WNCC's Cook, Suarez thrilled with regional title

Western Nebraska Community College’s Carson Cook and Pedro Suarez spent the last three years helping the Cougar baseball team try to win a Region IX title. Sunday’s victories in the regional tournament proved not only extra special for them, but for the team.

“I have been here three years now and this is the best this program has ever done in its history,” the catcher from Fremont said. “It gives us a chance to play together for another week as a family and a team. This is one of the best teams I have ever played on. We mesh together well. I think we will have a good chance at this district championship.”

The WNCC baseball team earned its first Region IX title in convincing fashion defeating Trinidad State Junior College that hard way in two games, defeating the Trojans 11-3 and 14-9 to push their record to 29-27 on the season.

In fact, it was a team effort as they received clutch pitching from starters Eneldas Vazquez and Chris Cuadra. They also pounded the ball with authority, registering 29 hits and 25 runs, including four home runs and six doubles.

Cook and Suarez said they had plenty of motivation, especially after Trinidad pushed the Cougars into the loser’s bracket with a 2-1 defeat on Friday.

“When we lost that game to Trinidad, it kind of killed us, but it also gave us fire,” Cook said. “We just couldn’t stop after that and won every game. Every body was up in the dugouts, every body was hitting, every body was playing great defense, and we just got set on fire. We wanted Trinidad back. We wanted to play them again and we ate them up.”

Suarez said that loss, lifted the team to a new level.

“We knew we just had to go out there and play,” the sophomore from Miami said. “There was no holding back because we couldn’t afford to lose a game. We just went out there to do what we had to do as a team as a whole, and got those two victories.”

What led the team to the victory was their all-around play from pitching, offense to defense. The team committed just two errors defensively on Sunday in 18 innings of play.

"It was a great team effort. The pitching was there. The defense was there. Offensively, it wasn’t just two or three guys; it was everybody getting their hits when they had to, getting on base and manufacturing runs for us.”

In the first game, the Cougars dominated from start to finish, scoring three runs in the second and fourth inning in racking up 12 hits. Daniel Martinez led the team offensively with a 4-for-4 game with a double, four RBIs and a run scored.

JC Perez also collected two hits, while Marco Moreno had a big 2-run home run. Eneldas Vazquez picked up the win throwing seven strong innings, scattering nine hits while striking out 12 and walking four.

Vazquez said the pitching staff held their own. “Winning felt very good and was very important to the team,” he said. “In this tournament we pitched a lot of innings because they were nine inning games. We just tried to do our best and worked hard all the time. We are tired from this tournament. We lost the second game and we worked really hard to win the title.”

The Cougars continued their stellar play in the championship dominating once again from start to finish. WNCC jumped out to a 7-3 lead after two innings and led 10-3 after four. Trinidad made a bold comeback, slicing the lead to 10-9, only to see WNCC score four runs cruise to the 14-9 victory.

WNCC pounded out 17 hits in the win, including five players with multiple hit games. Suarez paced the team with a 3-for-6 performance with two home runs, three runs scored and two RBIs. Perez also finished with three hits, including a home run, three RBIs and four runs scored.

Abraham Cervantez finished 2-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and a runs scored, while Vazquez and Richie Stewart each went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Vazquez also had three RBIs.

Cuadra picked up the win going five innings and allowing five hits and six runs. He also struck out two. Phillips Orta picked up the save, going 2 1/3 innings with three strikeouts.

Cook couldn’t say enough about the way the pitchers performed. “Every single pitcher pitched really well. They all did their job,” Cook, who caught nearly 60 innings in the tournament, said. “Pitching is one of our strongest points. We had enough pitching to last the entire tournament. We even could have played a few more games with the pitching we had left.”

First Game
WNCC 030 310 103 – 11 12 1
Trinidad 000 000 120 – 3 11 1
WP – Vazquez; 2B – Martinez, HR – Moreno.

Second Game
WNCC (29-27) 430 300 040 – 14 17 1
Trinidad (34-26) 300 013 200 – 9 8 1
WP – Cuadra, Save – Orta; 2B – Cervantes (2), Vazquez, Perez, Stewart; HR – Suarez (2), Perez.