Indians sweep Cougars in home opener
The McCook Community College baseball team swept both games of the home-opening doubleheader Wednesday taking down Western Nebraska Community College 12-7 and 10-2.
Eight McCook pitchers combined to allow 13 hits and five earned runs for their 14 innings of work, walking five and striking out 27 hitters.
“I was really excited to get out and play today, we got back from the weekend where we had a little momentum offensively and I was excited to try and keep the offense going,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “But even more than that we had some arms that I was really excited to see and they came out and performed.”
In Game 1, sophomore Tyler Reyburn (Frederick, Colo.) delivered an early key hit and led MCC with three RBIs in the game. Freshman Hayden Galvin (Calgary, Alberta) added a solo home run for the Indians.
Sophomore Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.) continued his hot start for the Indians powering two more home runs in Game 2. Earlier in the day, Berg was named Region IX Player of the week for his four-game series in Texas where he started the season eight-for-13 with three homers, two doubles, a triple and 12 RBIs. After Wednesday, he’s batting .524 with five homers, 19 RBIs and 30 total bases in six games, slugging 1.429 with a .615 on-base average.
“We have a couple things to clean up defensively, but I was excited to get out and play again and so were our guys and good to go back out and get a couple more wins,” said Olsen.
The Cougars fall to 0-10 to start the year. MCC improves to 5-1.
The Indians will keep an eye on the weather as they are scheduled to host Dawson Community College (Glendive, Mont.) for a pair of doubleheaders this weekend. First pitch for Saturday’s games at the Jaycees Sports Complex will be 1 p.m. with a noon start Sunday. Dawson is also 0-10 on the season.
GAME 1 – McCook CC 12, Western Nebraska 7: The Indians scored in the first five innings with two runs in the first and second innings, one in the third, four in the fourth and three in the fifth.
With two outs in the first, sophomore Tyler Reyburn delivered a two-out, two-run single to put MCC up 2-0.
The Indians defense faltered in the second as the Cougars tied the game 2-2 with a pair of unearned runs off MCC starting pitcher Raul Romero (Brisbane, Queensland Australia).
Hayden Galvin put MCC ahead for good with a solo homer to lead off the second inning. The Indians later went up 4-1 on a hit batter, three walks and a wild pitch.
The teams traded runs in the third. WNCC got a leadoff homer and MCC countered with an RBI-single from freshman Kieren Cutler (Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador) to give the Indians a 5-3 lead. MCC added four in the fourth on RBI-singles from Dalton Berg, Reyburn and a two-run single by Cutler to put the Indians in front 9-3.
Romero, the transfer from Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fla., pitched four innings, allowing three hits, one earned run, one walk and he struck out eight. Freshman Timmy Hunt (Ashland, Neb.) succeeded him on the mound and he fanned the first three hitters he faced in the fifth.
“Raul was very good today, and Timmy had a nice outing too,” said Olsen.
In the bottom of the fifth, sophomore transfer (Eastern Arizona), Hunter Southey (Auckland, New Zealand) doubled in two runs and later put MCC up 12-3 when he scored on a sacrifice fly from Berg.
Hunt pitched two innings, allowing a sixth inning run on two hits while striking out five. Sophomore Corbin Lochhead (Vegreville, Alberta) pitched one-third of an inning and allowed an earned run on two hits and a strikeout. Sophomore Colby Kaplan (Parker, Colo.) pitched the final two-thirds of the seventh inning to polish off the game.
Reyburn and Cutler both had two-hit games. Reyburn drove in three and MCC had two RBIs each from Southey, Berg, and Cutler.
GAME 2 – McCook CC 10, Western Nebraska 2: The Indians took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never trailed as freshman Owen Weales (Bowmanville, Ontario) doubled and a Cougar error set the table for the first of two Dalton Berg home runs.
Freshman Tyler Parent (Newmarket, Ontario) got the start on the mound and pitched two scoreless innings on one hit while striking out three.
The Cougars scored one run off sophomore reliever Kaden Noble (Orillia, Ontario) in the third inning to cut the MCC lead to 3-1. The Indians added a run in the third on a two-out RBI-double by Kieren Cutler to put MCC up 4-1.
Noble struck out the side in the WNCC fourth and MCC seized the momentum with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame on a Cougar error, and an RBI-double by freshman Kon Yoshimura (Nagasaki, Japan). He later came home on a pair of wild pitches to put MCC ahead 6-1.
Noble pitched a scoreless fifth and went three innings, allowing two hits, two walks, one earned run with seven strikeouts.
“We pitched really well start to finish, Noble had a really good extended outing which was good to see,” said Olsen.
After freshman Jakoby Hamer (Edmonton, Alberta) led off the fifth with a single, Berg powered his second homer of the game to put the Indians up 8-1. Cutler doubled and scored on a two-out RBI-single from Connor Charvat (sophomore Omaha, Neb.) to make it 9-1.
Sophomore Jeff Bullock (Medicine Hat, Alberta) pitched a scoreless sixth, allowing a hit and a walk and fanning one.
Weales scored on a Hunter Southey double in the sixth for MCC’s final run. Kayden Frizzell (sophomore, Littleton, Colo.) pitched the final two innings and allowed two hits, one walk, one earned run and he struck out two.
“I didn’t feel like we were quite on our game offensively, but we took advantage of some free passes and did enough,” said Olsen.
Berg and Cutler both had two-hit games, Berg drove in five and Cutler one.
Up-to-date information about MCC baseball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com