MCC baseball season swings to its finish at Region IX

PUEBLO, Colo. — The McCook Community College baseball season came to an end Thursday with a pair of losses on the first day of the Region IX double-elimination tournament at Damon Runyon Park.

The Indians lost to Otero 6-5 in the first game and ended the season with a 6-3 loss to Western Nebraska in the second game.

“It was a tough way to end the year, things just didn’t break our way today,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

After sixth seeded Lamar opened up play Thursday with a 6-3 win over No. 3 Western Nebraska in the first game of the tournament, Otero scored three times in the first inning added two in the second and held a 6-2 lead until MCC came back in the ninth inning with a two-out, three run home run from sophomore Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) but fell short 6-5.

In the final game of the day, Western Nebraska scored a pair of runs in the third and fourth innings to lead 4-0 and after MCC battled back with two runs in the fifth and one more in the seventh, the Cougars sealed the win with two runs in the eighth.

“I thought we had a much better day offensively today than the box score showed,” said Olsen. “I’m not sure I could count the hard-hit balls that went right at guys’ today on both hands and we had a couple great catches made against us which is what the opponent needs to do to win.”

MCC ends the season with a 27-30 overall record.

“I’ve said it before and stick with it, I’m proud of this group, we were at a point in the season early where we could have packed it in and we turned things around,” said Olsen. “I just want to say thank you to our guys for the effort they put in and their ability to stick with it.

On Friday, top seeded Southeast Community College (22-6 in Region IX play) will play Otero (16-13) at noon Friday while second-seeded Northeastern Junior College (18-10) will play Lamar (13-16) in the other winner’s bracket game at 3 p.m. Western Nebraska (17-13) will play in an elimination game at 6 p.m.

The tournament continues with three games Saturday with the championship game (or games) Sunday starting at noon.