Baseball splits with Otero on Sunday

The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team’s bid for an Empire Conference championship just became interesting after the team split a doubleheader Sunday at Cleveland Field.

The Cougars, who were in control of winning the conference title and hosting next month’s regional tournament, are now tied with Trinidad State Junior College at 14-8 in conference standings. That was made possible after Trinidad State swept McCook Community College and Northeastern Junior College over the weekend.

WNCC, on the other hand, fell to Otero Junior College 7-0 as Otero’s Dillon Meanie threw a 2-hitter against the Cougars. WNCC did rebound in game two, winning 7-5 behind a 3-for-3 and four RBI performance from sophomore Pedro Suarez.

“We were swinging the bats the whole game, but the first game nothing was falling and they were getting all the hits in front of us. There was nothing we could do about that,” Suarez said. “The big key in the second game was pitching. It kept us in the game. Five runs is not a lot for our hitting. We can explode any inning. We can score six or seven runs any time we want. We did it today.”

The Cougars did explode offensively, collecting eight eights compared to just two in the first game. Suarez was the big stick, especially in the fifth and sixth innings when the Cougars score five of their seven runs. Suarez collected a 2-RBI double to give tie the game at four. He later scored on a Richie Stewart first-pitch double to right-centerfield to put WNCC up 5-4.

Otero bounced back tying the game at five with a single run in the sixth, but it didn’t last long as WNCC scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth. After Gilbert Gonzalez and Travis Lindhorst and Daniel Martinez all walked to load the bases, Suares pounded a two run-scoring single to put WNCC up 7-5.

Chris Cuadra then came in of relief of Todd Stachura, who pitched six strong innings striking out four.

Also collecting multiple hits for WNCC in the win was Martinez, who went 2-for-3 with a runs scored and a walk. Lindhorst finished with 1-for-1 with a walk, sacrifice, a RBI and two runs scored.

Suarez said the key for the remainder of the season is to start hitting early and not waiting until the late innings, especially when they host Northeastern Junior College on Wednesday in a doubleheader.

“We have to take it real strong from the beginning and we can’t wait until the seventh inning to get our bats going,” he said. “We have to come out from the first inning, get on it, and get the horse going. Wednesday’s game is bigger then big. We have to come out and do our jobs and make sure we are number one in the conference.”

The first game, it wasn’t a matter of the Cougars not hitting, they only had two strike outs, it was more of a matter of hitting the ball right at the Otero defenders. Suarez did, however, collect one of the team’s two hits. The other hit came from Stewart.

But, the game wasn’t a blow-out at the beginning as Cougar starter Greg Hitter had a perfect game going through the first three innings. Then, Otero picked up an unearned run in the fourth and then scratched across another run in the fifth for a 2-0 lead before going onto the 7-0 win.

Suarez credited Otero’s pitcher for pitching an outstanding game.

“He was in his rhythm,” he said. “When I was at the plate, I felt uncomfortable. He was quick pitching me and I should have called timeout. He pitched a great game.”

Suarez said that they realize they have to put these games behind them and be ready to Wednesday against a talented NJC team.

“That first game we lost was very tough on us but we have NJC coming up on Wednesday and we have to take two from those guys to get back where we want to be,” he said. “We have a great ball club this year. All the guys are real tight together. We do a lot of things together and we like where we are at.”

First game
Otero 000 113 2 – 7 7 0
WNCC 000 000 0 – 0 2 3
WP – Meanie, LP – Crowe; 2B – Otero (Casey Taylor, Kyle Pieta).

Second game
Otero 020 201 0 – 5 9 1
WNCC 020 032 x – 7 8 1
WP – Stachura, LP – Brandon Buchanan, Save – Cuadra; 2B – WNCC (Suarez, Stewart), Otero (Mikey Raudenbush); 3B – Otero (Brandon Alvaras).