Indians give Coach Olsen 600th win in sweep over Otero
The McCook Community College baseball team swept a pair of games Saturday over Otero College winning 12-5 and 7-4 at the Jaycees Sports Complex. The wins were the 599th and 600th career wins for MCC Coach Jon Olsen.
“I’m happy with what we did today. We had to face a little adversity and did a good job of coming out on top,” said Olsen.
Sophomore starting pitcher Raul Romero, who’s been good for the Indians all season, had to miss his start this weekend, and freshman infielder Hayden Galvin fouled a ball off his foot yesterday and was out.
“And then Tyler Reyburn had an absolutely freak accident in batting practice and was out today too,” said Olsen. “Then we had to battle the wind and handled that well too.”
With wind gusts higher than 30 mph, MCC scored five first-inning runs in Game 1 and added three in the second and fourth and put the game away in five innings with the 10-run rule. Sophomore Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.) clubbed a pair of home runs and sophomore Tait Anderson (Auckland, New Zealand) picked up the win on the mound, allowing two hits and striking out seven.
“We had guys step up and play well, our pitching plan worked out as good as it could have for the weekend and it was tough to win the series after the Game one loss Friday,” said Olsen.
In Game 2, MCC scored four runs in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead and got “add-on” home runs by freshmen Jakoby Hamer (Edmonton, Alberta) and Freshman Kieren Cutler (Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador) in the fourth and fifth innings to stretch the lead.
“We go the bats rolling in Game 1, then in Game 2 their bullpen guy did a good job holding us down, but we had built a lead and were able to keep it, just need to keep moving forward,” said Olsen.
Olsen, who was MCC’s first coach when the program started in 2002 then went to Independence Community College in Kansas before returning to MCC in 2007. His 600 career wins include 134 at ICC and now 466 at McCook.
MCC improves to 7-1 in the Region IX standings and 24-7 overall.
Otero goes to 4-4 in the standings and 7-19 overall.
The Indians are right back at it Monday with a game at Colby and return home Thursday to start a split-doubleheader with Northeastern Junior College. Thursday’s games start at 1 p.m. and then the four-game series moves to Sterling, Colo. for a doubleheader April 4 at 2 p.m.
GAME 1 – McCook CC 12, Otero 2 (5 innings): The Indians sent 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs. Freshman Owen Weales (Bowmanville, Ontario) doubled to lead off the inning and sophomore transfer Hunter Southey (Auckland, New Zealand) singled. Weales scored on a groundout and Dalton Berg put MCC up 3-0 with a line drive home run to centerfield. With two outs MCC started another rally drawing back-to-back walks and after a wild pitch, sophomore Chase Williams (Brampton, Ontario) drove both runners in on a single to give MCC a 5-0 lead.
Jakoby Hamer doubled in a run in the second and scored on a wild pitch to put with another run coming home on a pop fly infield error to make it an 8-0 game.
The Rattlers got a leadoff walk in the fourth and got back in the game with a two-run home run.
Berg led off the bottom of the inning with a solo home run, his 11th of the season. Three batters later sophomore Connor Charvat (Omaha, Neb.) hit a two-run homer to put MCC up 11-2. It was Charvat’s second home run of the season.
Weales led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to end the game on the 10-run rule. It was his fourth home run of the season.
Tait Anderson retired 15 of the 19 batters he faced, allowing two hits and two earned runs with two walks and seven strikeouts. He improved to 5-1 on the season with his third complete game.
“Tait was really good today,” said Olsen.
MCC had 10 hits and walked seven times in four innings and one batter into the fifth. Weales and Berg both had two-hit games. Berg had three RBIs, Charvat, Hamer and Williams both had two RBIS.
GAME 2 – McCook CC 7, Otero College 4: The Rattlers scored a pair of unearned runs in the second inning with two outs to take a 2-0 lead over MCC sophomore starter Tobey Cassino (Arvada, Colo.), who committed the error.
The Indians came back with four runs in the second. Kieren Cutler doubled with one out and sophomore Corbin Lochhead (Vegreville, Alberta) singled with a walk by Connor Charvat loading the bases for Chase Williams who also walked, to give MCC its first run. A fielder’s choice tied the game 2-2, an errant pickoff attempt scored Charvat and Owen Weales made it 4-2 with an RBI-single.
Casino pitched three innings, allowing no hits and two runs (none earned). He walked five and struck out six.
Cutler led off the MCC fourth with a solo home run (his fourth) to give the Indians a 5-2 lead.
Freshman Justin Ackerman (Parksville, British Columbia) pitched a scoreless fourth and fifth innings. He allowed one hit, walked one and struck out one.
Jacoby Hamer hit a two-run home run in the fifth to put MCC up 7-2. It was his eight of the year.
Freshman Nolan Jackson (Grimsby, Ontario) took over on the mound and pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh innings before Otero got a run back with a solo homer in the eighth. The Rattlers added a two-out run in the ninth but Jackson polished off the win. He went four innings, allowing five hits, two earned runs, one walk and he struck out six.
“Tobey, Ackerman, and Nolan did a great job today too,” said Olsen. “We threw a lot of strikes today and really defended today minus the one miscue with Tobey early.”
MCC had seven hits led by two each from Cutler and Weales.
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