The winner of the series will host the district playoffs next weekend and earn the Region IX trophy. The loser of the series will still qualify for districts, but will have to travel.
The series opens up Friday at 1 p.m. with Saturday’s contest slated for 10 a.m. The Sunday start time, if necessary in the best 2 of 3 series, will begin at 1 p.m. WNCC coach Mike Jones said his team will need to manufacture runs and play errorless ball to come away with regional championship.
“For us we have been real successful all season long with pitching and defense. That will definitely have to continue. Tim Beard will pitch the first game and we are expecting another good performance out of Tim. We will have to try to manufacture runs.”
Bringing home a regional title would mean a lot to this team, and Jones gives his player credit from turning the season around. WNCC dropped its first nine games of the season and was 1-13 at one time. Since then, the Cougars have gone 23-21. They enter the championship series with a 24-35 record while Lamar is 45-10.
“This team has come a long ways from where we were at after the first month of the season,” Jones said. “I give the guys all the credit in the world for that. They could have laid down and given up early, but they never did. They kept showing up and practicing, and getting better and better and better. At the time when we were really struggling, I really couldn’t see us competing for a regional championship, but I knew the talent was always there. It was just a matter of us getting better, stronger and smarter and putting it all together.”
Pitching has been the driving force of the Cougar’s success this season. Tim Beard is the ace of the team. The freshman from Australia is 9-2 on the season and is in 27th in the nation in earned run average at 1.95. Beard has thrown 78.2 innings with 62 strike outs and just 22 walks.
The Cougar’s other pitcher in sophomore Armani Gonzalez is also a threat on the mound. The big right-hander is 33rd in innings pitched in the nation with 79.1. He is just 6-6 on the season, but has struck out 58. Gonzalez had one of his best pitching performances of the season on Sunday as he went 5 1/3 innings in relief in striking out seven and allowing just one run on three hits.
The key for the Cougars this weekend is to find a way to get to a Lamar pitching staff that has five pitchers with ERA below 3.00. The Lopes’ top arm is reliever Brandon Ward-Hersee, who is No. 1 in the country in ERA and saves. The sophomore had a 0.745 ERA with 22 saves. He had pitched in 48.1 innings with 56 strikeouts and just 12 walks.
Sunday against Trinidad State, the Cougars finished with 17 hits in a 10-7 win against the Trojans to give them the first-round playoff win. Jones doesn’t expect that kind of output with the talent that Lamar will bring to the mound.
“I don’t expect the kind of offense that we had Sunday coming up this weekend. Lamar has five or six real solid pitchers. Their closer is one of the best in the country. I think it will be a much closer game, but we definitely will take 16 hits if we can do that.”
What matters most about this weekend series is the winner will be the Region IX champs, including hosting districts. That happened the last time the Cougars won regionals back in 2007 as they hosted Western Nevada Community College and Central Arizona College. Jones said it would be great to do that once again.
“Our record at home is real good this year,” he said. “We really enjoy playing at home. We really enjoy Cleveland Field, the hometown crowd. We enjoy being able to sleep in our own beds and have our own routine. Winning a Region IX championship is something we are always shooting for. We have only been able to get that accomplished once so far and to get another regional championship would be great.
“Another banner in the gym and another plaque on the wall, it would be something that this group of guys can leave the program with and be proud of. It is something we have been talking about since the season begun, and now they have an opportunity to go out and get it done.”
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