MCC softball completes four-game sweep over Trojans

MCC shortstop Laila Gutierrez scoops up the ball (and a lot of dirt) on this doubleplay Saturday.

The McCook Community College softball team completed a four-game sweep over Trinidad State taking the final two games of the series Saturday 2-1 and 6-0.

“We had two more great pitching performances and defensive play by our girls today,” said MCC Coach Mike Mendenhall. “Our pitchers did a nice job of keeping them off balance in the box.”

Sophomore Payton Kinsley (Didsbury, Alberta) hit a solo home run in the third inning of Game 1 to give MCC a 2-1 lead and starting pitcher Sadie Kahl (sophomore, Calgary, Alberta) allowed two three singles and a walk in the game to hold off the Trojans.

In Game 2 MCC was able to score at least one run in each of the first four innings and starting pitcher Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) held the Trojans to two hits while striking out 11.

“We didn’t have the best showing at the plate, but we found ways to win,” said Mendenhall.

Trinidad State goes to 9-11 in the Region IX standings and 18-24 on the year.

MCC is 18-2 in the region – just one win away from clinching the Region IX title.

“It’s always nice to get a sweep and this puts us in a better position to host the Region IX Tournament,” said Mendenhall.

The 2025 Lady Indians also becomes just the third in school history to top the 40 win-mark at 41-7. The team record for wins is 45 which came in 2015. MCC is one win short of the 42 wins recorded by the 2022 team that captured the school’s only regular-season and post-season Region IX title.

MCC has six games left in the regular season. The Lady Indians are also one Region IX win away from clinching the regular season title. Western Nebraska is the only team that can prevent MCC from the regular-season crown. The Cougars, winners of 11 straight games, are 12-6 in the region with two games remaining in this weekend’s series with Luna Community College.

These two teams will meet for four games during the final weekend of the regular season April 25 and 27. MCC has one final regular season home date and that comes Friday against Western Nebraska for Sophomore Recognition Day. First pitch for the Region IX doubleheader will be 1 p.m. The team concludes the regular season April 27 at Scottsbluff. MCC needs to win just one of the games against Western Nebraska to win the region title.

Winning the regular season conference title would mean MCC would host both rounds of the Region IX tournament. The top four teams in the region qualify for the post-season tournament which are best-of-three game series. That is significant because with Saturday’s wins, the Lady Indians are 19-1 at the Jaycees Sports Complex.

Otero has completed their Region IX schedule with a record of 18-6 (24-17 overall). MCC holds the tie-breaker over Otero because of run-differential in their head-to-head matchup. MCC and Otero split their games in La Junta with the Ratters winning the first two games 7-3 and 6-4. Those are the only region losses this season. MCC won its next two games over Otero 20-3 and 20-5.

The Lady Indians will travel to Columbus for their final Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference games Monday against Central Community College. MCC has already won the NCCAC title and are 10-0. CCC is 4-6 in conference play and 17-21 overall.

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 2, Trinidad State 1: The Trojans took a 1-0 lead with a single and two MCC errors in the second inning.

A Trinidad State error and a two-out RBI-single by freshman Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) tied the game at 1-1.

Payton Kinsley hit a solo home run with one out in the third inning to put MCC ahead 2-1.

Sadie Kahl (Calgary, Alberta) held the lead in the pitching circle by retiring the next 11 batters until issuing a two-out walk in the seventh but she responded to induce a game-ending groundout. Kahl allowed two hits, one walk and she struck out four hitters.

MCC was held to two hits.

GAME 2 – McCook 6, Trinidad State 0: Payton Kinsley and Laila Gutierrez (sophomore, Seminole, Texas) walked with one out in the first. Gutierrez stole second and third and scored on a passed ball while Kinsley stole second and scored on an RBI-single from sophomore Lexi Knapp (Berthoud, Colo.) to put MCC up 2-0.

A Trinidad error in the second, and a wild pitch set up an RBI-single from freshman Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) and Gutierrez doubled home Warren to make it a 4-0 game.

Sophomore Ayana Goodwin (Broomfield, Colo.) hit a sacrifice fly in the third and a two-out Trojan error and back-to-back singles by Knapp and sophomore Anna Elliott (Calgary, Alberta) in the fourth inning closed out the MCC scoring.

Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) struck out the side in the second inning and after allowing her second walk of the game to lead off the fourth she struck out three straight Trojans on the way to retiring 12 of the final 13 hitters. She allowed two hits in the game, walked two and struck out 11 Trojans.

MCC had six hits in the game led by two from Knapp and the only extra-base hit came from Gutierrez.