WNCC baseball ends season with loss to Central Arizona

Submitted byBy JEREMY WOZNICK, Star-Herald Sports Reporter

LAMAR, Colo. - The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team had its season come to an end in the second day of the NJCAA Western District Tournament Friday in Lamar, Colo.

A day after suffering a heartbreaking, last at-bat loss to No. 2 College of Southern Nevada, the Cougars might still have been stinging as they dropped a 17-4 setback to No. 11 Central Arizona College.

"It was a bad combination of us not being ready to play and Central Arizona hitting on all cylinders," WNCC coach Mike Jones said. "I do think [Thursday's] game took a lot out of us, but we just didn't play well. We made two errors on the first two batters of the game. Central Arizona jumped on us early and they didn't let up."

WNCC finished its season with a record of 24-39. The Cougars saved some of their best baseball for the postseason by claiming the No. 2 seed in the Region IX playoffs. WNCC beat Trinidad State Junior College in the opening round of the playoffs before finishing runner-up to Lamar Community College. The second-place finish in the regional playoffs qualified the Cougars for the Western District Tournament.

"It was great to play in the Western District Tournament," Jones said. "We really gave it a good shot [Thursday]. Unfortunately, we didn't have much fight in us today.

"It's been a year of some ups and downs. We had a really slow start, but the guys were able to preserve and get through it. They really turned it into a good season down the stretch. It was fun to compete against some of the best teams in the nation down here this week."

In eliminating WNCC from the tournament, Central Arizona pounded out 13 hits and blasted five home runs.

After scoring five times in the top of the first inning, Central Arizona went on to score seven times in the next three innings to build a 12-2 advantage. The Cougars plated two runs each in the first and fifth before Central Arizona put the game away with five runs in the sixth.

WNCC finished the game with seven hits.

Elvis Garcia hit a two-run home run in the fifth for WNCC. Jason Sloan led the Cougars offensively by going 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Jared Baros added a double.

All three of those sophomores played their final game in a Cougar uniform Thursday.

"This has been a great group of sophomores for us," Jones said. "They have really been the core for us the past two years on two solid teams. We're definitely going to miss some of these guys. We're thankful that they put in so much hard work to help the program."

Another sophomore, Armani Gonzalez, took the loss on the mound for WNCC. Gonzalez struck out three and allowed six hits in 2 1/3 innings of work.

Central Arizona (44-19) 524 105 - 17 13 0
WNCC (24-39) 200 020 - 4 7 4
LP - Armani Gonzalez.
HR - Elvis Garcia. 2B - Jared Baros.