WNCC baseball drops home opener to Colorado State

The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team saw their runs at a premium in their home-opener at Cleveland Field, dropping a doubleheader against Colorado State University club team.

The Rams utilized a one-hit pitching performance from Bobby Moller in a 6-0 win in game one, and then used a 4-run fifth inning to take the nightcap 6-4.

WNCC coach Mike Jones said his team didn’t perform like they did in a five-game series against Barton Community College over the weekend.

“I thought we showed up and played with more intensity in the second game. I thought we had better at bats and Sam Diaz pitched a good ball game. We just made a couple mistakes behind him and we didn’t bounce back after making those mistakes. We kind of let those mistakes defeat us. We need to do a better job of keeping our head up even though we make a few mistakes and not let them beat us like that.”

The big difference in the second game was a fifth inning where Colorado State scored four times with two outs. During that inning, the Rams finished with three hits and took advantage of two costly WNCC errors. The big hit in that inning was a 2-RBI double by Mike Roberts.

“That inning was the big difference in the ball game. We had two plays in that inning where we could have put a stop to it. We should have came back into the dugout with a 2-1 lead and maybe tied 2-2,” Jones said. “We are going to make mistakes. We are a young ball club and it is early in the season. Those things will happen. I would of liked us to rally together a little bit more and come back and get back in the ball game offensively.”

WNCC started the second game strong, plating two runs in the first inning. Josh Parker, a freshman from Canberra, Australia, and Eric Garcia scored on singles by Alex Arias and Anthony Paniagua.

The lead stayed that way until the fourth inning when Colorado State sliced the lead in half, 2-1, before taking a 5-2 lead in the fifth inning. WNCC came right back in the bottom of the fifth to score a run. Parker started the rally with a one-out single. Garcia then walked to put two runners on. Parker then scored on a single by Ronald Miller to bring the Cougars back to 5-3.

Colorado State added an insurance run in the sixth inning only to watch WNCC make a comeback. Parker reached base by taking advantage of an error. Scottsbluff’s Trace Marsden followed with a pinch-hit single to left field. Miler then scored Parker with a groundball to cut the lead to 6-4.

“We did get some guys on base late in the game,” Jones said. “We got some guys on base in the fifth inning, the sixth inning and the seventh inning. But we just couldn’t come up with that big hit.”

Sam Diaz took the loss, going 4 2/3 innings, allowing five runs and fiving up four hits. Diaz also struck out two and issued five free passes. Luis Orta worked the rest of the contest, allowing one run and five hits. Orta also fanned four batters.

WNCC managed just six hits in the game. Parker finished the game 1-for-3 with three runs scored, while Marsden went 1-for-1.

The opener was all Colorado State as The Cougars were held without a hit until a fourth-inning lead-off single by Jason Sloan. In fact, Moller controlled the Cougar hitters, striking out seven in six innings of work, while walking four.

WNCC’s Armani Gonzalez took the loss, going five innings and allowing five runs on six hits. Gonzalez struck out two and issued five free passes to the Rams’ batters. Rodil Martinez finished the contest, throwing two innings and giving up one run on two hits.

The Cougars, 4-7, will open up Empire Conference action this weekend when they travel to Trinidad State Junior College for a doubleheader on Saturday and one game on Sunday. Trinidad enters the contest with a league best 8-5 record, after topping Dodge City Community College 9-4 and 13-1 on Tuesday.

Jones said his team needs to bring their A game to the field.

“I am not sure how we are going to respond to that yet,” he said. “I am concerned about our intensity at times. I am concerned about our desire to win at times. When the conference games comes, maybe we will flip a switch and play a little bit better.”

Game One
CSU 104 001 0 – 6 8 0
WNCC 000 000 0 – 0 1 2
WP – Moller; LP – A. Gonzalez; 2B – CSU (Jake Fox).

Game Two
CSU 000 140 1 – 6 8 1
WNCC 200 010 1 – 4 6 3
WP – Childs, LP – Diaz; 2B – CSU (Roberts).