Cloud County posts 12-2 win over MCC baseball

CONCORDIA, Kan. – The McCook Community College baseball team was held to four hits and committed five errors Thursday in their second game of the season, a 12-2 loss to Cloud County Community College.

“I just felt like we did not play good at all today, all the way around,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “We need to be better at some basic things, we didn’t throw strikes we didn’t play catch in the infield and we just made the game hard for ourselves.”

At Concordia’s Lee Doyen field, the Indians took a first-inning lead with back-to-back singles from sophomores Maddox Shaver (Belleville, Ontario) and Nathan Hutchison (Riverton, Wyo.) to lead off the game. A fielder’s choice advanced Hutchison to third and he came home on a sacrifice fly by freshman Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.).

Cloud County scored twice in the first, once in the second and third innings and three in the fourth to lead 7-1.

“I think Cloud has a very nice team so when you combine going up against as quality opponent with playing bad it makes for a tough day,” said Olsen. “

Tobey Cassino, (sophomore, Arvada, Colo.) started the game for MCC and went two innings allowing three walks, three earned runs, one hit and he struck out three.

Freshman Landon Malloy (Parker, Colo.) came on in relief in the third and pitched two innings, walking four, allowing two hits and one earned run with a two-out MCC error leading two unearned runs.

Sophomore Jean Duran (San Pablo, Dominican Republic) entered the game in the fifth and pitched MCC’s first scoreless frame, allowing one earned run in the sixth with two hits and a strikeout in his two innings of work.

“Looking quickly after the game I think 11 of their 12 runs were a direct result of a walk or defensive miscue and you just aren’t going to win doing that,” said Olsen.

Down 8-1 in the seventh, MCC got back on the scoreboard on a one-out hit batter, a walk and a two-out RBI-single by Hutchison.

Freshman Aviv Bobrov (Shekhanya, Israel) relieved in the seventh and recorded two outs on eight pitches, then allowed a single, a stolen base, a wild pitch, an unearned run on an infield error, then a two-run home run to put the T-Birds up 11-2. Bobrov allowed two hits, no earned runs and struck out two in his inning of work.

Julian Alvarez (freshman, Vaughan, Ontario) pitched the eighth for MCC, allowing one hit, one walk, one earned run and he fanned one Thunderbird.

“I will always look for small wins on the day too, especially two games in, there were a couple young guys on the mound that had good stuff and not a lot of help who they were good to see get out there,” said Olsen.

MCC’s four hits came from Hutchison and Shaver who had two each.

“Nate and Maddox have consistently had good AB’s we just need to keep building,” said Olsen.

The Thunderbirds used nine pitchers on the afternoon and walked six MCC hitters while striking out 14.

Cloud County, which posted a 6-1 win on opening day Sunday in Concordia, added a pair of wins Monday over the Kansas Wesleyan University JV, 16-4 and 13-1 in five innings. With Thursday’s win over MCC the T-Birds improve to 4-0 on the season.

The 0-2 Indians will travel to Tonkawa, Okla. next weekend for four games, taking on Garden City twice on Feb. 15 then playing Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa Feb. 16.

Up-to-date information about MCC baseball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com