WNCC baseball drops doubleheader to Barton County

Contributed by JEREMY WOZNICK, Star-Herald Sports Reporter

GREAT BEND, Kan. - The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team dropped both games of its doubleheader with Barton County Community College Tuesday in Great Bend, Kan.

The Cougars, who split their season-opening doubleheader at Seward County Community College on Monday, lost a tight 6-5 decision in game one Tuesday against Barton County before falling 11-3 in game two.

Despite the setbacks, WNCC coach Mike Jones saw plenty of positives from his young ball club in both games.

"We saw plenty of positives in both games," Jones said. "Even though the score was kind of lopsided in the second game, offensively we put together a pretty good ball game. We just stranded a lot of base runners. We didn't pitch very well and we played poor defensively in the second game.

"The first game was a very good ball game. We got out to an early lead, but after that we just made a lot of young mistakes throughout the rest of the game offensively by being a little too aggressive and running into some outs."

In the first game, WNCC scored four runs in the first inning en route to holding a 5-3 lead after two innings. The Cougars continued to hold that lead until the bottom of the fifth when Barton County scratched across a pair of runs to tie the game before scoring the go-ahead run in the sixth.

Freshman Norbert Susini led WNCC offensively in the game by going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a double. Carlos Garcia added a hit and drove in two runs for the Cougars. WNCC finished the game with just four hits while Barton County pounded out 15.

Todd Stachura started the contest on the mound for WNCC and got a no decision. He struck out three in 4 2/3 innings. Victor Rubio was credited with the loss.
In game two, WNCC pounded out a season high 11 hits. The Cougars plated a pair of runs in the first to take a 2-0 lead, but Barton County answered with a nine spot in the second to take the lead for good.

Kyler Edgehouse took the loss on the mound for WNCC. He struck out two in 2 1/3 innings of work.

Offensively for WNCC, Rich Miller went 3-for-4 with a run batted in. Greg Crowe went 2-for-3 while Garcia, David Monteagudo and Dustin Javins all had doubles.

WNCC finished its season-opening road trip 1-3. The Cougars are scheduled to host Miles City Community College in a doubleheader in their home opener Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.

"It was great to just get out and play," Jones said. "We played two really good ball clubs and it was nice to just get out there and let everybody see the speed of the game. I saw a lot of good things in the four games we played. For the most part, we played really good defense until the fourth game. Our infield was solid and our pitching was OK at times. So, I got a chance to evaluate quite a bit and our team got a chance to just play."

Game 1
WNCC                   410 000 0 - 5 4 1
Barton County       300 021 x - 6 15 2
LP - Victor Rubio (0-1).
2B - Norbert Susini.
Game 2
WNCC (1-3)           200 001 0 - 3 11 3
Barton County        090 002 x - 11 9 1
LP - Kyler Edgehouse (0-1).
2B - Carlos Garcia, David Monteagudo, Dustin Javins.