Indians split Friday games with Northeastern JC
The McCook Community College baseball team split a pair of home games Friday against Northeastern Junior College. MCC won the first game 11-4 and dropped the second game 25-3.
In Game 1 sophomore Aiden Johnson (Westminster, Colo.) improved to 5-1 on the year going six innings on the mound with three walks and seven strikeouts. The MCC offense pounded out 19 hits including four each by sophomore Michael Quick (Oshawa, Ontario) and freshman Maddox Shaver (Belleville Ontario).
“I thought Aiden really gave us a good performance Game 1,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “We really came through in the fifth inning with some good swings to break it open.”
Northeastern walloped five home runs in Game 2 and outhit MCC 19-3.
“It was good to get the first one under the belt, because Game 2 was just kind of the perfect storm of things that didn’t go right,” said Olsen. “We didn’t throw enough strikes and they put some good swings on it, it was frustrating in more ways than one, but sometimes games go the wrong way quick.”
MCC goes to 7-3 in the Region IX standings, 14-16 overall and 10-4 at home.
NJC goes to 3-7 in the standings and 17-17 overall.
“We just need to bounce back which I’m confident in our guys we will,” said Olsen.
The two teams were supposed to travel to Sterling, Colo. Sunday to finish the season series, but because of weather concerns, that doubleheader was pushed back to Monday. First pitch of Game 1 is set for 2 p.m. (CT).
All the latest information for MCC baseball including up-to-date schedule and changes as well as statistics, rosters and photos can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com
GAME 1 – McCook CC 11, Northeastern JC 4: MCC scored in each of the first five innings starting with two in the first. Sophomore Jackson Yeager (Omaha Westside HS) drove home the first run on an RBI-groundout and freshman Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) drove in Michael Quick who had singled.
The Plainsmen got on the board in the second on back-to-back doubles but MCC got one of those runs back on a hit batter, a single by sophomore Luke Bies (La Vista) and an RBI-groundout by Quick. In the MCC third, Bies drove in Shaver with an RBI-single and later Quick scored on an NJC error to give MCC a 5-2 lead.
Northeastern scored an unearned run in the fourth and the Indians countered in the bottom of the frame with a leadoff single by Quick and an RBI-single by Wouters to put MCC up 6-3.
The Indians scored five runs in the fifth inning keyed by a Quick two-run double, an RBI-single by Wouters and a two-run double from sophomore Blake Dale (Riverton, Wyo.) to salt the game away.
Aiden Johnson pitched into the seventh inning and picked up the win allowing two earned runs on seven hits, three walks and seven strikeouts in six innings of work.
“I didn’t think he had his best stuff, but he really ground it out,” said Olsen. “He competed at a high, high level,”
Sophomore Ethan Badcock (Adelaide, Australia) closed out the seventh inning allowing one hit and striking out two.
“Ethan threw a real good seventh when Aiden couldn’t quite finish it off,” said Olsen.
MCC outhit NJC 19-8 with four hits from Quick and Shaver and three each by Bies, Wouters and Dale.
GAME 2 – Northeastern JC 25, McCook CC 3: The Plainsmen took a 4-0 lead with four runs in the first on a pair of singles, a walk and a grand slam.
The Indians scored a run in the third on a Michael Quick RBI-single.
Northeastern got to MCC starter Cory Wouters in the fourth with five runs to take a 9-1 lead. Wouters allowed six hits, two walks and eight earned runs in three-plus innings along with five strikeouts.
The Plainsmen added six runs in the fifth, two in the sixth and eight runs in the seventh.
Sophomore Blake Benallo (Thornton, Colo.) pitched two innings and was tagged with six runs. Jackson Finder (sophomore, Lincoln Pius) went 1.1 and was charged with seven runs and freshman A.J. Matta (Arvada, Colo.) pitched the final two-thirds of an inning and gave up three runs.
MCC got three runs in the fifth inning on a two-run home run by Wouters.
