PHOENIX – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team split a pair of games Wednesday in Phoenix.
The first game saw the Cougars fall to South Mountain Community College 6-2 before coming back to beat the Langley Blaze 5-3.
The second game saw WNCC pitcher Archer Blumenschein toss five strong innings before being relieved by Caden Eymann in earning the win.
Blumenshein scattered four hits and allowed just one run in striking out four. Eymann went two innings in allowing two runs and striking out three.
Offensively, WNCC was outhit 8-4. WNCC was led by Ethan Johnson who had two singles with two runs scored. Dalton Nelson also had a hit with two RBIs and a run scored. The other hit came from Drew Book with a RBI.
WNCC scored one in the second before Langley tied it with a run in the top of the third. WNCC then went up 5-1 as they scored singles runs in the third and fifth and two runs in the fourth.
The fourth started when Johnson singled followed by a J. Toubeaux walk. With two outs, Eli Hernandez walked to load the bases and then Nelson singled to score two runs.
Langley scored two in the sixth, but Eymann closed the door for the win.
The second game was actually pretty competitive. South Mountain outhit WNCC 9-7 and the difference in the game was the first three innings where South Mountain scored five times to go up 5-1.
WNCC was led by Nelson with two hits, both singles. The runs were scored by Jordan Rollins and Max Adam, while the RBIs were by Hernandez and Quinn McCafferty.
WNCC will wrap up the Arizona trip on Thursday when they face Mesa Community College and then on the way home, stop to play Luna Community College in a Empire Conference 4-game series on Saturday and Sunday.
Game 1
WNCC 100 001 000 – 2 7 1
S. Mountain 212 010 00x – 6 9 0
LP – Thibault Mercadier.
2B – Dillon Fabricus, Eli Hernandez, Quinn McCafferty.
Game 2
Langley 001 002 0 – 3 8 1
WNCC 011 210 x – 5 4 2
WP – Archer Blumenshein; S – Caden Eymann.