Indians come back to down ‘Busters 15-12.

Winning pitcher Parker Wilson (center) celebrates MCC’s Tuesday win over Garden City CC.

The McCook Community College baseball team came back from deficits of 5-1 and 9-4 Tuesday to beat Garden City Community College 15-12. The Indians scored nine runs in the sixth inning to hold off the Broncbusters.

“It was good to come out on top today,” said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. “It was a fun game for our guys. We needed a little bounce-back, because it’s not easy to play back-to-back region doubleheaders and then come back and get after it.”

MCC got down 5-1 in the fifth inning and trailed 9-4 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning then got a four-inning relief outing from freshman Parker Wilson (Tulsa, Okla.). Offensively the Indians got a pair of three-run home runs by sophomores Cory Wouters (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) and Nathan Hutchison (Riverton, Wyo.).

“We saw some good things, and it was good to see Parker have such a good outing,” said Olsen. “He kind of had to come in early from the plan we had, then he was just throwing a lot of strikes and that’s what we needed at the time, so we just kept riding him.”

Hutchison started off the scoring for MCC when he coaxed a leadoff walk in the first and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Bullock (freshman, Medicine Hat, Alberta).

Leif Friedrich (sophomore, Surrey, British Columbia) took the mound to start and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, two walks a hit batter and a strikeout.

Freshman Kaden Noble (Orillia, Ontario) pitched a scoreless third inning with his only blemish a hit batter.

Garden City got to freshman reliever Landen Zehr (Kitchener, Ontario) for three runs in the fourth. He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out one. The Broncbusters scored twice in the fifth of freshman Corbin Lochhead (Vegreville, Alberta) who walked two, allowed one hit and fanned one.

MCC got back in the game in the fifth with back-to-back leadoff singles by Hutchison and Maddox Shaver (sophomore Belleville, Ontario) and a three-run home run by Wouters to cut the GCCC lead to 5-4.

The Broncs got four runs in the sixth on four walks, three hit batters and a single with freshman Kayden Frizzell (Littleton, Colo.) facing three batters and issuing free passes and giving way to the eventual winning pitcher, Wilson.

Trailing 9-4, MCC got a two-out bases-loaded single by Bullock, a two-run RBI single by sophomore Owen Glover (Elderslie, New South Wales). A wild pitch scored Bullock, freshman Landon McKillip (Lamoni, Iowa) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie the game 9-9 another wild pitch gave MCC a 10-9 before Hutchison hit a three-run home run to put MCC up 13-9.

The Indians added two more in the eighth inning on an RBI-single by Hutchison and a two-out RBI-single by Wouters.

“We felt if we could throw strikes late with a lead we could hold on,” aid Olsen. “They got the three in the ninth, but we had fortunately built a lead, Carter Smith made a big play to end it.”

Wilson, who entered the game in the sixth with bases loaded, no outs and trailing 5-4 pitched the final four innings to pick up the win. He allowed three hits, three walks and four earned runs while striking out two.

MCC had nine hits in the game with Hutchison leading the way with three and four RBIs. Wouters had two hits and four RBIs while Bullock had two hits and two RBIs.

The Broncbusters go to 16-19 on the season.

The Indians go to 15-21 on the season. Garden City had won the two previous meetings in Kansas this season.

MCC will be back on the road Friday and Saturday for a four-game Empire Series at La Junta, Colo. Doubleheaders against Otero College start at 1 p.m. each day. MCC is 3-9 in the Region IX standings while the Rattlers are 7-5 (10-24 overall).

“It’s getting time to get after it in region or risk really having to play pretty perfect the last few weekends, our guys will be ready,” said Olsen.

MCC’s next home game will be Monday at 3 p.m. game against Colby Community College.

For all the latest information about MCC baseball including schedule and schedule changes, livestream links, statistics, rosters, photos and more please visit the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com