Dillon Fabricus was one of just four players to register at least three hits in Saturday's Empire Conference game with Northeastern Junior College at Cleveland Field.
Fabricus' 3-run home run in the eighth inning was the clincher as the Cougars earned a 14-3 run-ruled 8-inning win over the Plainsmen.
WNCC has now won five of their last six games, including taking the series against NJC 2-1 over the weekend. WNCC is now in second place in the North Empire Conference standings with a 12-11 conference record behind Southeast, who is 24-1 in the conference.
WNCC head coach Mike Jones said this was a good team win with everyone doing their job.
"It was a really good team win. We had some guys that really stepped up in our batting order," Jones said. "Our offense is really starting to get better and becoming more of a complete lineup all the way through. Everybody is finding their way to contribute, and it is making us a much better team and giving us more scoring opportunities."
The Cougar offense outhit NJC 15-8 with four players recording three hits. Fabricus had the big day going 3-for-5 with a home run, two runs scored and four RBIs. Quinn McCafferty went 3-for-6 with a double, three runs scored, and two RBIs. Max Adam went 3-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBIs, while Eli Hernandez went 3-for-5 with a RBI.
Ethan Johnson also had two RBIs with a triple in the game.
While the offense was there for the Cougars, so was the defense as the pitching staff controlled the game in combining on 12 strikeouts.
"Harold (Baez) came out and did a nice job and really commanded the outside part of the plate. I thought he kept his fastball low in the strike zone and mixed in the slider from there. He created some tough at bats for them," Jones said. "Then, we played really good defense behind him. We tracked down some balls and played defense behind and gave ourselves a full team win today."
Baez went six strong innings in scattering seven hits and allowing three runs while striking out 10 NJC batters. Noah Baumann finished off the game, tossing two innings in allowing just one hit, walking one, and striking out two.
WNCC trailed just once in the game when they were behind 2-1 after 3 ½ innings. After that, the Cougar offense took control of the game, scoring 10 runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.
WNCC started the scoring with one in the second as Jordan Rollins singled to score McCafferty to put the Cougars up 1-0. NJC answered in the top of the third and fourth with single runs to lead 2-1.
WNCC retook the lead for good with four in the bottom of the fourth as Fabricus and Adam singled and came in to score on a Johnson triple to take a 3-2. WNCC wasn't through as Rollins walked and Johnson would later score for a 4-2 lead. Hernandez followed with a single to score Rollins and a 5-2 lead.
NJC came back with a home run in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-3, but WNCC immediately answered with two in the fifth to lead 7-3. After McCafferty singled, Adam delivered a 2-out, 2-run home run to expand the lead.
WNCC pushed the lead to 11-3 with four in the sixth as Jack Jones walked and Hernandez singled. Drew Book had a 2-out RBI single to make it 8-3 with two outs. WNCC kept going as McCafferty doubled in Dalton Nelson and Book and then Fabricus single in McCafferty for the 11-3 lead.
The eighth inning saw the Cougars get three runs to end the game via the run rule. Nelson reached on an error and then Book was hit by a pitch. With two outs, Fabricus took the first pitch and sent it over the left field fence and the ball hit the side mirror of a pickup in the softball parking lot for the game winner.
WNCC will have some big games this week as they travel to face Northeastern in a doubleheader on Wednesday before traveling to Beatrice to face North-leading Southeast Community College in clutch games.
"Right now this team has put in a whole lot of work. They had some struggles there in the middle of the season and they got through all that and showed up to practice every day wanting to get better," Jones said. "A lot of that hard work is starting to pay off for them.
"Every conference game from here on out becomes an important game. Wednesday's game is north on north so every time you get a win and hang a loss on another team it moves you up in the standings. So, they will all be pretty big for us. The last time we went to Sterling and played NJC, it was a tough day with their short ballpark and the wind was blowing out. We will see what it looks like on Wednesday."
NJC 001 110 00 – 3 8 2
WNCC 010 424 03 – 14 15 2
WP – Harold Baez.
2B – Quinn McCafferty.
3B – Ethan Johnson.
HR – Max Adam, Dillon Fabricus.