WNCC baseball at home this weekend against Miles Community College

The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team is all set for their home-opener this weekend, and Cougar coach Mike Jones said the weather should hold out when the Cougars tangle with Miles (Mont.) Community College Saturday and Sunday.

“I think the weather will be O.K.,” Jones said. “It looks like we a slight chance of some moisture Saturday morning. I think the temperatures will be pretty good and the winds will stay fairly calm. I am looking forward to it. Over the years we have been on the road early, so it will be nice to get in a home weekend in February.”

Jones said the field should be in pretty condition when the first pitch is thrown at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“The team is excited. We had to do quite a bit of work there to get all the snow removed and get the field dried off,” he said. “But the playing service looks good. It is just the stuff around the perimeter that will cause us some problems.”

WNCC enters the contests after going 1-3 in games earlier this week. It will be the first games of the year for Miles City. Still, Jones isn’t taking the Pioneers lightly.

“I know they had a real good season a year ago. They have been putting back-to-back good seasons over the years, and I expect them to come in extremely excited to play. They haven’t had a whole lot of time to practice on the field. I expect the games to be pretty close and I expect pitching to dominate all the games.”

Sophomores Greg Crowe and Eric Bissonette, a Chadron High graduate, will get the nod on the mounds in Saturday’s action.

“Eric had an outstanding outing down in Kansas. Greg was shaky in his first inning, but after that he settled down and pitched well,” he said. “I look for both of them to come out and throw good for us.”

The Cougars opened up the spring season Monday splitting a doubleheader against No. 25 Seward County Community College before falling twice to Barton County Community College.

Still, Jones said this team is on pace to repeat as regional champions.

“We did fairly well and we showed signs of being a really good ball club,” he said. “I thought defensively we played much better then what I anticipated. Offensively, we had a lot of good at bats and we had a lot of bad at bats. We show signs of being a good offensive team.”