Lady Indians sweep Saints in home opener
The McCook Community College softball team swept a doubleheader from Seward County Community College Tuesday to open the home schedule. MCC won 10-2 in five innings and overcame a 0-3 deficit in the fifth inning of Game 2 to win 9-3.
Sophomore Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) pitched four shutout innings in Game 1 and hit a three-run home run to help her cause. Sophomore Payton Kinsley (Didsbury, Alberta) homered and drove in four runs.
“Today was a good day. Kaliyah was lights-out in Game one in the pitching circle and an early home run to help her cause,” said MCC Coach Mike Mendenhall.
In Game 2. MCC was down 0-3 in the top of the fifth inning when Mendenhall was thrown out of the game by the umpire for arguing balls and strikes.
“Game 2 we started slow at the plate, but eventually put some good at bats together,” said Mendenhall.
After managing just two singles on offense through the first four innings, MCC had five doubles, three singles and a homer in the fifth and sixth inning and outscored SCCC 9-0 on the way to the 9-3. Sophomore Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) picked up the win in the pitching circle and had two hits while sophomore Kashlin Beck (Claflin, Kan.) crashed a solo home run as one of her two hits.
The Saints fall to 6-10. All six of their wins came over Region IX opponents including four against Lamar and two against Otero.
MCC improves to 8-2. The Lady Indians will be in the Kansas City area for four games this weekend against a pair of teams ranked in the top 20 in the NJCAA D2 preseason polls. On Friday MCC plays No. 8 Johnson County Community College for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. and then on Saturday the Lady Indians play No. 19 Kansas City Kansas Community College.
The next home games for the Tribe will be March 10 against Dakota College-Bottineau.
GAME 1 – McCook CC 8, Seward County CC 2 (5 innings): In the bottom of the first inning, MCC got a pair of walks in front of a three-run home run by Kaliyah St. Amand to put MCC ahead 3-0. In the second a walk and two Saint errors set the table for Payton Kinsley who singled in two more runs to make it a 6-0 game. A walk and a two-run Kinsley homer in the fourth gave MCC an 8-0 lead. That was followed by two more SCCC errors and a two-out double by freshman Hayley Smith (Chestermere, Alberta) to make it 10-0.
St. Amand picked up the win to go 4-1 on the season. In four innings, she allowed one hit, no runs or walks and she struck out three.
Sophomore Olivia Moorhead (Hershey, Neb.) pitched the fifth and surrendered two earned runs on two hits, a walk and she struck out two.
MCC had six hits in the game with two from Kinsley (along with four RBIs), three RBIs from St. Amand and two from Smith.
GAME 2 – McCook CC 9, Seward County CC 3: The Saints took a 1-0 lead after two outs in the second with a bases-loaded walk off Paige Warren. That’s where the score remained until the fifth when SCCC got their leadoff hitter on base with an MCC error. After two outs SCCC got a two-out double and later an RBI single to go up 3-0. It was in this inning when Coach Mendenhall was ejected from the game.
Kashlin Beck led off the MCC fifth with a check-swing bunt single and she stole second. Warren doubled in Beck to get MCC on the scoreboard. Josie Wright reached on an infield single, stole second and Warren scored on a Saint error. Freshman Lyndsay Keogh (Surrey, British Columbia) doubled to center to put MCC ahead 4-3. Freshman Brooklyn Gillen (McCook) doubled home Keough to make it a 5-3 MCC lead.
Warren finished off the complete game win in the seventh to pick up the win and go 3-1 on the season. She allowed eight hits, walked four, allowed one earned run and struck out one.
Warren also led the 11-hit MCC offense as one of four players with two hits. The others were Wright, Kinsley and Beck. Gillen and Keough both had two RBIs.
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