Indians sweep Saturday doubleheader over Lopes
LAMAR, Colo. – The McCook Community College baseball team swept Lamar Community College Saturday twice to take the four-game Region Series 3-1. MCC won 9-0 and 23-6 Saturday after splitting two games against the Runnin’ Lopes Friday.
“We came out today ready to go,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “We faced a really good arm in Game 1 and we just really did a nice job of getting after it.”
Freshman Aviv Bobrov (Shekhanya, Israel) tossed a three-hit shutout in the third game of the weekend series. Last week’s Region IX Pitcher of the week struck out 11 hitters over seven innings.
“He has been lights-out the last two weekends,” said Olsen. “He just attacks the zone with three or four different pitches for strikes and makes it pretty tough on opposing hitters, I was really proud of how we played Game 1.”
In the series finale, after getting down 4-0 through the first three innings, MCC exploded for nine runs in both the fourth and sixth innings to take cinch the four-game series in seven innings. Starting pitcher Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) went six innings to pick up the win on the mound and also went three-for-four at the plate with a grand slam and six RBIs. Sophomore Owen Glover (Elderslie, New South Wales) went four-for-five with a home run.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start in Game 2, but once we got rolling, we got after it pretty good at the plate and took some really good swings again,” said Olsen. “Cory settled in and had a great game on the mound.”
Lamar goes to 11-13 in the Empire League standings and 22-29 overall.
MCC goes over .500 for the first time in Region IX and are 13-11 in the standings and 26-24 overall.
Only the top six of the eight teams in the final standings will advance to the Region IX post-season tournament.
“I think that should wrap up a region tournament spot for us and we have a big four-game series this weekend so we need to keep playing well,” said Olsen.
After a road trip Monday to Colby, Kan., the Indians will wrap up the regular season at home when they host first-place Southeast Community College with doubleheaders Friday and Saturday at the Jaycees Sports Complex starting at 2 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.
For all the latest information about MCC baseball including schedule and schedule changes, livestream links, statistics, rosters, photos and more please visit the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com
GAME 1 – McCook 9, Lamar 0: Freshman Chase Williams (Brampton, Ontario) put MCC on the scoreboard in the second with a solo home run. Two batters later sophomore Owen Glover made it a 3-0 game with a two-run shot.
A Lamar error to lead off the fifth inning led to a scoring opportunity and with two outs Carter Smith (Ottawa, Canada) hit an RBI-double to put the Indians on top 4-0.
“We got three really big swings from CJ, Owen, and Carter to get out to the 4-0 lead and then just let Aviv Bobrov do the rest,” said Olsen.
MCC rallied for five runs after two outs in the sixth inning with seven straight hits. After freshman Tyler Reyburn (Frederick, Colo.) hit a solo home run the Tribe got consecutive singles from: Glover, freshmen Mason Regan (Centennial, Colo.) and Landon McKillip (Lamoni, Iowa), a two-run line drive single from Nathan Hutchison (sophomore, Riverton, Wyo.), and back-to-back RBI-singles from Smith and Cory Wouters.
Bobrov closed out the win in the seventh inning retiring the Lopes in order, finishing with his 11th strikeout of the game to improve to 5-4 on the season. He allowed three hits and walked one batter.
MCC had 11 hits in the game led by two each from Glover, Smith and McKillip. Glover, Smith and Hutchison all had two RBIs.
GAME 2 – McCook 23, Lamar 6: Lamar broke up a scoreless game scoring four runs in the third inning off MCC starting pitcher Cory Wouters.
MCC responded by sending 12 hitters to the plate in the fourth inning and scored nine runs. Freshman Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.) drove in the Tribe’s first run with a single and Chase Williams singled in the second. Owen Glover singled in Berg and a Lamar error tied the game 4-4. Landon McKillip delivered an RBI-single to break the tie and with two outs Wouters, who had singled earlier in the inning, hit a grand slam to put MCC up 9-4.
Wouters kept the momentum going from the mound by retiring Lamar in the bottom of the fourth on seven pitches.
With two outs in the MCC fifth, Glover doubled and Mason Regan walked in front of a two-run double by McKillip to give the Indians an 11-4 lead.
In the sixth, MCC sent 13 batters to the plate and scored nine more runs getting a three-run home run from Regan, one of four hits in the inning to put the Indians ahead 20-4. Glover hit a solo home run in the seventh and the Tribe added two more on a two-out two-run single by Wouters to lead 23-4.
Wouters pitched six innings and allowed two earned runs on three hits, six walks and four strikeouts.
“He was in the zone more and just really did a nice job especially when it started to get out of hand a bit, he stayed focused,” said Olsen.
Lamar got a two-out, two-run home run in the seventh off sophomore Leif Friedrich (Surrey, British Columbia) who pitched the final inning allowing a walk and two hits.
MCC had 15 hits led by four from Glover, and three each by McKillip and Wouters. Wouters had six RBIs, McKillip and Regan both drove in three.