Submitted By JEREMY WOZNICK, Star-Herald Sports Reporter
LAMAR, Colo. - The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team gave second-ranked College of Southern Nevada all it could handle before suffering a 9-8 heartbreaker in the opening day of the NJCAA Western District Playoffs Thursday in Lamar, Colo.
With the score tied 8-8 and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Southern Nevada scratched out the game-winning run to thwart WNCC's valiant upset bid.
"It was a great college baseball game," WNCC coach Mike Jones said. "Our guys played their guts out. We really played as well as we could. Unfortunately, we just made a couple errors that hurt us and gave them some runs. It was a great ball game."
WNCC will try and keep its season alive today when it battles No. 11 Central Arizona College in an elimination game at 11 a.m. Lamar Community College beat Central Arizona in Thursday's other tournament game.
Southern Nevada jumped to an early lead against WNCC when Bryce Harper blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Harper is projected to be one of the top picks in this year's Major League Baseball Draft. Many scouts have the power-hitting catcher going first overall in the draft.
Jones said all of the attention Harper is receiving is well deserved.
"He just hit a monster shot in the first," Jones said. "After that we tied him up pretty good. He hit a couple ground balls to second base and we hit him inside with a fastball once. He knows what he's doing and he's a strong hitter. There's a lot of power in his swing."
After falling behind early, WNCC quickly answered with a pair of runs in the top of the second to knot the score at 2-2.
The Cougars then ignited for five runs in the top of the fourth to grab a 7-2 advantage. However, Southern Nevada rallied back to take an 8-7 lead by scoring two runs each in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings.
WNCC managed to even the score at 8-8 with a single run in the top of the eighth before Southern Nevada scored the game winner in the ninth.
Jones said he was proud of the effort put forth by his ball club against one of the top teams in the nation.
"We weren't intimidated and we never backed down," Jones said. "We made some great plays defensively, Tim Beard pitched a good ball game for us and we had some good at-bats. I'm extremely proud of the guys. It just shows the character of our guys and our program."
Beard started the game on the mound for WNCC and allowed six earned runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings of work. He struck out four. Julio Davila took the loss on the mound for the Cougars.
Offensively, Josh Parker led WNCC with four hits and two runs batted in. Three of Parker's four hits were doubles.
Camilo Baldelomar finished with three hits and scored a run, while Jared Baros had two hits and drove in two. Shane Wade added a double. WNCC out-hit Southern Nevada 13-8.
Against Central Arizona today, WNCC will send sophomore Armani Gonzalez to the mound. Gonzalez is 1-1 in the postseason.
"He's been really good for us in the postseason," Jones said of Gonzalez. "He's really stepped up. We expect nothing but his best effort again [today]."
WNCC (24-38) 020 500 010 - 8 13 4
Southern Nevada (47-13) 200 220 201 - 9 8 3
LP - Julio Davila.
HR - Bryce Harper. 2B - Josh Parker (3), Shane Wade.
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