Lady Indians top SCC 6-3; Reach Championship Sunday
The McCook Community College softball team topped Southeast Community College 6-3 Saturday to earn a trip to Championship Sunday in the Region IX Tournament. The top-seeded Lady Indians improve to 51-7 on the season and will play Sunday at 11 a.m. against Northeastern Junior College.
“We knew that Southeast was going to come in a play well against us,” said MCC Coach Mike Mendenhall. “They are a very well coached and disciplined team.”
The loss sent Southeast Community College (32-19) to the loser’s bracket where they played Northeastern Junior College in the final game Saturday with the NJC eliminating SCC 14-11. The Plainswomen opened the day with a 14-6 win over Luna Community College in the 11 a.m. elimination game. With two wins Saturday, third-seeded NJC is 38-18 on the season.
In MCC’s win over SCC, sophomore Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) improved to 27-2 in the pitching circle, and received relief help from freshman Hannah Schneider (Alliance, Neb.) who responded to her first post-season experience with 3.2 innings of scoreless relief. Freshman Lyndsay Keogh (Surrey, British Columbia) went four-for-four with two RBIs to fuel the MCC offense.
“We had planned to split the innings between the two pitchers, and it worked out very well for us,” said Mendenhall. “Hannah did a nice job of coming in relief.”
In the game against the two top seeds and the only two unbeaten teams Saturday, Southeast Community College’s sophomore catcher Gracie Moe put the Bobcats up 1-0 over MCC with a solo home run on the third pitch of the game.
MCC responded in the bottom of the frame with a one-out single by freshman Josie Wright (Calgary, Alberta) who stole second and tied the game scoring on a line-drive single to centerfield by Keough. After freshman Brooklyn Gillen was hit by a pitch, sophomore Audrey Reeves (Sterling, Colo.) doubled to left field to drive in two runs and give the Tribe a 3-1 lead.
With two outs in the second, Warren singled and scored on an RBI-triple by Wright. Keough followed with a single to center to give MCC a 5-1 lead.
After a leadoff walk by Reeves in the home half of the third, with two outs, freshman Lacyn Keller (McCook) doubled home Reeves to make it a 6-1 MCC advantage.
With one out in the SCC fourth, the Bobcats got a one-out single and a two-run home run by Brianna Houchin, freshman from Gothenburg, to cut the deficit to 6-3. After Warren walked the next two hitters, Hanna Schneider took over on the mound and got out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts. Warren went 3.1 innings, allowed five hits, walked four and struck out four.
Keough hit a one-out double in the home-half of the fourth but was left stranded.
Hanna Schneider allowed a leadoff single in the fifth, but struck out two to keep the Bobcats off the scoreboard. After two outs in the SCC sixth, back-to-back errors put the tying run at the plate but Keller snagged a line drive in left field to keep the Bobcats from scoring. Southeast got the leadoff hitter on in the seventh with a single, but Schneider retired three in a row on a strikeout, groundout to first and a strikeout to end the game.
Schneider, who attended Scottsbluff High School, picked up her first collegiate save going 3.2 innings, allowing two hits, no runs or walks and she struck out six Bobcats.
MCC outhit Southeast 10-7 with Keough leading the way with a double and three singles and two RBIs. Wright went two-for-three with a walk, a triple, a stolen base and an RBI. Reeves and Keller both had doubles.
“We will be offensively better tomorrow,” said Mendenhall.
If MCC wins the 11 a.m. game Sunday, they would earn their second-straight trip to the NJCAA D1 College World Series. If NJC wins the game a second game would be played at 2 p.m.
Up-to-date information about MCC softball 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