MCC opens baseball season with 6-1 loss

CONCORDIA, Kan. – The McCook Community College baseball team took advantage of the mild weather Sunday and moved up the season-opener in a losing effort to Cloud County Community College 6-1.

Five T-Bird pitchers combined to throw eight scoreless innings at Lee Doyen Field and a pair of homeruns fueled three-run frames in the first and eighth innings.

“Some mixed feelings about the first game out, obviously not happy with the outcome but there were definitely some things we can build off of,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

Cloud County’s Austin Coyle led off the T-Bird first with a home run and Joey Marino drove in two-runs to give the hosts a 3-0 first-inning lead. Matthew Evans stroked a three-run homer run in the eighth inning to close out the scoring.

“A couple free passes got us, in the first – we had two walks then a double for two runs and then in the eighth we hit a batter, then had a walk before the three-run home run so two-thirds of their runs came off free passes.”

Trailing 3-0 in the third, MCC got on the scoreboard with a walk, a hit batter, and a two-out RBI single from freshman Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.).

“Offensively we had some good opportunities we just didn’t get the big hit that we needed,” said Olsen.

Berg and sophomore Maddox Shaver (Belleville, Ontario) both had three hits each for the Indians who finished with eight.

Sophomore Leif Frederich (Surrey, British Columbia) pitched the first two innings, allowing two walks, three hits, three runs and a strikeout.

Freshman Tait Anderson (freshman Aukland, New Zealand) went three innings allowing four hits and striking out one. Kaiden Knoble (freshman, Orillia, Ontario) went 2.2 innings allowing two walks, three hits and striking out six.

“We had a couple really nice outings on the mound, Tait was really good, and Kaiden almost got out of his third inning but made one bad pitch for the home run,” said Olsen.

Sophomore Tobey Cassino (Arvada, Colo.) closed out the final out of the game, allowing one hit.

Sunday’s game was the first time since 2017 these two teams met with the teams splitting doubleheader games in Concordia in 2016 and 2017.

Cloud County is one of the preseason favorites to win the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference - West Division race, according to the preseason poll conducted by the conference's head coaches. The T-Birds and Barton Community College both gained 71 points in the poll.

“We faced some talented arms and thought we stepped up to the challenge but like I said just lacked the big hit, it will be a good game to build off of and have help us down the road,” said Olsen.

The Indians will travel to Salina Thursday to play Kansas Wesleyan then on to Tonkawa, Okla. for four games. On Saturday MCC takes on Garden City for a pair of games followed with two more against Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on Sunday.

The home-opener is set for Saturday, Feb. 22 when MCC hosts Bismarck State College in a four-game series.

Up-to-date information about MCC baseball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com