sophomore, Willemstad, Curacao) walked to lead off the MCC first, and later scored on an NJC error. Trailing 2-1 in the third, it was Huerta who tied the game with a home run to left field to lead off the inning. Freshman Daniel Bannon (Sydney, Australia) followed with a single and sophomore Ricardo Hernandez (sophomore, Ponce, Puerto Rico) clouted a two-run home run to left field to put MCC up 4-2.
Starting pitcher Ethan Fritz (Bellevue, Neb.) pitched into the fourth inning and was relieved by Alex Lozada (sophomore, San Juan, Puerto Rico) who pitched to six batters and then gave way to Mitchell Driver (sophomore, Sydney, Australia) who pitched the fifth. The three pitchers allowed 12 hits, as NJC scored five times in the fourth and four times in the fifth inning.
“I felt like today we just kept playing the game,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “We try and talk about just playing the game, good or bad just keep playing, we have an offense that can score some runs in bunches so the longer we play the more of a chance we give ourselves.”
Trailing 11-4 in the sixth inning, the bottom three hitters in the Indian batting order started the rally. Sophomore Ryan Nourse (Centennial, Colo.) led the inning off with a single, freshman Benny Brockmoller (North Platte) doubled, and sophomore Elijah Munoz (Big Spring, Texas) singled home Nourse. Brockmoller scored on a wild pitch and when Huerta made it four-straight hits to start off the inning, his double drove home Munoz. Kade Wroot (sophomore, North Platte) drove home Huerta on a sacrifice fly to pull the Indians to within 11-8.
Freshman Jordan “Moose” Muschalek (Odessa, Texas) who came in in relief in the sixth inning with a one-two-three inning allowed a hit single and hit a batter but escaped the inning.
“It’s really hard to give enough credit to Moose for the job he did the last four innings,” Olsen said, and also noted the defense at third base by Munoz. “Elijah made some great plays at third to keep innings from starting for them and when we can throw up zeros we have a chance.”
Brockmoller walked to lead off the MCC seventh and later scored on a Huerta single, to make it 11-9. Bannon followed with a single. An NJC error and a wild pitch led to two more runs and the Indians took the lead on a two-out single to right field by sophomore Caleb Eiguren (sophomore, Broomfield, Colo.).
After two quick outs in the NJC eighth, Muschalek put a pair of runners on base with a walk and a double, but induced a groundout to end the inning. The Indians added an insurance run in the bottom of the eight. After Huerta was hit by a pitch, he scored on a double by Bannon.
After two quick outs in the NJC ninth, Muschalek again put a pair of runners on base with a double and a hit batter, but induced a strikeout to end the game. Muschalek picked up the win with four innings of relief. He allowed three hits, walked one and struck out three.
MCC had 15 hits on the afternoon with the top two hitters in the lineup reaching base nine times. Huerta was three-for four with three RBIs, a walk, a double, a home run, five runs, a stolen base, and was hit by a pitch. Bannon went four-for-six with a pair of stolen bases. Hernandez and freshman Zack Beatty (Maple Park, Ill.) both had two-hit games.
MCC goes to 26-23 overall and in addition to the weekend-ending Region IX schedule, the Tribe has a pair of mid-week games left at home against Colby starting Saturday at 2 p.m. and again May 3 at 2 p.m.
For more photos from today’s game please visit the McCook Community College Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook