After an emotional high to begin the program's history, the Western Nevada Community College baseball team came back down to earth on Saturday.
WNCC fell to Scottsdale, Ariz., 10-3 in Henderson. The Wildcats were coming off two emotional wins to begin their season on Friday, beating two nationally ranked teams in Glendale, Ariz., 4-2 and Community College of Southern Nevada 6-3.
The Wildcats were coming off a late night in which they beat CCSN and then had to turn around to play Scottsdale at 10 a.m. Saturday. WNCC coach D.J. Whittemore admitted the turnaround was difficult.
"It was pretty tough playing on an emotional hangover from last night," Whittemore said.
Starting pitcher Mason Tobin threw well for WNCC as the Wildcats took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning. Tobin was pulled after going 5.1 innings due to his pitch count and ended up being charged with two runs.
"He pitched great," Whittemore said. "He kept us in the ball game. He did his part, that's for sure."
But WNCC was let down by its bullpen and its defense. Wildcat pitchers issued eight walks and WNCC committed three errors. WNCC also failed to come up with the clutch hit when it needed it.
"The recipe for winning ball games, start with throwing strikes and we didn't do that," Whittemore said. "The second part of the recipe is to play defense. The third part is to get timely hitting and we didn'thave any of that."
WNCC, though, received an outstanding effort out of the bullpen from Douglas High's Chad Walling, who allowed one run over the last two innings while striking out three and walking none. While Walling went 0-for-3, Whittemore also said that Walling had three strong at-bats.
"Chad's the best effort guy on our team," Whittemore said. "It doesn't really matter what we ask him to do he gives it 100 percent."
Kyle Bondurant had two hits and an RBI, Brad Carlsen and Thomas Miller both doubled, Chadd Dudley went 1-for-1 with an RBI, Pat Grennan went 1-for-3 and Tyson Jaquez, Humberto Rodarte and Douglas High's Jimmy Pierce all scored a run.
WNCC will play again at 9 a.m. today in Henderson against South Mountain, Ariz., ranked sixth nationally. South Mountain went to the College World Series last year.
Whittemore said his team will be ready to play. "There won't be any excuses tomorrow," he said.