MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College softball team is two wins away from claiming a Region IX title after splitting a pair of games at the Region IX tournament on Saturday.

                WNCC dropped a winner's bracket contest in a thrilling contest to McCook Community College 2-1 in eight innings. That pushed the team to an elimination game later that night and the Cougars took care of Otero College 11-3.

                WNCC will now face McCook on championship Sunday and will need to beat the Indians twice to punch their ticket to the NJCAA national tournament that will be played May 19-24 in Yuma, Arizona. Action tips off at 12 noon CST or 11 a.m. MST. If WNCC wins, the two teams will play for the title at 1:30 p.m. MST.

                The first game of the day against McCook was a barnburner as both defenses were stellar. Both teams scored a run in the third innings and the other six regulation innings were scoreless.

                WNCC had base runners in the first and second innings, but couldn't get the big hit to score the runners. In the third, Randi Mitchell got a single followed by Tina Horton getting a line drive, 2-out single. Mitchell scored the first run of the game on a Kallie Stocking single.

                McCook came back to score once in the third on two singles and a sacrifice fly for the 1-1 game.

                The eighth inning saw the international tie-breaker put into place. Alyssa Albaugh was placed at second base, but the Cougars couldn't get Albaugh in. McCook loaded the bases with one out and Rocio Mascorro singled in Laila Gutierrez with the winning run.

                WNCC finished with six hits in the contest. Horton led the way with two hits, including a double.

                Kayli Cooper took the loss, going the complete game in scattering eight hits with just two runs and striking out five.

                The elimination game with Otero was all WNCC from the start. The Cougars plated a single run in the first as Kallie Stocking had a 2-out double and scored on an Adi Duke single for the 1-0 lead.

                The Cougars added four more in the second frame with all the runs coming with two outs. JoLee Huffaker and Sierra Hilgner each earned walks and both scored on a 2-out double by Randi Mitchell. Mitchell came in to score to make it 4-0 on a Horton hit. Horton scored to make it 5-0 on a Stocking single.

                Otero battled back with three in the bottom of the second to make it a 5-3 contest. WNCC answered in the third with three runs to go up 8-3. Huffaker led off by reaching on an error and scored on the next batter as Tori Travers ripped a run-scoring double. Travers later scored to make it 7-3 and Alyssa Albaugh scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-3.

                WNCC added two runs in the sixth as Mykah Klumpp got a 2-out double followed by Huffaker earning a walk. Klumpp scored on a Travers single and then Hilgner scored Huffaker with a single to make it 10-3.

                The final run came in the seventh as Mitchell had a double followed by Horton reaching on an error. Duke followed by scoring Mitchell with a sacrifice fly for the final run.

                WNCC pounded out 11 hits in the contest. Four players had two hits each with Mitchell, Stocking, Travers, and Hilgner. WNCC ripped off five doubles in the win with Mitchell getting two, followed by one each from Stocking, Klumpp, and Travers. Mitchell also had two RBIs and two runs scored, Travers and Duke also had two RBIs, while Huffaker scored three runs.

                Cooper picked up the win, going all seven innings in scattering four hits, allowing three runs, walking four, and striking out six.

                Sunday's championship game will be between two teams that have faced each other a number of times in the title game. McCook won their only Region IX title in 2022, while the Cougars have seven Region IX titles to their credit, the first in 2008 and the last one in 2019. This will be the two teams third time meeting for a Region IX title. The first time was in 2015 when the Cougars defeated McCook 10-1 at the tournament in Sterling, Colorado. The last time was 2019 when WNCC defeated the Indians 14-5 in the championship game at Volunteer Field.

Game 1
WNCC                   001 000 00 – 1 6 0
McCook               001 000 01 – 2 8 1
LP – Kayli Cooper.
2B – Tina Horton.

Game 2
WNCC                   143 002 1 – 11 11 3
Otero                    030 000 0 – 3 4 5
WP – Kayli Cooper.
2B – Randi Mitchell 2, Kallie Stocking, Mykah Klumpp, Tori Travers.