Posted: Feb 12, 2020

Indian baseball beats Broncbusters 9-4, improve to 4-1

GARDEN CITY, Kan. The McCook Community College baseball team smacked out 13 hits Wednesday and six Indian pitchers teamed up to help the Indians to a 9-4 win over Garden City.

"It was a really nice team win, we threw six different guys and all of them were good," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen. "We defended the field well, and had a good mix, up and down the lineup."

MCC reached the scoreboard in the second inning. Trey Taliaferro (freshman Coconut Creek, Fla.) singled home Caleb Eiguren (freshman, Westminster, Colo.) with two outs to tie the game at 1-1.

Starting pitcher Austin Mathews (sophomore Alvin, Texas) allowed runs in the first and second, before holding the Broncbusters scoreless in his third inning of work. He allowed four hits, one walk and struck out three over three innings. Yasnier Laureano (sophomore, Anderson, S.C.) and Holden Hopkins (sophomore, Norman, Okla.) followed with an inning each of scoreless, hitless relief.

MCC took its first lead of the game in the fifth inning. Taliaferro and Pedro Perez (sophomore Cidra, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy) both singled to lead off the inning and Ricardo Hernandez (freshman, Ponce, Puerto Rico/Carlos Beltran Academy) poked a three-run homer to put MCC up 4-2.

Garden City pushed a pair of runs across in the sixth inning with sophomore Connor McGonigal (Omaha Burke High School), on the mound. He went two innings and allowed three hits and a walk, with one strikeout and was credited with the win when his teammates scored what would be the game-winning run in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly from Sophomore Kade Wroot (North Platte).

The Indians built on the 5-4 lead with four runs in the eighth on a pair of Broncbuster errors, a walk and doubles from Zayne Watson (freshman, The Woodlands, Texas) and sophomore Trevor Pacheco (Pueblo, Colo.).

Troy Shepherd (freshman, McDowell, N.C.) struck out two Broncs in an inning of scoreless relief and
Nicholas Wellman (redshirt freshman, Quincy, Ill.) polished off the game with a scoreless ninth inning, fanning one.

"It was a brutally cold day to play, 40 degrees with a 20 mph north wind, but we didn't sit around and complain or let it affect our play," Olsen said. "I'm really proud of that, we just went out and played a good baseball game."

Pacheco led MCC offensively with three hits, Taliferro, Hernadez and Watson all had two-hit games.

The six Indian pitchers gave up seven hits, four earned runs, walked seven and struck out nine.

The Broncbusters fall to 5-4 on the season.

The Indians improve to 4-1 with a three-game series set for this weekend in Parsons, Kan. against Labette Community College (0-3). The Indians play a doubleheader Saturday (1 p.m.) and a single nine-inning game against the Cardinals Sunday (1 p.m.)

MCC's home-opener is set for Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. against Colby Community College.

You can stay up to date with all MCC Indian Athletics including, scheduling changes, live-streaming games, news, photo galleries, schedules and more at MCC Indians Athletics web page at:
https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?tab=baseball&path=baseball