The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team earned a split with Northeast Community College on Wednesday.
                Game one saw Cameryn Spence go four strong innings and the four Cougar pitchers allowed just four hits and three runs in earning the 4-3 win. The second game saw the Northeast pitchers toss a one-hitter as the Hawks captured the 7-1 win.
                WNCC went to 8-6 overall on the season with the split while Northeast went to 11-6.
                Both games were defensive contests and pitcher duals and the Cougar defenders did everything they needed to get the win against a talented Hawk team. A year ago, WNCC went to Norfolk and fell to Northeast 13-3 and 14-4. This year, it was a different story.
                Northeast started the first game off when Carter Noakes lead-off with a solo home run. Northeast then had two on in scoring position with just one out, but Spence settled in and got the next two out on strikeouts.
                WNCC answered in the first as Matt Levesque led off with a walk followed by Vaughn Wilson reaching on an error. Levesque scored on Cooper Wilson’s grounder for the 1-1 tie.
                WNCC followed the first with a 3-up, 3-down inning in retiring the Hawk batters. When the Cougars came to the plate, they managed to plate two in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Catcher Gladysh started the inning with a single followed by Calab Caciari earning a walk. WNCC loaded the bases after a Cooper Burgess single. Jase Satterfield scored the first run after he was walked and the Levesque scored Caciari on a ground ball.
                WNCC added a single run in the third when Gladysh was hit by a pitch. Caciari followed by rocketing a triple that scored Gladysh with the fourth run.
                Northeast made it a 4-3 game when they scored two in the sixth, but that was all they could manage.
                Spence got the win with four innings of work while allowing a run with three hits and two strikeouts. Austin Neeley followed with an inning of work with one strikeout followed by a inning of work from Zane Hendrickx, allowed two runs. Carter Reisig tossed the seventh for the save with a hit.
                WNCC had just four hits in the contest with Caciari getting the only extra base hit.
                The second game saw ‘a five pitcher’s control the mound as they had a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Northeast was just four outs away from the no-hitter.
                Northeast took control of the game early on as the Hawks scored twice in the first and three times in the second for a 5-0 lead. The Hawks added single runs in the fourth and fifth to lead 7-0.
                WNCC, after the two-opening innings, controlled the Hawks’ bats after that. It was that early start that cost the Cougars.
                WNCC got their first base runner in the third when Landon Lockwood led off with a walk, but that was all they could manage.
                It was the sixth inning where the Cougars started to make some noise. Austin Cooper earned a 2-out walk and scored on the next batter when Vaughn Wilson got the team’s first hit, a double to right centerfield to make the score 7-1.
                The top of the seventh saw Kensei Oikawa start off with a walk, but just like the previous innings, the Hawks defense got the next three batters out.
                The two Hawk pitchers combined on 10 strikeouts of the 21 outs and walked three.
                WNCC’s only hit came from Vaughn Wilson.
                WNCC will now head out Saturday for Arizona for their Spring Break trip where they will play several teams beginning with Mesa Community College on Monday.
 
Game 1
Northeast (11-6)          100 002 0 – 3 4 1
WNCC (8-6)                    121 000 x – 4 4 3
WP – Cameryn Spence; S – Carter Reisig.
3B – Calab Caciari.
 
Game 2
Northeast         230 110 0 – 7 9 0
WNCC                000 001 0 – 1 1 4
LP – Matthew Hazzard.
2B – Vaughn Wilson.