Wildcats split, fall out of first

Wildcats split, fall out of first

Appeal Staff Report

Western Nevada College dropped out of first place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference in after splitting a doubleheader at Colorado Northwestern Community College on Saturday.

Colorado Northwestern won the opener 2-1 despite a fine effort by WNC starting pitcher Kyle Farrell before the Wildcats came back to win the nightcap 3-2, scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh inning.

College of Southern Nevada, by virtue of its sweep over Salt Lake Community College, moved into first place with a 26-10 record. WNC is next at 25-11 and Salt Lake is third at 23-13. The Wildcats close out the regular season with a pair of doubleheaders Friday and Saturday against College of Eastern Utah. Both games start at noon and on Saturday WNC will honor is eight sophomores.

"We didn't string a lot of hits together," said WNC head coach D.J. Whittemore. "We still won three out of four."

Indeed. The Wildcats managed just five hits in each of the games.

In the second game, the Wildcats and Colorado Northwestern were locked in a 2-2 tie.

Logan Parsley doubled, and after a botched sacrice attempt, Brian Barnett hit an infield single. Parsley came around to score when the throw ticked off the glove of the Colorado Northwestern first baseman.

Josh Creveling retired Colorado in order in the seventh to earn his second win in four decisions. Creveling retired all six batters he faced after taking over from Andrew Reid, who worked 2/3 of an inning in relief of starter Jordan Blanchard.

The Wildcats' other two runs came on a homer by Cliff Shepard, who also hit a single. Barnett went 2-for-3 and Parsley went 1-for-1.

In the opener, WNC took a 1-0 lead in the first, but the offense was shut down the rest of the way. Colorado Northwestern scored single runs in the second and third which stood up for the victory.

Western Nevada had chances to tie and/or go ahead in the third and fourth innings. In the third, the Wildcats loaded the bases and didn't score, and in the fourth they put runners on first and second with one out and didn't score.

The Wildcats' inability to get a clutch hit ruined a nice outing by Farrell, who fanned eight, walked one and allowed four hits in 5 2/3 innings.

"He (Farrell) threw great," Whittemore said. "He pitched out of some trouble. He made big pitched when he had to. He did have an error that led to their second run. We played a rotten game. We gave them two runs. Offensively and defensively we didn't bring a good effort."