WNCC baseball team has 6-game winning streak snapped in Arizona

Submitted by Jeremy Wosnick, Star-Herald Sports Reporter

PHOENIX - The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team had its six-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday afternoon against Neosho Community College (Kan.) in the first day of its spring break road trip in Phoenix.

The Cougars, who entered the game on the heels of a four-game sweep of McCook Community College over the weekend, couldn't muster much offense in a 7-3 setback. WNCC will play six games in the next five days, including a nine-inning game against Gateway Community College today at 3 p.m.

Despite the setback on Tuesday, the Cougars received a strong outing on the mound from freshman lefthander Rodil Martinez. Martinez struck out five and allowed just three runs in seven innings of work.

"Overall, it was a good ball game," WNCC coach Mike Jones said. "We were really pleased with Rodil's outing. He threw a lot of strikes and had really good command of three pitches.

Unfortunately, they were just able to find some holes early in the ball game in the first inning. But I thought he pitched a good game for us. I was really encouraged."

The only three runs Martinez allowed came in the top of the first inning. After that, he managed to hold Neosho scoreless for the next six innings.

WNCC also had its struggles offensively in the contest against Neosho's southpaw starter. The Cougars only mustered a single run in the fifth, seventh and ninth innings.

"He was a lefthander that mixed up his pitches and mixed up his locations on us," Jones said of Neosho's starting pitcher. "I thought that we made a lot of mistakes, as far as being too aggressive and forcing ourselves into a lot of outs."

No Cougar finished with multiple hits in the contest. Aurelio Monteagudo blasted a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, while Oscar Rodriquez added a hit and drove in two runs.

WNCC, now 11-13 on the season, will be in action every day for the rest of the week. The Cougars will wrap up the trip on Sunday against Central Arizona College, which is ranked No. 4 in the nation.

"The guys are real excited about playing in the warm weather," Jones said. "We're going to play some really strong teams while we're down here. It won't get any easier for us. They all keep getting better as the week goes along. It's going to be really good for our ball club to get a chance to play every day and play against great competition."

Neosho 300 000 013 - 7 10 3
WNCC (11-13) 000 010 101 - 3 5 3
LP - Rodil Martinez (0-1).
HR - Aurelio Monteagudo.