WNCC baseball splits with Miles in home-opener

Photo: Vaughn Wilson throws to first base as he prepares to turn a double play in game one while a Miles player goes sliding in front of him.

               The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team opened the home portion of their schedule with a split on Monday with Miles Community College at Cleveland Field.

                Game one was a thriller as Jase Satterfield had a walk-off double to score two runs that gave the Cougars the 7-6 come-from-behind win in the bottom of the seventh inning.

                Game two saw the two teams’ pitching staffs combine for 26 strikeouts and 18 free passes as Miles claimed the 12-2 win.

                The two teams will be back at Cleveland Field for another doubleheader on Tuesday with action beginning at 12 noon.

                WNCC coach Mike Jones said the first game was a big win for the Cougars with the come-from-behind win.

                “The first game was a really good game on both sides,” Jones said. “We were able to pull together with some really good at bats in the sixth and seventh innings. And then Jase came up with a really big clutch hit for us there in the seventh to get us the walk off win.”

                The second game was one where Jones said Miles pitcher Lee Neugebauer had his team off balance. Plus, Jones said, his team gave Miles too many free opportunities.

                “We walked too many batters and gave them hit batters, giving them too many opportunities,” he said. “But their guy did an outstanding job. He threw strikes, attacked us really hard with fastballs away. He got a lot of movement to his fastball. Their guy did an excellent job keeping us off balance and guessing.”

                Jones said his team needs to play better than they did in the second game on Monday when the teams go at it on Tuesday.

                “The pitching staff has got to eliminate the walks and hit batters. I mean, we got to make them put more balls in play and then offensively we just got to keep fighting for our bats and continue to find a little bit more consistent timing,” Jones said. “Our pitching staff still has a chance to be pretty good. We just got to keep learning from our mistakes.”

                The game started with Miles getting a first-inning 2-run home run for the 2-0 lead. WNCC responded with four in the bottom of the first. Vaughn Wilson and Daniel Chavez got singles and then Catcher Gladysh took the first pitch and delivered it over the fence for a 3-run home run. Harrison Hart followed with a double and scored on a Jude Russell single for the 4-2 lead.

                Miles followed that with a single run in the second and then three in the third for a 6-4 lead.

                WNCC made it a 6-5 contest with a run in the fifth. Gladysh earned a walk followed by a single by Hart. Will Harbison scored Gladysh with a sacrifice fly.

                The Cougars tied the game in the sixth, but the run was nullified after a interference call at second base that resulted in a third out. WNCC then held Miles scoreless in the top of the seventh, setting up the seventh inning comeback. Gladysh started things by earning a walk followed by singles by Hart and Harbison. Ty Beutner then was put in for a pinch runner and both Gladysh and Beutner scored on Satterfield's walk-off double for the win.

                WNCC finished with 12 hits in the contest, led Hart with a 3-for-4 game. Hart also had a double. Wilson, Chavez, and Satterfield all had two hits in the contest, while Gladysh had a home run with three RBIs and three runs scored.

                Marshall Forsyth started on the mound for the Cougars, going three innings in allowing six runs and five hits, while striking out four. Jack McCrea came in and tossed the final four innings in not allowing a run and giving up just one hit while striking out three.

                The second game saw plenty of pitching success and not success. The two pitching staffs had 26 strikeouts between them as Miles’ starter Lee Neugebauer went six strong innings in allowing three hits, two runs while striking out 16 batters out of the 18 outs.

                WNCC’s two pitchers Nelson Martinez and Carter Reisig combined for 10 strikeouts, but the two also gave up 12 free passes between walks and hit batsman. Martinez had seven strikeouts while allowing five runs, while Reisig had three strikeouts in allowing seven runs, with just two being earned runs.

                WNCC got behind the eight-ball early as the Pioneers went up 9-0 with a single run in the first, two runs each in the second and third and four in the fifth. The fifth inning was key as the Cougars allowed three unearned runs on a dropped third strike for the 9-0 lead.

WNCC put that fifth inning behind them and made a comeback in the bottom of the fifth when Ren Sato collected the Cougars second hit of the game. That was huge as Payton Denny followed with a 2-run home run to make it 9-2.

Miles came right back and added a single run in the sixth and two more in the seventh for a 12-2 lead. The seventh inning saw Sato get a solo home run.

WNCC finished with just four hits in the contest while Miles had just seven hits. Sato led the Cougars with two hits including his home run. The other two hits came from Denny’s home run and Harbison’s second-inning double.

Game 1

Miles                    213 000 0 – 6 6 2

WNCC                400 010 2 – 7 12 1

WP – Jack McCrea.

2B – Jase Satterfield, Daniel Chavez, Harrison Hart, Vaughn Wilson.

HR – Catcher Gladysh.

Game 2

Miles                    122 041 2 – 12 7 0

WNCC                000 020 1 – 3 4 3

LP – Nick Martinez.

2B – Will Harbison.

HR – Payton Denny, Ren Sato.