Beyond imagination is the only way to describe the historic beginning of the Western Nevada Community College baseball team.
WNCC beat two nationally ranked teams on Friday in Henderson, beating No. 15 Glendale, Ariz., 4-2 and then defeating No. 12 and in-state rival Community College of Southern Nevada 6-3.
"If there's such a thing as beyond my imagination that's what it is," WNCC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "To beat two ranked teams on the first day of the program's history makes it tough to to. The guys just believed they could do it, played hard, got some clutch hits, played some great baseball."
Against Glendale, Justin Garcia was the winning pitcher, allowing two runs on five hits through seven innings. Garcia relied on a solid defense and his control as he struck out just one, but walked just one. WNCC also committed just one error.
Stephen Sauer pitched two scoreless innings for the save, allowing one hit and striking out two. Because Garcia was able to induce many groundballs, he was able to go seven innings before hitting his pitch count of 90.
"They just threw a lot of strikes," said Whittemore about Garcia and Sauer. "They just challenged hitters. They just got the ball over the plate and let the defense work."
WNCC scored all four of its runs in the first inning on just one hit. After Kyle Bondurant and Brad Carlsen walked, Tyson Jaquez hit an RBI single. Carlsen scored on a wild pitch, Thomas Miller and Chadd Dudley also walked to force in a run and Miller scored when Jerahmie Libke was hit by a pitch. The Wildcats had just two hits. Pat Grennan had the other hit for WNCC.
Whittemore admitted that the game against CCSN was a big one for his players from Southern Nevada since many of them weren't recruited by CCSN. He also said WNCC had many fans at the game.
"I'm very happy," said Whittemore about the support. "We had a real good turnout. It was pretty raucous, a lot of friendly faces, a lot of big smiles."
Cole Rohrbough, winning pitcher Dan Grubbs of McQueen and Chad Riddle, who picked up the save, combined to hold CCSN to four hits. Rohrbough allowed one unearned run, struck out seven and allowed two hits before reaching his pitch count of 90 pitches after 4.2 innings.
WNCC scored three runs in the third to take a 3-1 lead, with Miller coming through with the big hit, a two-run double. The Wildcats led 5-1 in the eighth when Grubbs ran into trouble as CCSN cut the deficit to 5-3. But Ridddle came in to shut the door, pitching two scoreless innings.
The Wildcats made it 6-3 on Grennan's RBI single in the ninth. Jaquez, Grennan and Miller all had two hits, Spring Creek's Taylor Meiras had an RBI single and Bondurant and Brett Mosher each added a hit. WNCC continues play at 10 a.m. today in Henderson against Scottsdale, Ariz.