PUEBLO, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team got a strong pitching performance from Julian Garza and the Cougars came back to capture a 10-6 win ober Lamar Community College on Friday at the Region IX Tournament in Pueblo, Colorado.
            WNCC, 27-25, earned the right to play Lamar after the Northeastern Junior College Plainsmen scored in the bottom of the ninth to top Lamar 13-12 in the winner’s bracket. The other side of the winner’s bracket Friday saw Otero top top-seeded Southeast Community College 6-3.
            In this game, the Cougars had to battle back from a deficit as Lamar scored twice in the first and three times in the second for a 5-1 lead.
            The Cougars scored one in the first when Vaughn Wilson doubled and scored on a Cooper Burgess single. WNCC came back in the second with three runs. WNCC loaded the bases with one out. Calab Caciari scored one with a sacrifice fly and then Wilson singled to score to more.
            The score stayed that way until the fourth when WNCC took the lead at 6-5 with two runs. Caciari scored on a Jin Kobayakawa single and then Wilson scored on a sacrifice fly.
            WNCC added two insurance runs in the sixth to make it 8-5. Burgess led off with a double and Kensei Oikawa earned a walk. Catcher Gladysh followed with a 2-out, run-scoring single and then Will Harbison had a run-scoring single.
            WNCC allowed one run in the eighth to make the score 8-6, but the Cougars responded right back with two runs of their own. Oikawa and Gladysh each were hit by a pitch. Harbison followed with a single to score one run and Gladysh scores on a 2-out wild pitch to make it 10-6.
            WNCC pounded out 13 hits with Wilson and Gladysh each collecting three hits. Both hitters had a double while Wilson had two RBIs and two runs scored and Gladysh had an RBI and two runs scored.
            Allard Helms started the game and gave up four hits and five runs before exiting in the second inning. Garza followed with a stellar performance, going 4.2 innings in scattering two hits and striking out seven.
            Matthew Hazzard followed with 1.2 innings of work with two hits and one run scored. Alex Renfrow closed out the game, tossing the final 1.2 innings in striking out two and not allowing a run or hit.
 
Lamar              230 000 010 – 6 8 2
WNCC              130 202 02x – 10 13 1
WP – Julian Garza.
2B – Catcher Gladysh, Vaughn Wilson.