Lady Indians sweep North Platte to open conference play
NORTH PLATTE – The McCook Community College softball team opened Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference play Wednesday with a doubleheader sweep at North Platte Community College. MCC won 10-0 and 22-6 with both wins coming in five innings.
“We played pretty good all around,” said MCC Coach Mike Mendenhall. “We limited the free passes and only had a few mistakes defensively.”
Sophomore Anna Elliott (Calgary, Alberta) banged two home runs in Game 1 and drove in four runs to back a combined no-hitter from freshmen pitchers Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) and Olivia Pollon (Tisdale, Saskatchewan).
Sophomore Lexi Knapp (Berthoud, Colo.) homered in Game 2 and pitched the final two frames as MCC pounded out 19 hits led by four from freshman Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) who batted in three.
“We got to see a lot of girls play a lot of different positions. We haven’t been able to do that with all the cancelations,” said Mendenhall. “It was a good day for us to prepare for a tough schedule ahead.”
These were the first games of the season for the Knights. These two teams are scheduled to play in McCook March 27.
MCC improves to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the NCCAC. Next on the slate for the Lady Indians are four games in Kansas starting with two against Kansas City Kansas Community College (0-0) Friday at 1 p.m. then two games Saturday starting at 1 p.m. at Highland Community College (1-1).
The team has added a home date with Dakota College at Bottineau March 12 starting at noon, which would be the first home games of the season for MCC at the Jaycees Sports Complex.
Up-to-date information about MCC softball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com
GAME 1 – McCook 10, North Platte 0: Paige Warren led off the game with a walk, stole second and scored on a dropped third strike. With two outs, Anna Elliott hit a two-run home run to centerfield to put MCC ahead 3-0.
MCC’s first three batters walked to lead off the second. Sophomore Rocio Mascorro (Brownsville, Texas) lined a two-run single to center and with two outs sophomore Kaylee Smith (Calgary, Alberta) singled in Mascorro to give her team a 6-0 advantage.
In the MCC fourth after a Knight error, Elliott blasted a two-run homer to right-center to put MCC up 8-0. Freshman Cassidy Fenske (Gibbons, Alberta) got a new rally started doubling to right. Smith followed with an RBI-single. A single by sophomore Ayana Goodwin (Broomfield, Colo.) put runners on first and third and a walk loaded the bases. With two outs Smith scored on a passed ball for the 10th MCC run.
Warren pitched the first four innings for the Lady Indians, she didn’t allow a hit, walked one, hit a batter and struck out 10. Olivia Pollon pitched the final inning and retired all three of the hitters she faced, striking out one.
MCC played errorless ball in the field and had 12 hits in their five at bats led by three hits and four RBIs from Eliott and two-hit games from Fenske and Smith.
GAME 2 – McCook 22, North Platte 6: The Lady Indians scored three runs in the first inning and added six runs each in the second and third innings.
Sophomore Laila Gutierrez (Seminole, Texas) provided a two-run double in the second and Peytann Weiland (Aurora, Colo.) highlighted a six-run third with a two-run single to put MCC up 15-5. Three walks and a costly North Platte error led to four runs in the MCC fourth.
Freshman Olivia Moorhead (Hershey) started the game in the circle for MCC. She pitched 1.2 innings, allowed four hits, three walks and five earned runs with one strikeout. Sophomore Sadie Kahl (Calgary, Alberta) pitched 1.1 innings, yielding two hits and no runs with two strikeouts.
Lexi Knapp pitched the final two innings and entered the batting order with a two-run home run in the MCC fifth which highlighted a three-run inning. Knapp allowed one run on one hit, two walks and four strikeouts.
MCC had 19 hits in the game with freshman Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) leading the way with four. The Lady Indians got three-hit games from
Gutierrez and Weiland, who had six RBIs in the game. Freshman Payton Kinsley (Didsbury, Alberta) and freshman Audrey Reeves (Sterling, Colo.) both had two-hit games.
The Lady Indians stole 10 bases in the game.