WNCC baseball narrowly falls to defending champs Iowa Western

                [March 14, 2013] KEARNEY – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team played the defending national champs tough, but came up on the short end, falling to Iowa Western Community College Thursday in Kearney.

                In the opener, Iowa Western scored early and then held off a Cougar comeback in prevailing 8-5. The second game was a pitcher’s duel as Grant Rimington controlled the Reivers’ bats before falling 2-1.

                In fact, the second game was anyone’s contest. Rimington held the Iowa Western bats to just four hits, and the Cougars stayed in the game pounding out five hits. Iowa Western scored a single run in the first before WNCC came back to tie the game in the fifth with a single run.

                Gabriel DeLa Rosa led off the inning with a single and then came around to score on a 2-out single by Anthony Delgado to tie the game.

                WNCC had a number of opportunities to score even more runs against the national power baseball team. In the sixth inning, the Cougars put runners on third and second with just one out, but couldn’t scratch across another run.

                In fact, the Cougars had base runners in every inning except the seventh.

                The Cougars finished with five hits in the second game.  DeLa Rosa led the way with a 2-for-3 game with a run scored.

                The first game saw the two teams combine for 16 hits. Iowa Western scored its runs early with three in the first, a single run in the second, and two in the third and fourth for an 8-1 lead.

                WNCC scored their runs late. WNCC opened up the scoring with a single run in the fourth as Ozzie Gonzalez scored on a fielder’s choice hit.

                WNCC kept up it’s offensive punch from the fourth inning, adding a single run in the sixth and three more in the seventh. The sixth saw Gonzalez score off a two-out single by Nick Vanthillo.

                The seventh inning saw the Cougars’ rally caps come out. WNCC loaded the bases to started off as Delgado walked followed by Zach Ostergard get5ting plunked by a pitch. David Martinez then hit a grounder that was booted by the second baseman, allowing Delgado to score. WNCC then got a run-scoring single by Cameron Snyder before Snyder came around to score on a ground ball from DeLa Rosa.

                The Cougars had six hits in the contest. Ostergard led the way with two hits, including two doubles.

                Challis Wright took the loss on the mound, going four innings in allowing eight runs on 10 hits, while striking out four. Grant Piccoli and Vanthillo each tossed one hitless inning.

                WNCC (6-15) will be back in action Sunday when they begin a string of Spring Break games in Arizona.

First Game

WNCC                   000 101 3 – 5 8 4

IWCC                     312 200 x – 8 10 3

LP – Challis Wright; 2B – Zach Ostergard 2.

Second Game

WNCC                   000 010 0 – 1 6 3

IWCC                     100 010 x – 2 5 0

LP – Grant Rimington.