PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team battled the defending national champs Central Arizona College for five innings trailing at one time 4-3. In the end, the Vaqueros had had a little more offense as Central Arizona topped WNCC 13-4 in the opening game of the Western District Finals in Prescott, Arizona, Thursday.
WNCC falls into an elimination game at 9 a.m. Friday when they face College of Southern Nevada. Southern Nevada fell to Yavapai College 16-13 in an high-scoring contest. Yavapai and Central Arizona will face each other at 1 p.m. in the winner's bracket.
WNCC coach Mike Jones said they didn't play bad, they just had a tough time holding down the Vaqueros offense late in the game.
Jones was proud of the way his team battled.
"The score looks worse than what the game was. The big home runs is what hurt," he said. "Overall, we did play pretty well. I thought Paul Panduro did a good job of controlling their offense. Their offense is a pretty powerful lineup. Paul did a good job of keeping them under control and giving us a chance. Jayden Orozco hit the big home run to bring it to within a 1-run game. Unfortunately, we couldn't control their offense the entire nine innings."
Offensively, the Cougars got base hits and had runners on base, they just couldn't get enough runs across home plate to keep up with the No. 7 team in the nation.
"We put up like nine hits and we could have had a few more hits but their defense was really good and took away some hits," Jones said. "So, we did put some balls in play and we hit the ball hard. We just couldn't come up with enough base hits to score enough runs to keep up with them."
WNCC will have little time to rebound as they face a Southern Nevada team that is ranked 13th in the last national poll. Jones said they need to find ways to score runs to keep up with these nationally-ranked teams.
"With Southern Nevada, it will be important for us to find ways to score more runs," Jones said. "These are some of the best teams in the entire country that we are playing right now. We can't expect our defense and pitching to keep their offenses under control for an entire nine innings. We have to find ways to score runs and try to keep up with their offense."
Thursday's contest was a battle early on. Central Arizona scratched across a run in the second inning and then added three in the third for a 4-0 lead.
The Cougars had opportunities to score early, but left runners in scoring position in the first and second innings. WNCC finally broke through with a single run in the fifth. Jack Jones and Quinn McCafferty each earned walks. Michael Felton singled home Jones for the first run.
WNCC came back to add two in the sixth to cut the lead to 4-3. Joey Olson singles and then Jayden Orozco blasted a 2-out, 2-run home run.
Central Arizona answered in the bottom of the sixth with four runs to make the score 8-3. The Vaqueros led off with a home run and then Central Arizona added three more with two outs.
WNCC came back, though, and added another run in the seventh to slice the lead to 8-4. McCafferty singled to lead off the inning. Luis Alcantara then doubled home McCafferty for the run.
Central Arizona kept their offense hot, adding two in the seventh and then three in the eighth to end the game via the 8-run rule.
WNCC finished with eight hits in the contest while Central Arizona had 13. WNCC had four extra base hits, including one home run by Orozco. Central Arizona had seven extra base hits, including five home runs.
Felton led the Cougars offensively with a 2-for-4 game with a double and an RBI. Orozco had a home run with two RBIs. Also collecting doubles were Alcantara and Rollins.
Paul Panduro suffered the loss, going five innings in allowing four runs, five hits and walking three. Panduro also struck out eight to give him 106 career strikeouts and became one of only nine pitchers to register 100 career strikeouts. His 106 Ks ties him with Ulysess Roque, who had 106 in 2003 and 2004.
Also seeing time on the hill were Dawson Hurford and Trent Richter. Hurford went 1 1/3 innings in allowing six runs and four hits while striking out two. Richter tossed one inning, allowing three hits and three runs with one strikeout.
WNCC 000 012 10 – 4 8 0
C. Arizona 013 004 23 – 13 12 0
LP – Paul Panduro.
2B – Luis Alcantara, Mikey Felton, Jordan Rollins.
HR – Jayden Orozco.