Just when the Western Nevada Community College baseball team looks like its going take a huge step forward, the Wildcats are knocked back just a little bit.
WNCC settled for a split at Salt Lake City Community College on Friday, winning the opener 9-4, but losing the nightcap 4-3. The Wildcats took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning befor the Bruins rallied for three runs.
The Wildcats (23-20-1) remained tied with Salt Lake for third in the Scenic West Athletic Conference at 17-13. WNCC and Salt Lake trailed College of Southern Idaho and Community College of Southern Nevada, who were both 20-8 going into Friday. The Wildcats and Salt Lake will play another doubleheader today.
Andrew Reid continued his hot hitting for WNCC, going 4-for-6 on the day. Over his last four games, Reid is 10-for-13.
Cole Rohrbough allowed four runs, but just one earned, while striking out six over six innings for the win.
"Cole threw well enough to win," WNCC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "We didn't play exceptionally well. We're still battling some mental mistakes."
Jeremy Joustra pitched a scoreless seventh for the Wildcats, who banged out 11 hits. "We hit the ball very well," Whittemore said.
Kyle Bondurant went 3-for-5 with a double, two RBI and two runs, Logan Parsley had two hits and an RBI and Reid was 2-for-3 with an RBI. The Wildcats scored five runs in the second to take a 5-0 lead before the Bruins scored three runs in the bottom of the second. The teams each scored a run in the third before WNCC scored once in the sixth and twice in the seventh for the final margin.
WNCC had Salt Lake starter Daniel Workman on the ropes in the first in the nightcap after scoring two runs, but left the bases loaded. Workman went on to pitch a complete game, allowing four hits, striking out two and walking four.
Justin Garcia took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth when he was chased and was charged with all four runs. Garcia struck out five.
"They mixed in a few hard hit balls with some bloops," Whittemore said. "They did enough to win."
With the score tied 3-3, Dan Grubbs came on and got a strikeout, but threw a wild pitch and walked a batter to load the bases with one out. Grubbs got a groundball to Reid at first.
But Reid couldn't get the ball out of his glove and had to record the out at first, allowing the go-ahead run to score. Grubbs went on to pitch two scoreless innings.
Reid was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, Parsley had an RBI, Andrew Ferguson scored two runs and Cliff Shepard added a hit.