Indians complete four-game sweep over Dawson
The McCook Community College baseball team swept their third straight home doubleheader this week and improved to 9-1 on the season, sweeping the four-game series with Dawson Community College. MCC won 21-1 in the first game Monday and held on for an 11-8 win in the second game. The Indians swatted six home runs.
Freshman Jakoby Hamer (Edmonton, Alberta) and sophomore Ben Heathcock (Little Elm, Texas) both homered in the opener to lead the 14-hit MCC attack in a game shorted to five innings by the 10-run rule. Freshman Mikah Targett (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) picked up the win on the mound pitching the first four innings.
In the second game, MCC got two home runs from sophomore Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.), and one each from Owen Weales (Bowmanville, Ontario), and Lucas Munns (Toronto, Ontario) as the Indians held on for the win.
“We’ve had some guys stay pretty consistent to start the year, and Dalton is off to a great start, but we’ve had multiple other guys step up in different games, Ben Heathcock was really good and Lucas had a good day in his first start, in Game 1,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “It turned into a good game in Game 2, Dawson got some good swings on it and kept getting after us, we did a good job of continuing to score throughout the game.”
Dawson falls to 0-14.
On Saturday the 9-1 Indians host Northeast Community College in a doubleheader starting at 1:30 p.m. The Hawks are 8-2 and have two games in Hutchinson, Kan. Tuesday, before coming to McCook for the “split” series. MCC and NCC will play in Norfolk on Monday, March 2.
“This has been a good start for us, but need to try and keep it going,” said Olsen.
GAME 1 – McCook CC 21, Dawson CC 1: The Indians scored two runs in the first inning, four in the second and 11 in the third and four runs in the fourth inning.
Owen Weales led off the first with a walk, scored on a triple by sophomore Hunter Southey (Auckland, New Zealand). Dalton Berg doubled in Southey to put MCC up 2-0.
In the second inning freshman Hayden Galvin (Calgary, Alberta) led off with a double and later scored on a wild pitch. Sophomore Bunji Nakao (Auckland, New Zealand) singled in two to put MCC ahead 6-0.
“Bunji had a big day, I feel like we have a really deep offense so it’s hard to get everyone AB’s so it’s great see guys have success when they get an opportunity,” said Olsen.
In the third inning, MCC sent 17 hitters to the plate and scored 11 runs (all with two outs). The Indians had two walks, two hit batters, two Dawson errors, four singles, doubles by Berg, Galvin and Weales and a three-run homer by Jakoby Hamer.
MCC capped the scoring with a fourth-inning grand slam by Ben Heathcock.
Targett pitched four innings, walked three, allowed one hit, no runs and he struck out eight Bucs.
“Mikah was really good today, he made a big jump from his first start,” said Olsen.
Sophomore Kayden Frizzell (Littleton, Colo.) pitched the fifth for MCC and gave up DCC’s only run with two outs. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out two.
MCC had 14 hits in the game, walked six times and took advantage of five Buc errors. In addition to Galvin and Berg each having a pair of doubles, the Indians also got two hits from a couple sophomores off the bench in Heathcock and Connor Charvat (Omaha, Neb.).
GAME 2 – McCook CC 11, Dawson CC 8: With two outs in the first inning, the Buccaneers Indians got a solo home run followed by a walk and another homer to jump out 3-0 on MCC starting pitcher Isiah Lopez (freshman, Midland, Texas).
The Indians got on the scoreboard in the second with a leadoff home run by Dalton Berg, his sixth of the season. After a hit batter and a single, MCC took the lead when Lucas Munns (Toronto, Ontario) smashed a three-run home run to right field to put the Indians ahead 4-3.
Jakoby Hamer walked in front of Dalton Berg in the third, who homered for the second time in the game and seventh time this season. The Indians scored another run on a wild pitch to go up 7-3. Owen Weales hit a solo homer to left in the fourth to give MCC an 8-3 lead.
Lopez pitched four innings for the Indians and allowed four hits, one walk and he struck out six.
Dawson got a run back with a solo homer in the fifth to make it an 8-4 game with freshman Santiago Rodriguez (Okotoks, Alberta) on to relieve. He allowed the one hit and struck out two in his inning of work.
MCC went up 9-4 in the bottom of the fifth on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice with Lucas Munns batting.
Dawson scored three runs in the sixth to make it a 9-6 game off reliever Timmy Hunt (freshman, Ashland, Neb.). After giving up the two runs (none were earned), he struck out the final two batters of the inning and finished his inning of work with three strikeouts.
The Indians scored twice more in the sixth when Connon Charvat singled in one run and he later scored on a sacrifice fly by Berg to make it an 11-6 game. Sophomore Colby Kaplan (Parker, Colo.) pitched the seventh inning and hit the first batter he faced and gave up a two-run homer to the second batter, and after walking a batter retired the side, finishing with a strikeout.
“Lopez settled in nicely after the first inning, then our three one-inning guys held on, Timmy had some tough luck but did a good job of keeping it at only two runs,
Berg drove in four runs to lead the MCC offense. Weales and Heathcock both had two-hit games while Munn had three RBIs.
Up-to-date information about MCC baseball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com