Indians survive Colby comeback to win 9-7
COLBY, Kan. – The McCook Community College baseball team survived a ninth-inning comeback attempt by Colby Community College Monday and held on for a 9-7 win.
Trailing 9-3 in the ninth, Colby rallied for four runs and put the tying run on second base with one out. Freshman reliever Santiago Rodriguez (Okotoks, Alberta) entered the game with a 2-1 count and induced an infield popout and a groundball to shortstop to preserve MCC’s 25th win of the season.
“We got off to a slow start again today, but after the first inning until the ninth we really pitched it well,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “The one thing I was happiest with offensively is once we got the lead, we just kept building on it throughout the game, and we needed them all pretty much to close out the ninth.”
In the bottom of the first inning, Colby took advantage of two walks by MCC starting pitcher Isiah Lopez (freshman, Midland, Texas) who walked the first two batters then gave up back-to-back singles to put the Trojans ahead 2-0 before Lopez regrouped and struck out the next two batters and got out of the first inning with a groundout. Lopez pitched a scoreless second and left the game allowing three singles, four walks and four strikeouts in two innings.
In the MCC fourth, the Indians greeted Colby’s third pitcher of the game with four straight batters reaching base to send Colby back to the bullpen after four batters. MCC was able to score four runs in the inning with a double by freshman Jakoby Hamer (Edmonton, Alberta), and RBI-single by Dalton Berg (Frederick, Colo.), then a two-out bases-loaded walk to freshman Lucas Munns (Toronto, Ontario) to tie the game 2-2 and then freshman Kon Yoshimura (Nagasaki, Japan) delivered a two-run RBI-single to put MCC ahead 4-2.
Freshman Tyler Parent (Newmarket, Ontario) pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks with two strikeouts.
The Indians got a two-run homer by Hamer in the fifth inning to lead 6-2. It was Hamer’s 10th homer of the year.
Sophomore Kaden Noble (Orillia, Ontario) took the mound for the fifth and sixth and held the Trojans scoreless on one hit and a strikeout in his two innings pitched.
Sophomore Jeff Bullock (Medicine Hat, Alberta) came on in relief in the seventh and after allowing a leadoff single, Colby scored a run on a two-out single. Bullock had a walk and a strikeout and allowed the two hits in his two-thirds of an inning. Freshman Timmy Hunt (Ashland, Neb.) struck out the final batter of the inning.
MCC got that run back quickly in the eighth with a leadoff homer off the bat of Connor Charvat (Elkhorn South H.S.) and added another on an RBI-single from the Eastern Arizona sophomore transfer Hunter Southey (Auckland, New Zealand) to take an 8-3 lead.
Hunt finished off the eighth on the mound and left the game with no runs allowed and no hits, two walks and three strikeouts in 1.1 innings.
Berg cracked a solo home run to lead off the ninth. It was his 12th homer of the season.
Sophomore Colby Kaplan (Parker, Colo.) relieved in the ninth but retired just one of the seven batters he faced. He gave up four hits and a walk before Rodriguez retired the final two hitters to pick up his first career save.
“Parent and Noble were both really good today, big keys to the ‘W,’ then Timmy got us out of a big spot in the seventh and Santiago got us out of them potentially tying the game in the ninth, he was great,” said Olsen.
MCC had 11 hits in the game with three by Yoshimura and Berg and two by Hamer.
Colby goes to 10-21. MCC improves to 25-7.
The Indians are 7-1 in the Region IX standings. They return home Thursday to start a split-doubleheader against first-place Northeastern Junior College. The Plainsmen top the standings at 8-0 (24-10 overall).
“It’s a big weekend coming up so obviously we need to be focused and ready to go,” said Olsen.
Thursday's games at the Jaycees Sports Complex start at 1 p.m. with the four-game series moving to Sterling, Colo. for a doubleheader Saturday starting at 2 p.m.
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