STERLING, Colo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team continued its struggles in scoring runs in dropping an Empire Conference contest to Northeastern Junior College Wednesday afternoon.
The Cougars managed just six hits in the contest and fell to the Plainsmen 6-2. The loss drops the Cougar men to 11-21 on the season and 4-8 in conference play, while NJC moves to 15-24 overall and 3-13 in conference play.
The two teams will hook up once again Friday and Saturday in doubleheader action at Cleveland Field in conference games. The games were moved from the weekend because of the forecast on Sunday.
WNCC coach Mike Jones said they did OK pitching and playing defense; they are just struggling with the offense.
"Jake Stutzman pitched a really good game for us. I thought he kept them off balance and gave us a good chance to win the game early," Jones said. "Offensively, though, we really struggled."
Jones said his team needs to get some confidence going to get back into the conference race.
"We are sliding in the conference standings. We are not playing very well. Pitching is doing good and the defense is doing great, but we just have to find ways to score some runs. Right know everybody is putting a lot of pressure on themselves. If we can get backed a relaxed approach and not put so much pressure on ourselves, it sure would help. it is tough right know because everybody feels the pressure when they walk to the plate to be that guy to get that big hit. It is more a mental thing than a physical thing."
NJC struck first, scoring twice in the fourth inning on two hits, one of which was a home run.
WNCC sliced the lead in half with a single run in the sixth as Reiner Alamberry hit scored Paul Singh. NJC, however, came back with two runs in the sixth and seventh to go up 6-1.
The Cougars' final run came in the eighth. Alliance's Jake Peltz led off with a double. Camilo Baldelomar followed with a 2-out single before Alamberry's single scored Peltz. But that was it for the Cougar's scoring.
Stutzman picked up the loss on the mound, going six innings and giving up four runs on six hits. Carlos Luzon, Carlos Palomo and Terry McNabb all saw action on the rubber for the Cougars as well.
WNCC had just two players with multiple hits. Baldelomar led the way going 2-for-3, while Alambarry went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
WNCC will send Luzon and Palomo to the mound on Friday when these two teams match up at Cleveland Field at 2 p.m.
WNCC (11-21) 000 001 010 -- 2 6 2
NJC (15-24) 000 202 20x -- 6 10 0
LP Jake Stutzman; 2B -- Jake Peltz.
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