MCC Baseball to face Otero Thursday in tournament
The McCook Community College baseball team will open post-season play Thursday as the fifth seed in the six-team double-elimination tournament Damon Runyon Park In Pueblo, Colo. The Indians will play fourth-seeded Otero at 3 p.m.
"We have some momentum going into this tournament and have put ourselves in the best position we can,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.
Sixth seeded Lamar will play third seed Western Nebraska in the opening game Thursday at noon.
Video of the tournament will be on the TSBN Sports Network at https://tsbnsports.com/2025-
Top seeded Southeast Community College (22-6 in Region IX play) awaits the winner of the MCC/Otero game at noon Friday while second-seeded Northeastern Junior College (18-10) will play the winner of the Lamar/Western Nebraska Game in the other winner’s bracket game at 3 p.m.
The two losers of Thursday’s games will play an elimination game at 6 p.m. Thursday. The tournament continues with three games Friday and Saturday with the championship game (or games) Sunday starting at noon.
THE SEASON: After starting the Region IX schedule losing three of four games at Las Vegas, N.M. against Luna Community College, MCC split a home-and-home series with Western Nebraska then were swept in a four-game series April 6-7 against Northeastern Junior College. That dropped the Indians to 3-9 in the Empire League standings and to 14-21 on the season. From that point, MCC went to La Junta, Colo., and won 10 of the next 12 Region IX games, taking three of four against Otero College, sweeping Trinidad State at home, and winning three of four games at Lamar.
"We had a tough start to the year starting slow at 3-10 then a rough start in region and to stick with it and play well the last month of the season says a lot about our guys," said Olsen.
MCC went 12-3 over that stretched overall and clinched a top six finish in the standings and secured a place in the post season-tournament. MCC closed out the slate losing three of four at home against Southeast CC.
AGAINST OTERO: On the road April 11-12, the Indians took three of four games against the Rattlers. In the series opener sophomore Myles Chabi (Sydney, Australia) and freshman left-hander Tait Anderson (Auckland, New Zealand) teamed up on a four-hit shutout in an 11-0 win as freshman Carter Smith (Ottawa, Canada) went three-for-three with a pair of doubles, a walk and three runs scored. Freshman Landon Molloy (Parker, Colo.) picked up a 7-3 win in the second game, pitching seven innings as sophomore Jean Duran (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) picked up the save. MCC scored 10 runs in the fifth inning of Game 3 in that series and went on to a 15-6 win. Sophomore Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) had four hits and freshman Aviv Bobrov (Shekhanya, Israel) pitched 8.2 innings The Indians lost the final game of the series 11-5.
BY THE NUMBERS: The Indians were second in the Empire league in batting with .307 team average and second in runs at 8.45 per game and led the eight-team league with 68 home runs. MCC was third in the league in pitching with a 6.95 earned run average.
Northeastern Junior College led the league scoring 10.2 runs per game with Southeast led Region IX on the pitching side with a 5.80 ERA and 9.97 strikeouts per nine innings.
INDIAN OFFENSE: Wouters moved into the record book over the weekend with his 94th run batted in for the season. In the season-ending series this past weekend at the Jaycees Sports Complex Wouters drove in three runs in both of Friday’s games, had a four-RBI game in the first game Saturday and finished the season with two more in the second game. The previous record came when Ethan Murdock had 82 RBIs in 2003. Wouters led Region IX this season with his .437 batting average, 91 RBIS, and 20 home runs. His batting average and home run totals are the second most in school history behind Daniel Bannon, .439 batting average in 2021 and Zack Beatty’s 24 homers hit in 2022.
Other offensive leaders for the Indians this season were freshman outfielder Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.) who batted. 318 with nine home runs and 50 RBIs in 54 games and Smith, a first baseman and outfielder who batted .316 with seven home runs and 33 RBIs in 50 games.
Sophomore leadoff hitter and center fielder, Nathan Hutchison (sophomore, Riverton, Wyo.) batted .316 with six homers and scored a team-high 64 runs in 54 games. Third baseman Owen Glover (sophomore, Elderslie, New South Wales) batted .326 with six home runs and 41 RBIs in 45 games.
ON THE MOUND: On the pitching side, Bobrov and Molloy both had six wins, tied for fourth in the Empire League. Bobrov went 6-4 with a 5.93 ERA and struck out 66 in 54.2 innings – fifth most strikeouts in the league. Molloy also went 6-4 with 50 strikeouts in 59.1 innings. He was fourth in the Empire League with a 5.28 ERA.
Chabi, who missed most of 2024 and the first seven weeks of this season, came back from his arm injury to go 2-2 in six starts and struck out 19 hitters in 19 innings with a team low 0.79 walks and hits per innings pitched with 10 hits allowed and five walks.
Sophomore Leif Friedrich (Surrey, British Columbia) started five games, relieved in six and was 2-4 in 44 innings pitched with 51 strikeouts. Anderson, a left-hander went 1-2 in five starts and seven relief appearances with a 3.44 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 36.2 innings. Duran led the team with 16 appearances out of the bullpen and fanned 29 hitters in 29 innings.
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
FINAL REGION IX STANDINGS
REGION OVERALL
W-L W-L
Southeast CC 22-6 31-20
Northeastern JC 18-10 18-10
Western Nebraska 16-12 25-24
Otero 15-13 19-35
McCook 14-14 27-28
Lamar 12-16 23-32
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*Luna 8-20 15-37
*Trinidad State 7-21 15-37
* - Did not qualify for post-season play
REGION IX TOURNAMENT
MAY 8-11
Damon Runyon Park -- Pueblo, Colo.
Thursday, May 8
Game 1 – No. 6 Lamar (12-16) vs. No. 3. Western Nebraska (16-12), noon
Game 2 – No. 5 McCook (14-14) vs. No. 4 Otero College (15-13), 3 p.m.
Game 3 – Loser of Game 1 vs Loser of Game 2, 6 p.m. (elimination game.
Friday, Friday, May 9
Game 4 – Southeast (22-6) vs winner of Game 2, noon
Game 5 – Northeastern JC (18-10) vs winner of Game 1, 3 p.m.
Game 6 – Consolation bracket (elimination game), 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 10
Game 7 – Consolation bracket (elimination game), noon
Game 8 – Winner’s bracket game, 3 p.m.
Game 9 – Consolation bracket (elimination game, 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 11
Game 10 – Championship game, noon
Game 1 – (If necessary), 3 p.m.