WNCC baseball team set for Regionals at Lamar this weekend

                 A week ago, the Western Nebraska Community College baseball team was on the blink of ending their season with no playoff possibility.

 But, with their backs against the wall, the Cougars found a way to take three of four games from Trinidad State Junior College last weekend. Because of those wins, the Cougars find themselves in the Region IX playoffs.

                The Cougars will open the first round of the Region IX playoffs facing the No. 1 seed Lamar Community College Saturday at 1 p.m. in Lamar, Colo. The series is best two of three games. The second game is slated for 1 p.m. Sunday with an if-necessary game to follow.

                WNCC, who finished the regular season with an 18-31 record, know their record doesn’t show just how good they can be. And, last weekend’s contests against Trinidad State gives the Cougar players much needed confidence.

                “The past weekend against Trnidad was huge for us because it is a huge confidence builder for the coming weekend,” sophomore pitcher Carlos Luzon said. “The regular season finale against Lamar on Monday really didn’t mean a lot because we knew who we were facing in the playoffs and we knew they are No. 1 in the region.

“Now, we have to play the best that we can to get two wins to make it to the regional finals. We are in pretty good shape We have been playing great and we have that confidence going on. I think with good pitching and good defense, those two 9-inning games can affect us in a good way.”

Lamar enters the regional playoffs with a 42-14 record. They finished the Empire Conference play at 25-4 and won the conference by 6 ½ games over Otero Junior College. Otero will face Trinidad State in the other first round contest. The winner of both first-round series will face each other May 13-15 in a best 2-out-of-3 series.

Sophomore Jake Stutzman of Wood River, said it won’t be easy this weekend. But, the team knows, since they beat Lamar once at their place, they have a chance.

                “They have a really good number one pitcher and we just have to scrap a couple runs across,” he said. “We just need a really good outing by [Carlos] Palomo in game one and play solid defense behind him.   We know that us going back to Lamar knowing that we won and easily could have been two, definitely gives us a confidence boost and we definitely can take two games from them.”
                The Lopes have two guys with earned run averages below a two. Arturo Maltos-Garcia enters the playoffs with an 11-0 record with an ERA of 1.27. Maltos-Garcia has struck out 126 this season. Shane Zaruba has an ERA of 1.74 and a record of 8-4. Tim Zufalt also boasts an impressive record coming in at 10-1. The Lamar pitching staff has a team 3.41 ERA.

                WNCC has seen a mixture of talent this season. It’s pitching staff is anchored by Luzon and Palomo as the top two hurlers. They also have great outings from Stutzman, Jeff Schmitt, trevor Kriesel, and Terry McNabb.

                The Cougars, however, don’t have a lot of power. Instead, they have to rely on getting the base hit at the right time, while utilizing their speed. And, in a ball park such as Lamar’s, where teams have said it is a batter’s dream park for home runs, Luzon said that pitchers have to stay in control.

                “We know they go out there really aggressive at swinging because they know they have a small field,” he said. “Us, pitchers, know we have to do a better job of locating our pitches, and pitching smarter than how we pitch at our field or another field. We know they will come out swinging the bats hard because one good swing and they can hit some balls out. We know they are going to go out aggressive so we have to be smart.”

                WNCC, however, has beaten the Lopes at their field already 5-4 back on April 17. They almost took a second game losing a 6-2 lead in the seventh and falling 7-6. The Cougars have dropped 11 one-run games this season. Stutzman said this team usually finds a way to stay in contests.

                “All year there were games where we have been out of it or down early, and we come back late in the game to at least make a game out of it and make it interesting,” he said. “That is how we have been all year. We just scrap a lot. We never quit and we have a lot of fight in our team until the game is completely over.”