FORT COLLINS, Colo. — One-run setbacks certainly haven’t been anything out of the normal for the Western Nebraska Community College baseball team.
For the fifth time this season, the Cougars suffered another one of those after dropping a 7-6 decision to the Colorado State University club team on Thursday in Fort Collins, Colo.
The loss dropped WNCC to 5-6 on the season. Of WNCC’s six losses, five have been by just a single run.
“It was a really good game,” WNCC coach Mike Jones said. “We had to battle from behind a couple times and we did a nice job of that. We just kind of let it get away from us there at the end.”
After trailing 3-0, WNCC rallied to knot the score at 3-3 in the top of the seventh. CSU plated three runs in the bottom of the frame before the Cougars answered with three runs of their own in the top of the eighth to tie the game at 6-6. However, CSU scratched across the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to earn the win.
For the second straight game, WNCC pounded out 11 hits.
“We started off kind of slow the first time through the batting order, but the second time through we made some adjustments and got better,” Jones said. “The third time through we had some really solid at bats. We’re showing a lot of progress at the plate.”
Jake Vore, Rainer Tiel and Trevor Kreisel all finished the game with two hits each for WNCC. Tiel and Kreisel drove in two, while Tiel and Vore both had doubles. Vore scored two runs.
Five other Cougars collected one hit in the contest. They included Paul Singh, Carlos Baldelomar, Kevin Sanford, Reimier Alambarry and Nelson Quintero.
Quintero and Sanford both drove in one run, while Singh, Baldelomar, Sanford, Quintero and Kreisel all finished with stolen bases.
Four pitchers saw action on the mound for WNCC. Jacob Stutzman started the game. He was followed to the hill by Kile Rogers, Dalton Goings and Kreisel. Kreisel took the loss. All four hurlers tossed two innings each.
WNCC will now turn its attention to Region IX Conference play. The Cougars will open up their conference schedule with a doubleheader at Trinidad State Junior College on Saturday.
“We’re probably about as good as we could expect at this point in the season,” Jones said. “The defense is pretty solid, the pitching is good and our offense is starting to show some progress. I’m pretty comfortable going into the conference opener on Saturday.”
WNCC beat Trinidad State in the opening round of the Region IX playoffs last May.
“These are going to be tough games. Both teams are going to be fired up and ready to play for the conference opener,” Jones said. “Trinidad has a couple solid pitchers that pitched for them a year ago, so they have some experience.”
Jones said Tim Beard and Carlos Palomo are scheduled to get the starts on the mound Saturday.
The Cougars and Trojans will play one nine-inning, non-conference game on Sunday.
“This year everybody is pretty good throughout the conference,” Jones said. “Everybody’s pretty solid. I think it’s going to be a fun conference season.”
WNCC (5-6) 000 001 230 — 6 11 2
CSU Club 020 010 31x — 7 9 0
LP — Trevor Kreisel.
2B — Jake Vore, Rainer Tiel.
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