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MCC win streak now 16 with three-game weekend sweep
The McCook Community College baseball team swept two more Empire League games Sunday and extended the winning streak to 16 games. MCC opened the day with a 6-4 win then closed out the sweep with a 13-5 win in Game 2.
Sophomore Ethan Murdoch (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) went five-for-eight on the day with seven RBIs in Game 2 including a grand slam.
“It was good to finish off the weekend, and good to get the win in Game 1,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “It was a tight game that could’ve gone either way.”
MCC starting pitchers Aiden Johnson (freshman Westminster, Colo.) and sophomore Owen Lester (St. Charles, Ill.) combined to pitch 11 of the 14 innings and struck out 22 Rattlers on the afternoon. Redshirt freshman reliever Rocky Yates (Sydney, Australia) pitched the final 1.2 innings to record the save in Game 1.
“Rocky did a great job of finishing it off, Aiden gave us a good start just got a little gassed, we didn’t get rolling as much offensively so really good to see our pitching and defense step up for us,” said Olsen. “We have to play and win close games to be able to win those later in the year.”
Down 4-0 after two innings in Game 2, MCC scored three times in the third, five in the fourth and four in the fifth to outlast the Rattlers.
“We started a bit rough but from third inning on we were real good,” said Olsen. “We made two or three defensive mistakes in the first two innings and Owen needed to settle in but in the third through sixth, Owen was really good and then we started putting good swings on it.”
MCC improves to 24-13 on the season.
Otero goes to 11-17 overall and 7-15 in the Empire League.
In addition to winning 16 straight games, MCC has won 11 straight Empire League games. After starting the season 3-7 in Region IX play, MCC has swept consecutive series at home against Lamar (4-0), Luna (3-0) and Otero (4-0.) MCC is 14-7 in the Empire League standings.
“I’m just proud of our guys for sticking with it, these are long weekends and we’ve stuck with it, but we have some tough tests the next few weeks and we’ll be on the road a lot,” said Olsen.
This week MCC travels to Colby, Kan. Wednesday for a nine-inning non-conference game there starting at 3 p.m.
On Friday MCC travels to Scottsbluff for a three-game series with Empire League North opponent Western Nebraska. The first game of that series is set for 2 p.m. (CT) Friday with a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. (CT).
Only five home games remain on the schedule including April 11 and 18 against Colby then a series-ending series April 29-30 against Western Nebraska.
For all the up-to-date information on MCC baseball this season including up-to-date scheduling changes, statistics, rosters and photos, please visit the official website of MCC Athletics at mccindians.com
GAME 1 – McCook CC 6, Otero JC 4: The home team broke out on top with two first-inning runs. Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario) led off the first inning with an infield single. After one out, MCC got consecutive singles by Ethan Murdoch, Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas), and Abel Reyes (sophomore, Puerto Caimito, Panama) to take a 2-0 lead.
In the fourth after a leadoff walk by Reyes, freshman Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.) doubled the MCC lead with a two-run homer run, his 10th of the year. With two outs MCC added two more runs on a walk by Tyus Chudomelka (Bellevue), an RBI-double by Quick and an RBI-single by Alliskair Descartes (sophomore, Thornton, Colo.) to give MCC a 6-0 lead.
Aiden Johnson took a shutout two outs into the fifth inning before a two-run homer cut the lead to 6-2. He went five innings, allowed three hits, two earned runs, one walk and he struck out nine.
Freshman Ethan Badcock (Adelade, Australia) came on in relief in the sixth inning and surrendered a pair of leadoff singles, then struck out a hitter before walking a batter to load the bases. Rocky Yates (redshirt freshman, Sydney, Australia) relieved and after surrendering an unearned run got out of the inning with a 6-4 lead and closed out the seventh allowing a walk then retired the final three batters of the inning. He went 1.2 innings, walked one and struck out two.
MCC outhit Otero 8-5 with two-hit games from Quick and Murdoch
GAME 2 –McCook CC 13, Otero JC 5: Otero scored two runs in the first and added two more in the second to take a 4-0 lead which lasted until the third inning when MCC scored three times.
Owen Lester surrendered a pair of runs in the first and second innings and came back to post four straight shutout innings to finish with the win, allowing three hits, five walks and he struck out 13 batters over six innings.
Freshman Blake Dale (Riverton, Wyo.) led off the MCC third with a double, Michael Quick singled him in and after a single by Alliskair Descartes, Ethan Murdoch delivered a two-run single.
