WNCC baseball falls to Lamar 6-2

   LAMAR, Colo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team out-hit Lamar Community College, but fell 6-2 on the scoreboard.
               The Cougars pounded out 11 hits on the day in the non-conference 9-inning game.
               "We pitched well and offensively we did well. We just made too many errors in the field," WNCC coach Mike Jones said. "We had plenty of base hits. It was a pretty clean game and you had to find ways to manufacture runs behind singles."
               Lamar struck first, scoring two runs in the first only to watch the Cougars cut the lead in half with a single run in the second.
               WNCC manufactured that run in the second. Zach Ostergard started things with a double and then scored on an Anthony Delgado single.
               The Runnin' Lopes then went up 6-1 with single runs in the fourth and fifth, and two runs in the sixth. WNCC scored their second run in the in the seventh Keeton Krause hit a double, stole second and scored on a ground ball by Ostergard.
               Lamar's Garrett Pope picked up the win, going five innings, scattering five hits and striking out seven. Chalis Wright took the loss for the Cougars, going six innings in striking out five.
               The Cougars will now head to Trinidad State Junior College for Empire Conference doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday. Jones said two freshmen will get the nod on the mound. John Timmins will start the first game and Jason Palser will start the second game.         

WNCC (3-8)         010 000 100 -- 2 11 4
Lamar (13-3)       200 112 00x -- 6 8 2
WP -- Garrett Pope; LP -- Chalis Wright   ; 2B -- Lamar 2 (Brett Bernal, Shane Fessel), WNCC 2 (Zach Ostergard, Keeton Krause); 3B -- Lamar 1 (Thomaslee Mares).