WNCC baseball sweeps doubleheader

The Western Nevada Community College baseball team took care of business on Friday by sweeping a doubleheader at Colorado Northwestern Community College.

WNCC won the opener 11-0 and the nightcap 6-0. Cole Rohrbough and Jeremy Joustra combined to allow just one hit in the opener that was called after five innings due to the mercy rule and Justin Garcia and Chris Rickey combined to allow two hits in the nightcap.

The Wildcats (15-12-1, 9-5) will play another doubleheader today against the Scenic West Athletic Conference's weakest team. WNCC coach D.J. Whittemore said he's not taking anything for granted. "In a seven-inning game you're scared to death," he said.

In the nightcap, the game was tied 0-0 until the Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning. But in the the bottom of the fourth, Colorado Northwestern had runners at first and third with no outs.

Garcia, though, picked off the runner at first. WNCC got the runner into a rundown and Kyle Bondurant was able to tag him out. Bondurant was then able to throw home to cut down the runner from third trying to score to complete the 1-4-2 double play. "That was pretty nice," Whittemore said.

Colorado Northwestern also loaded the bases in the seventh before Rickey was able to escape the jam.

Garcia struck out five and walked two while allowing one hit through six innings and Rickey allowed one hit and struck out one in the seventh. Whittemore said he believed Garcia pitched even better on Friday than he did last week in a 3-2 loss agaisnt Salt Lake Community College, an outing Whittemore described as Garcia's best since he's been at WNCC.

Whittemore said Garcia, who came in as a pitcher whose fastball was in the low 80s, hit 90 miles an hour with his fastball for the first time on Friday.

"Garcia has been Mr. Consistent," Whittemore said. "He was ahead in a lot of counts. He had a lot of quick innings."

In his four conference starts, Rohrbough has allowed just one run. He retired the first 11 batters he faced on Friday, allowing his only hit with two outs in the fourth. He retired 12 of 13 hitters, striking out five. Joustra retired the side in order in the fifth.

"They pitched great," said Whittemore about Rohrbough and Garcia. "We're really happy with the starting pitching we got."

Brad Carlsen went 2-for-4 with five RBI, including a three-run home run and Andrew Ferguson was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer and four RBI. Logan Parsley and Thomas Miller both doubled and Cliff Shepard, Chad Walling and Bondurant all added a hit.

In the nightcap, Andrew Reid and Kevin Schlange each had a double and an RBI, Pat Grennan tripled, Walling doubled, Parsley had a hit and an RBI sacrifice fly and Ferguson added a hit and an RBI. Parsley was also hit three times in the doubleheader, bringing his season total to 18.