MCC baseball trades shutouts with Western Nebraska

The McCook Community College baseball team traded shutouts Thursday with Western Nebraska in an Empire League doubleheader. MCC lost the first game 5-0 and won the second game 4-0.

Freshman Landon Molloy (Parker, Colo.) struck out 10 Cougars in Game 2 to help gain the split. The Indians also got home runs from sophomore Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), freshman Tyler Reyburn (Frederick, Colo.) and freshman Jeff Bullock (Medicine Hat, Alberta).

“Obviously we needed a big performance from someone and didn’t get much bigger than what we got from Molloy,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “It’s been a bit since we’ve seen a nine-inning complete-game shutout. And we got a few big swings to get the ball out of the yard.”

In Game 1 the Cougars scored twice in the first and added three in the second inning and the 5-0 lead held for the seven-inning win. MCC committed four errors leading to four unearned runs.

“Game 1 was just too much of what’s been plaguing us lately –walks and errors and then we didn’t hit,” said Olsen.

The Cougars go to 1-5 in the Region IX standings (Empire League), and 10-17 overall. The Indians go to 2-4 in the Empire League standings and 12-16 overall.

These two teams will complete their four-game series Friday with a doubleheader in Scottsbluff starting at 2 p.m.

“We need to go play well tomorrow, I’m excited for it, got two good starters and a loaded bullpen ready to go,” said Olsen,

The next home games for the Indians will be an Empire League doubleheader on Sunday, April 6 starting at 1 p.m.

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 – Western Nebraska 5, McCook 0: Western Nebraska took a 2-0 lead in the first on three walks, a sacrifice fly and a passed ball. In the second the Cougars added three runs on a walk, a single, back-to-back MCC errors and a sacrifice fly.

Cory Wouters was tagged with the loss. He allowed four hits, walked five and struck out six in five innings of work but only one of the five runs he gave up were earned runs.

Freshman Colby Kaplan (Parker, Colo.) pitched the final two innings and allowed one hit no walks and he struck out four.

The MCC offense was held to three hits: a second-inning single by freshman Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.), a fifth-inning double by Tyler Reyburn and a sixth-inning double by Wouters.

“I’ll give their starter credit today though he was pretty good,” said Olsen of Western’s Clayden Brandon, a sophomore. “But we need to be way better overall at the plate, way too many strikeouts and easy fly balls.”

GAME 2 – McCook 4, Western Nebraska 0: Dalton Berg was hit by a pitch to start the second inning and two pitches later Jeff Bullock homered to left field to put MCC up 2-0. It was his first homer of the year.

“We got a great swing by Jeff for the two-run homer, in only his second start this year as he’s been battling through a knee injury so that was great to see,” said Olsen.

MCC starting pitcher Landon Molloy allowed a leadoff double in the third but retired the next three hitters – the final two by strikeouts.

Wouters smacked a two-out home run in the third (his 10^th of the season) and Tyler Reyburn swatted a one-out homer in the fourth, his second.

Molloy gave up a leadoff single in the fourth but set down the next three batters. In the fifth he allowed back-to-back one-out singles but retired the next two Cougars in order. After a 1-2-3 sixth inning, he allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the seventh, hit a batter with two outs, but escaped the inning inducing a groundout to third base.

The MCC right-hander finished off the nine-inning game retiring Western Nebraska in order in the eighth, struck out his ninth and 10^th hitters of the game to lead off the ninth, allowed a five-pitch walk then recorded a game-ending popout to first base.

“He was really good, he mixed his pitches great, was on the zone, was efficient and just really threw a great game when we needed it,” said Olsen.

Molloy improves to 4-1 on the season and allowed seven hits in the game, walked just two and hit a batter.