MCC baseball team sweeps Lopes to ace first playoff test

Abel Reyes watches the flight of the first of his two home runs Saturday as McCook Community College beat Lamar 20-13 to move on in post season play.

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The McCook Community College baseball team downed Lamar Saturday 20-13 to advance to the Region IX final four tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo. Thursday through Saturday. MCC took the best-of-three cross over series 2-0 and will open the round of four Thursday at 3 p.m. taking on Western Nebraska.

“I’m really happy with the outcome today, and it’s good to get back to the regional tournament,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “I’m just so proud of our guys and the year they’ve had.”

Leading 7-4 in the fifth inning, MCC broke open the game Saturday scoring twice in the fifth, three times in the sixth and six times in the seventh. MCC launched four home runs including a pair by sophomore Abel Reyes (Puerto Caimito, Panama) who drove in seven runs on the afternoon. Freshman Jason Serafinchon (Spruce Grove, Alberta) doubled twice and homered with five RBIs. Freshman Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.) homered with three hits and three RBIs.

“Abel had a huge day today and just everybody in the lineup one through nine all contributed,” said Olsen. “We weren’t as clean on the pitching side or defensively, we had a few too many free passes and had a couple defensive miscues early that cost us a few runs.”

Lamar opened the game with two runs in the first. In the bottom of the inning, Reyes put MCC on top 3-2 with a two-out, three run home run. The Runnin’ Lopes tied the game in the second but sophomore Tyus Chudomelka (Bellevue) put MCC back in front 4-3 with an RBI-single.

In the MCC third, Serafinchon lined a two-run double and Minic singled in Serafinchon to give MCC a 7-3 lead.

“Offensively today we just really kept going, we would give up a run or two and then answer right back,” said Olsen.

After neither team scored in the fourth, Lamar got a run back on a passed ball, but MCC added two in the bottom of the inning on a double by Reyes and a two-out, two-run double by Minic to put MCC on top 9-4.

Sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) started the game on the mound and picked up the win throwing five innings, allowing one earned run, three hits, four walks and five strikeouts.

Lamar got a run off reliever Mikey Acierno (sophomore, Thornton, Colo.) in the sixth but MCC scored three times in the bottom of the frame with a sacrifice fly by Reyes and a two-run double by Serafinchon to give the home team a 12-5 cushion.

In the bottom of the seventh MCC added six runs. A pair of leadoff walks and a wild pitch led to the first run. Sophomore Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.) drove home the second run on a sacrifice fly, and Reyes smashed a 1-0 pitch over the left field fence to drive in three more runs and Serafinchon followed with a solo homer to make it an 18-5 MCC lead. (The 10-run rule is not in effect in tournament elimination games.)

Lamar added three in the eighth and MCC scored twice, once on a bases-loaded walk and the other on a passed ball.

Acierno went three innings, allowed four earned runs on four hits, no walks and six strikeouts.

Redshirt freshman Rocky Yates (Sydney, Australia) pitched the ninth inning when Lamar scored five times on six hits.

MCC had 14 hits in the game with three each by Reyes, Serafinchon and Minic and two by freshman Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario).

Two MCC errors led to three unearned runs and MCC pitchers walked four hitters and hit five more.

“We will have to be better if we want to win the region title next week, and we are very capable, our pitching staff has done a really good job this year,” said Olsen. “Coach (Rhett) Miller has done so good with those guys, they work their tails off and we got a lot of guys that have put in the effort to be ready to go and are seeing success.”

Lamar closes out the season at 15-41.

MCC improves to 35-21 on the season. This was also the 18th win in 22 home games this season.

Southeast Community College won the Empire Conference North Division and gained a bye into the round of four because Luna Community College was ruled ineligible for post-season play. MCC was second in the north division.

Western Nebraska finished fourth in the north division but swept Trinidad State to advance to Windsor. The Cougars beat the top-seeded south team 24-12 on Friday and 13-9 on Saturday. Otero advanced with a series win over Northeastern Junior College.

Southeast CC will open the Region IX tournament Thursday at noon against Otero, followed by the MCC-Western Nebraska game.