Both teams are in tight conference races as the season is winding down. The softball team will face Otero Junior College in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday followed by hosting Trinidad State Junior College at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Both games are at Volunteer field.
The baseball team, who has lost four straight Empire Conference games, dropped to third in the conference race, where only the top four teams make the post-season tournament. The Cougar baseball team will host Otero Junior College Saturday and Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. on both days at Cleveland Field.
Softball coach Maria Winn-Ratliff and baseball coach Mike Jones said this weekend games are crucial.
“These games are just like any games that we play,” Winn-Ratliff said. “We have to go out and pitch well, hit well and run the bases well, and everything else will take care of itself.”
This weekend’s softball games are the final regular season home games for the team. Saturday’s contest will honor the dorm parents while Sunday’s contest will recognize the sophomores
“We really haven’t emphasized that it is the last home games of the regular season,” she said. “We don’t play at home much so we try to take pride when we are at home and getting to play in front of our fans and do the best that we can do. That is all we can ask them to do day in and day out. We just need to go out and do the things we do in practice and hopefully at the end of the day we have more runs on the board then the other team does.”
WNCC is 28-16 overall and 11-3 in conference play. Otero enters with a 23-17 record and a 13-5 conference record; while Trinidad is 19-18 overall and 12-4 in conference play.
“I wouldn’t say we are in control because we haven’t played as many conference games as the others have,” she said. “We have an opportunity to put ourselves in a good position after this weekend. Right now we have less conference losses then other people do, but they have played more games then we have. We have six big Region iX games coming up – Otero, Trinidad and McCook. Trinidad is playing with a lot of confidence. They went to Otero and swept them. McCook swept North Platte last night [Thursday]. We definitely have to come out and play well and I think that is irrelevant of who our competition is.”
While the softball team controls their own destiny – a sweep of four games will no-doubtedly lock up the No. 1 seed unless they falter at McCook on Tuesday – the baseball team needs to rebound from its six-game losing skid.
“These are extremely important ball games for us. We have been struggling lately,” baseball coach Mike Jones said. “We’ve dropped four conference games in a row and we have slipped from second place to third place. Otero will come in here hungry. They are trying to earn a playoff spot so it will be important for us elevate our game and get ready to play.”
WNCC, who has lost six straight, have been outscored 26-13. Despite the recent turn of misfortune for the Cougar men, they still are in good shape of hosting a first-round playoff game. But they need to win this weekend.
“The league is extremely competitive. There is some separation between one and six, but not by much,” Jones said. “There has been a lot of close ball games all the way through conference play. There have been a lot of one and two run games. It is nice that we played well enough early in conference play to put us in a situation where even though we struggled a little bit, it hasn’t killed us. We still have a chance. If we can get hot again and make a run late, we have a good chance.”
The Cougar baseball team enters this weekend’s clutch conference games with a 17-27 overall record and a 11-8 conference mark. WNCC trails conference leading Lamar Community College (17-5) and Trinidad State (12-7). Lamar will come to town next weekend, while Trinidad State visits Cleveland Field on April 30.
Jones said that Tim Beard will get the nod in the first game on Saturday, while Rodil Martinez will start the second game.
Also during the games this weekend, area youth baseball players will get a chance to hang out with the players after the games. Jones said there will also be prizes for different competitions during the games for the youth. 23 Clun players can attend the games on Saturday, while Gering Organized players can attend on Sunday.
Area youth softball players from the Gering Girls Softball Association and 23 Club will be offered the same opportunity as the baseball players on Saturday during the Otero Junior College game in hanging out with the softball players to get pictures and autographs, or to play catch.
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