PUEBLO, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College wrapped up its season with a 9-1 loss to Southeast Community College in an elimination game Saturday afternoon.

                The Cougars finished the season with a winning record of 27-26 and went 2-2 at the regional tournament this weekend. The team put together a 5-game and 6-game winning streaks throughout the season.

                The tournament championship is set as Northeastern Junior College will face Otero College for the title on Sunday. Otero will need to win twice against NJC. The earlier games on Saturday saw NJC knock off 9-7. Otero came right back and eliminated Southeast 8-7.

                Saturday's game started as the Cougars got out of the gate rough. In the first at bat, WNCC put two players on base and looked as they would score, but they couldn't get a hit to score the two runs. When Southeast came to bat in the bottom of the first, the Bobcats scored five times before the first out and led 7-0 after one inning.

                After that, the Cougars settled down defensively and allowed Southeast two runs, both in the fourth for a 9-0 lead.

                Offensively, the Cougars had troubles getting a base hit. The sixth inning was when they finally plated a run. Vaughn Wilson started things after getting hit by a pitch. Jin Kobayakawa followed with a ground out to score Wilson for the run.

                WNCC had a chance to score in the top of the seventh as well. Catcher Gladysh started things with a walk. Then with two outs, Austin Cooper reached on an error.  But, with runners in scoring position, WNCC couldn't get the runs home to extend the game and the game was called after seven inning via the 8-run rule.

                Cooper and Ren Sato got the only two hits for WNCC.

                WNCC utilized three pitchers with Zane Hendrickx getting the start and going just one inning in allowing seven runs. Austin Neeley followed with a strong showing, going 3.1 innings in scattering four hits, two runs, and striking out two. Marshall Forsyth tossed the final 1.2 innings in allowing just one hit and walking just one.

                WNCC loses 14 sophomores and nine of the sophomores were slated to graduate Saturday but were instead playing baseball in Pueblo and had to miss the ceremonies.

WNCC                   000 001 0 – 1 2 1
Southeast            700 200 x – 9 10 1

LP – Zane Hendrickx