WNCC baseball picks up fourth win, splits with Barton County on Monday

Submitted by By Jeremy Woznick, Scottsbluff Star-Herald

GREAT BEND, Kan. - The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team continued to show flashes of its offensive firepower in earning a doubleheader split against Barton Community College on Monday in Great Bend, Kan.

The Cougars pounded out an 11-7 win in game one before dropping a 13-7 setback in game two. In Sunday's action, WNCC and Barton also split a doubleheader. Barton won 3-0 before WNCC rebounded with a 10-1 win in game two.

WNCC ended its five-game, three-day road trip with three wins. The Cougars are now 4-5 on the season heading into their home opener on Wednesday against the Colorado State University club team at Cleveland Field in Scottsbluff. First pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m.

"All in all it was a good five games for us," WNCC coach Mike Jones said of his team's trip to Kansas. "I'm pleased with the progress we're making as an offensive team. We continued to put up some runs and I thought our offensive production has been good over the last five games. We played real well the first game [Monday] and in the second game unfortunately we made way too many defensive mistakes and lost momentum in the ball game."

In game one, WNCC plated seven runs in the third inning to take a commanding 7-0 lead. The inning was highlighted by Jason Sloan's three-run double.

After Barton closed within 7-4 at the end of five innings, WNCC scored three more times in the top of the sixth and added another run in the seventh to pull away.

Scottsbluff High School graduate Trace Marsden went 3-for-3 at the plate for the Cougars. Marsden drove in three runs and finished with a double. Aurelio Monteagudo went 2-for-4 with a run batted in while Sloan drove in five.

Tim Kupfner collected his first win of the season on the mound for the Cougars. Kupfner (1-0) went all seven innings. He allowed 11 hits and struck out eight.

WNCC's offense continued to sizzle at the start of game two. After plating a run in the top of the first, the Cougars scored four times in the second to hold a 5-0 advantage. However, Barton plated a run in the bottom of the second before tying the game at 5-5 by scoring four runs in the fourth.

WNCC took back the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth, but Barton exploded for six runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for good. Barton added two insurance runs to its total in the sixth.

"We jumped out to an early lead," Jones said. "We made a couple errors in the fourth inning that gave them their four runs. We took the lead again later, but then our bullpen couldn't hold it for us.

"We've got some things to work on, but I think we've shown a lot of good things so far this season as well."

Barton out-hit WNCC 13-8 in the second game. WNCC made four errors defensively.
Gustavo Sanchez took the loss on the mound out of the bullpen. David Castle started the contest and was credited with a no decision. Castle allowed four runs and struck out three in four innings of work.

Josh Parker, Elvis Garcia and Dallas Liptac all finished the game with two hits and two runs batted in each. Parker also had a double.

After being shut out in Sunday's first game, the Cougars responded with a 14-hit attack to win game two. Alex Arias paced the WNCC offense in the game by going 4-for-4 with a triple, three runs batted in and two runs scored. Ronald Miller went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in and three runs scored. Also collecting multiple hits in the game were Marsden and Sloan. Both totaled two hits each.

Ben Doran earned the win on the mound. He allowed one run on five hits in six innings of work. Doran struck out two.

In Sunday's first game, WNCC totaled just four hits. Anthony Paniagua led the way offensively by going 2-for-3.

Enrique Gonzalez took the loss on the mound. The freshman righthander allowed just five hits and struck out four in six innings of work.

Sunday
Game One
WNCC 000 000 0 - 0 4 3
Barton 000 111 x - 3 5 1
LP - Enrique Gonzalez (0-2).
Game Two
WNCC 204 000 4 - 10 14 0
Barton 100 000 0 - 1 5 0
WP - Ben Doran (1-0).
3B - Alex Arias. 2B - Anthony Paniagua, Shane Wade.

Monday
Game One
WNCC 007 003 1 - 11 9 0
Barton 001 030 3 - 7 11 3
WP - Tim Kupfner (1-0).
2B - Jason Sloan, Trace Marsden.
Game Two
WNCC (4-5) 140 020 0 - 7 8 4
Barton 010 462 x - 13 13 1
LP - Gustavo Sanchez (0-1).
2B - Josh Parker.