Down 4-3 in the fourth, sophomore Riley Watson (Sydney, Australia) led off with a single and after a fielder’s choice and a walk and an out, Murdoch drove in the tying run on a single. MCC went up 8-4 on a hit batter and two Otero errors. Dale led off the MCC fifth with a double. After an error and a walk, Murdoch powered a grand-slam home run to right field to put MCC up 12-4.
Sophomore Jelle Bing (Heerhugowaard, Netherlands) pitched the seventh and allowed a run on one hit.
MCC had 12 hits in the game with three by Murdoch and Quick.
The McCook Community College baseball team slugged eight home runs Saturday and swept Otero Junior College at the Jaycees Sports Complex to extend the team’s winning streak to 14 games. MCC won 16-5 and 14-7.
Sophomore transfer Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.) smacked two home runs in the first game and another in the second. Freshman Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.) slugged a pair of homers in the first game and MCC swatted four in each game.
“It was a pretty good day today especially offensively,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “It was a tough day to pitch and a favorable day to hit and I thought both our starters battled hard.”
Sophomore Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) picked up the complete game win in Game 1 and freshman starter Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia), pitched the first five innings in Game 2.
“Otero put some good swings on us today and we had to work, but in Game 1 we turned a couple big double plays and defended well all day,” said Olsen.
MCC had 13hits in each game with eight extra-base hits in Game 1 and six in Game 2.
“We really had some good approaches at the plate and when we got good pitches to hit, we put good swings on it,” said Olsen.
MCC improves to 22-13 on the season and 12-7 in Empire League play (Region IX).
Otero goes to 11-15 overall and 7-13 in the Empire League.
The two teams will wrap up their four-game series Sunday with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
For all the up-to-date information on MCC baseball this season including up-to-date scheduling changes, statistics, rosters and photos, please visit the official website of MCC Athletics at mccindians.com
SATURDAY
GAME 1 – McCook CC 16, Otero JC 5: After Otero scored a run in the first, MCC scored five times in the bottom of the inning keyed by a two-run double from sophomore Josh Maysonave (Austin, Texas) then a two-out, three-run home run by freshman Zeke Minic (Thornton, Colo.).
The Rattlers cut the gap to 5-4 with three runs in the second but MCC took a 9-4 lead scoring four more times in the second. Sophomore transfer Alliskair Descartes (Thornton, Colo.) smacked a two-run home to make it a 7-4 MCC lead. Freshman Jason Serafinchon (Spruce Grove, Alberta) singled in a run to make it an 8-4 game and sophomore Riley Watson (Sydney, Australia) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give MCC a 9-4 lead.
MCC scored three times in the third with an RBI-single by Maysonave, and RBI-groundout by sophomore Abel Reyes (Puerto Caimito, Panama), and an RBI-single from Serafinchon to make it a 12-4 game.
Descartes homered in the fourth and Minic smashed a three-run homer in the fifth to end the game on the 10-run rule.
Sophomore Mikey Acierno (Thornton, Colo.) went the distance allowing five earned runs, seven hits, two walks and six strikeouts.
MCC picked up the complete-game win on the mound, allowing seven hits in five innings of work with five runs on two walks and six strikeouts.
MCC had 13 hits in the game with Minic homering twice (his eighth and ninth of the season) and doubling with five RBIs. Descartes homered twice with three RBIs, and Serafinchon had three hits and two driven in. Maysonave had two hits and three RBIs.
GAME 2 –McCook CC 14, Otero Junior College 7: Otero scored a run in the first and another in the third to lead 2-0, but MCC countered with three runs in the bottom of the inning on a Alliskair Descartes single, a double by Ethan Murdoch and a two-out home run from Jason Serafinchon.
The Rattlers scored two more runs in the fourth off freshman starter Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia) but his team came back with four runs in the bottom of the inning highlighted by a leadoff solo home run from sophomore Tyus Chudomelka (Bellevue) and with two outs an RBI-single by Abel Reyes and a two-run double by Zeke Minic to put MCC up 7-4.
The home team scored three times in the fifth inning on doubles by Chudomelka and Descartes, a sacrifice fly by Murdoch and a Reyes single. MCC added four in the sixth on a three-run homer by Descartes (his third of the day, and eighth of the season, and a solo shot by Murdoch, (his ninth of the season.).
Chabi picked up the win over five innings, allowing six hits, five earned runs, three walks and he struck out 11. Jereniel Herrera (freshman, Panama City, Panama) pitched the final two innings, surrendering two earned runs on three hits. He struck out four.
MCC had 13 hits in the game with Descartes leading the way with three and also two-hit games from Murdoch, Reyes, Minic and Chudomelka. Descartes drove in four runs and Murdoch three.