Sunday, April 01, 2007

First place on the line

(Note: story ran before the snow storm. Since then, the series locations changed. Sunday's games are at Sterling and Monday's games are at Cleveland Field.)

Submitted by Jeremy Woznick
By Star-Herald Sports Reporter
For more coverage on WNCC or area sports check out the Star-Herald either online or on the newstands six days a week.

Although it's still early in the Region IX baseball season, there's no denying the importance of this weekend's four-game series between the Western Nebraska Community College and Northeastern Junior College baseball teams.

Both teams enter the key series in the top two spots of the Region IX standings. With a 7-1 regional record, NJC sits atop the standings while WNCC is just one game behind with a 6-2 mark. The teams will square off in doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. at Cleveland Field in Scottsbluff.

"You hate to put too much emphasis on any one series, but considering we're the top two teams in the regional standings right now it looks to be pretty important on paper," said WNCC coach Mike Jones of the weekend series. "For us, we're just going to take it one game at a time and emphasize playing the best baseball we can."

Fresh off a four-game sweep of Otero Junior College last weekend, the Cougars have been playing their best baseball of the season as of late. A lot of that has been a result of strong pitching, which includes complete-game wins by starters Phillips Orta and Todd Stachura.After allowing no runs in a no decision in Arizona on March 17, Orta dominated Otero in his last start on Saturday. Stachura followed Orta with a complete-game gem on Sunday as the Cougars completed the four-game sweep of the Rattlers. WNCC also received key pitching performances last weekend from Greg Crowe and Dan Bauer.

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