The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team knows that the important part of the season begins Thursday at the Region IX baseball tournament in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The Cougars, who are 27-28 on the season, earned the fourth seed in the regional tournament and will open against No. 5 Lamar Community College in the first round on Thursday at 12 noon. If they win, they will face No. 1 seed Southeast Community College on Friday at 12 noon.
If they lose against Lamar, they will have to play again on Thursday at 3 p.m. against the loser of the other first-round game between No. 3 McCook Community College and No. 6 Northeastern Junior College. That game is slated for Thursday at 9 a.m.
The winner of the NJC/McCook game will face the No. 2 seed Otero College on Friday.
It is a double elimination tournament with the championship game slated for Sunday. The Region IX winner will qualify for the district finals in Arizona the following week.
WNCC sophomore pitcher Gus Allred said that the team has plenty of confidence going in after finishing the regular season winning five straight.
“I feel great about where we’re at,” he said. “We’ve had plenty of ups and downs this season, but I have confidence in all of our guys in the talent and effort they bring to the table.”
Allred said they just need to keep playing hard and scrapping for everything to get wins at regionals.
“Our attitude is that outworking opponents and scrapping for everything we can is what will give us an edge,” he said. “We just have to remember what we’re here for and our goal as a team, and I think our guys really believe in the system.”
The Cougars are looking for their third Region IX title in school history. The Cougars won titles in 2007 and 2021 and finished runner-up in 2004, 2010, 2017, and 2019. Allred said it won’t be easy, but if everything comes together, it could happen.
“It’s going to be a battle for sure, but I think we’ve got what it takes to pull it off,” Allred said. “Right now, we’re solely focused on the tournament, but if we do take the title home, our sights will be set straight to the Western District tournament. We want to make this season as long as we possibly can, and we’ll do whatever we can to make that happen.”
WNCC enters regionals after winning five straight to close out the regular season, including taking four from Northeastern Junior College last weekend with strong pitching and defense and manufacturing runs.
WNCC head coach Mike Jones said the team pitched and played defense well during the NJC games.
“We pitched really good all four games and played really good defense also,” Jones said. “Offensively, we found ways to score runs. NJC’s pitcher was good and they were tough on us, but we found a way to score enough runs to win. Right now we have confidence going and we have momentum going. The guys feel really good about finishing off their season with some wins. That gives us an opportunity to go into the tournament feeling good with confidence.”
The winner of the regional tourney advances to the district finals in Arizona the following weekend. Jones said they will need to keep playing good defense to get wins at regionals.
“You get there in Colorado Springs and it is a really big field and a lot of ground you have to cover in the outfield,” he said. “We have to keep throwing strikes and you have to play really good defense behind the pitchers.”
