The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team evened its record at 16-16 with two impressive wins against Northeastern Junior College Sunday at Cleveland Field in Scottsbluff.
The Cougars pounded out 18 hits, including three home runs, to register a come-from-behind 16-8 win. Game two was much closer as the Cougars scored the winning run in the 8th inning to register the 5-4 extra-inning win.
WNCC coach Mike Jones said the wins were not only huge to bring their record back to .500, but it moved the Cougars to 8-4 in conference play.
“The most important thing right now is our conference record, which goes to 8-4. We are looking real good right now in the conference race,” Jones said. “It will be important for us not to let up and it is important for us to understand it took a lot of hard work to get to this point and we have to continue that attitude. We can’t slip and let up.”
WNCC was in a position to drop both games on Sunday. Instead, they found a way to win, in contests that featured the Cougars winning different ways. In game one, WNCC trailed 7-3 after three inning.
“In game one, it was nice that our offense picked up Tim [Kupfner], who had a shaky outing,” Jones said. ”We haven’t seen him pitch like that all year. Normally he really shuts down teams. NJC got to him and put up some runs early and we were playing catch up. It was nice that our offense stepped up and got us back in the ball game and we really took it over.”
The Cougars comeback was highlighted by teeing off on the Northeastern Junior College pitchers to the tune of seven extra base hits in the last three innings. Oscar Rodriquez started with a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning. Four batters later, Aurelio Monteagudo launched a 3-run blast that landed in the parking lot of the softball field to tie the game at 7-7.
WNCC put the game away in the fifth inning, scoring seven times to take a 14-7 lead. WNCC had six straight hits in the inning, including 2 run-scoring double by Josh Parker and Monteagudo, and a 2-run home run by Elvis Garcia that landed about the same spot in the parking lot as Monteagudo’s blast in the fourth inning.
“We had a nice wind blowing straight out to left field and we got some good pitches to hit that were down the middle of the plate,” Jones said. “Our guys did a nice job of putting good swings on them.”
NJC came back with a single run in the sixth inning on back-to-back doubles by Sean Flaherty and Cory Miller.
WNCC added two more runs in the sixth inning. Ron Miller led off with a double and then scored on a Vince Rouse triple. Rouse later scored on a Sloan single.
Rodil Martinez picked up the win for the Cougars, going three innings. Martinez allowed just one run and two hits, while striking out two. Kupfner started the game and went four innings, giving up seven runs on nine hits and two home runs. Kupfner struck out six in his four innings of work.
Sloan paced the team from the plate, going 4-for-4 with three runs scored, a double and a RBI. Monteagudo went 3-for-5 with six RBIs, two runs scored, a double and a home run. Also for the Cougars in the opener, Parker went 2-for-4 with three runs scored, two RBIs and double; Garcia went 2-fof-4 with a home run and four RBIs; Alex Arias went 2-for-4 with a triple; and Rouse went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, two RBIs and a triple.
WNCC also needed a comeback in game two. The Plainsmen jumped out to a 4-1 lead after five innings. The big blast for NJC came in the fifth when Nick Nguyen delivered his second home of the day, a two-run shot.
WNCC scored a single run in the third. Jared Baros reached base on an error and scored on a Parker ground out.
The Cougars tied the game in the sixth inning with three runs on just two hits. Baros led off with a single. Parker then walked before Sloan doubled in Baros for the Cougar’s second run of the day. Parker later scored on a Garcia ground out and then Sloan scored on a throwing error to tie the game at 4-4.
In the extra inning, NJC had two runners on before the Cougars turned a double play to thwart the scoring opportunity. WNCC capitalized in the bottom of the inning. Parker delivered a bloop single to lead off the inning. Sloan then tried a sacrifice bunt, which turned into a single to put two runners on with no outs. Monteagudo then delivered the hit down the third base line that scored Parker with the winning run.
“In the second game, I thought their left hander [Matt Klein] did a great job of stopping our offense,” Jones said. “We have been an offense that has been known to put up quite a few runs and he really stopped us. He held us in game two, but good teams always find a way to win. It is nice that we were able to find a way to score some runs in the ball game and get it there in the end.”
WNCC, after finishing with 18 hits in game one, were out hit 12-5 in game two. Sloan went 2-for-4 with a run scored, a double and a RBI.
Victor Rubio picked up the win, throwing 3 2/3 innings in relief of Ben Doran. Rubio scattered five hits in allowing zero runs. Rubio also struck out 4 and walked two. Doran allowed seven hits, walked four and struck out one in 4 1/3 innings of work.
WNCC (16-16) will next be in action Wednesday when they travel to Colby Community College. They will then face Otero Junior College on the road Saturday and Sunday in conference games. Otero took 3 of 4 from McCook this weekend, downing the Indians 5-1, 11-2, 13-2, before falling 12-10.
Game One
NJC 113 201 0 – 8 11 1
WNCC 102 472 x – 16 18 0
WP – Rodil Martinez, LP – Javier Banuellos; 2B – WNCC (Parker, Sloan, Miller), NJC (Flaherty), 3B – WNCC (Arias, Rouse); HR – WNCC (Monteagudo, Garcia, Rodriquez).
Game Two
NJC (10-19) 020 020 00 – 4 12 3
WNCC (16-16) 001 003 01 – 5 5 0
WP – Rubio, LP – Klein; 2B – WNCC (Sloan), NJC (Nguyan, Billy McHenry); HR – NJC (Nguyen).
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