The Cougars lost all four games over the weekend to Lamar and put themselves behind the eight-ball in making the Region IX playoffs.
"We put ourselves in a bad spot now,” WNCC coach Mike Jones said. “Dropping all four of these games puts us in a bad, bad position. We will have to find out what is going on around the conference after this weekend. We are in a bad spot and our backs are against the wall now.”
WNCC, however, is not out of the race just yet. The Cougars are tied with Otero Junior College for fourth with 12-16 records in conference play. Trinidad State is third with a 14-14. WNCC, however, holds the tiebreaker over both teams.
That makes Wednesday’s games vital when Northeastern Junior College visits Cleveland Field and Trinidad State travels to Otero. The WNCC contest Wednesday begins at 4 p.m.
“Those games will be everything we have left,” Jones said. “We are definitely hoping for some help from other teams. We need help from NJC to take care of Otero, and Trinidad and Otero will have to hook it up on Wednesday.
The Cougars had an opportunity to earn a split of Sunday’s games, staging a fierce rally in the seventh inning of the second game that left the tying run stranded at third and first base.
Before that rally came up short, it was how the Cougars came back. Trailing 7-2 entering the bottom of the inning, WNCC’s put on their rally caps and did all their scoring with two outs.
Carlos Garcia started things by drawing a one-out walk, followed by a double by Chris Hook. After a groundout, Greg Crowe delivered a line-drive single to right field to score one run. David Monteagudo followed with a double to left field to score two runs to cut the lead to 7-5.
Alex Mueller then advanced to first after being hit by a pitch to put runners on the corner. After a pitching switch, Rudy Soto grounded out to second base to end the rally.
“We put together a decent rally in the seventh. It was just a little bit too late,” Jones said. “We had opportunities early in the ball game with guys in scoring position and couldn’t come up with the big hits. We had trouble all day coming up with the big hits when we needed them. In the past our offense has been able to produce when we needed it. We cam up short this game."
The game, however, was intense from the get-go. Lamar took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third, only to see the Cougars tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Soto started things with a double followed by Norbert Susini drawing a walk. Then, with two outs, Hook delivered a clutch, two-out double to score both runs.
WNCC couldn’t hold the lead as Lamar scored three times in the fourth to take a 5-2 lead, followed by single runs in the sixth and seventh for the win.
Jake Vulk took the loss on the mound by giving up five runs and eight hits and striking out three.
Offensively, Hook went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs, while Crowe went 3-for-4 with three singles, a runs scored and a RBI.
In the opening game, the Cougars couldn’t find that rally to bring come back as Lamar took control of the game from the opening inning, going up 2-0. WNCC did cut the lead to 3-1 with a one in the fourth as Garcia doubled and scored on a Crowe sacrifice fly. But, the Cougars couldn’e get any more runs across the plate stranding two runners on base.
Lamar added insurance runs in the fifth and sixth with two runs each to salt the game away. WNCC managed just seven hits in the contest, while Lamar had six hits, but three errors cost the Cougars.
Jackson Salazar suffered the loss despite pitching well.
Aurelio Monteagudo finished the game going 2-for-3 with a double. Garcia and Susini also featured doubles in the contest.
First Game
Lamar 200 122 0 – 7 6 1
WNCC 000 110 0 – 2 7 3
WP – Kyle Gurnieny, LP – Salazar; 2B – WNCC (Susini, Garcia, A. MOnteagudo), Lamar (Daniel Neumann, John Callahan).
Lamar 002 301 1 – 7 13 0
WNCC 002 000 3 – 5 8 1
WP – Mychal Rahnich, LP – Vulk, S – Mike Ramirez; 2B – WNCC (Soto, Hook 2, D. Monteagudo), Lamar (Sam Sena); 3B – Lamar (Sena); HR – Lamar (Josh Payne).
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