The Western Nebraska Community College baseball team is out to repeat what the team from two years ago did and that was win a Region IX championship.
Last season, the Cougars finished 21-33 and lost in the first-round of the playoffs to Trinidad State College. Two years earlier, the Cougars defeated Lamar Community College 12-10 in the semifinals by scoring eight runs in the ninth inning and then topped Southeast Community College 4-3 for the Region IX championship, the Cougars finished the season 26-29.
This season, the outlook looks just as promising as that Region IX championship season in 2021.
“Right now it is a very good group of guys,” WNCC baseball coach Mike Jones, who is beginning his 22nd year at the helm. “We have been trying to get work down here in the winter time and it has been a rough winter on us so far, but their attitudes are pretty good so we are looking forward to the season.”
WNCC will begin the season this weekend when they head to New Mexico to take on the New Mexico Military Institute in doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Jones said the team is looking forward to get the season started.
“The players are all excited to get started this week,” Jones said. “For us it will be important for us to just on the field and get some innings in and get everybody playing baseball again.”
When the Cougars play this weekend, it will be the first time the team has been on a baseball field since November because of the snowy conditions that the area has experienced since December. In the meantime, Jones said his team has been trying to throw outside in cleared parking lots.
“We haven’t gotten on the field at all,” Jones said. “We tried to play catch in some open lots here and there. This has been the most difficult winter since I have been here. But we make it work and eventually it will all melt and it will be great and spring will show up at some point. We just need to stay focused on what we can control.”
Jones said New Mexico Military and Barton, who the Cougars play in two weeks, will be tests for his team. New Mexico Military is 8-0 on the season as they topped two Region IX teams the past two weekends. NMMI defeated Trinidad State January 28-29 in four games and then last weekend New Mexico Military bettered Otero College in four straight by scores of 16-10, 12-2, 23-11, and 14-8.
“We know they (New Mexico Military) will be a good team and they will be a challenge for us,” he said. “We have played them in the past and they have been very disciplined, structured, and under control. We expect the same from them this time around. Barton County the next weekend will be a team of good pitching and our offense will definitely get tested for the first two weekends.”
Jones said the pitching staff should be a strength this season with four returning pitchers from a year ago. He also said the offense will be scoring some runs, but it might not be in the form of home runs, but a lot of doubles and base hits.
“This team is a good mix of talented players,” Jones said. “I think our depth in our pitching staff is a strength for us. You are going to find, offensively, we will be able to score some runs. It won’t be necessarily a home run hitting team as much as a team that will hit a lot of doubles.
WNCC returns four pitchers from a year ago that got innings in. Those four include Grant DeClue of Littleton, Colorado, Wyatt Zsidisin of Longmont, Colorado, Thibault Mercadier of Rouen, France, and Archer Blumenschein of Sherwood Park, Alberta Canada.
The Cougars also have redshirt pitchers from last season that will be key this coming year. They include Hunter McCollum of Scottsbluff, Adrian Short of Berthoud, Colorado, and Myttchel Pollock of Wheatland, Wyoming. Short and McCollum pitched last summer for the Western Nebraska Pioneers summer collegiate league team in Gering that won the Independence League championship.
Other pitchers on the playing roster include Clayden Brandon, a freshman from Utah, Valentin Blanc and Firmin Hassed, both freshmen from France, Bryce Peterson, a freshman from Brighton, Colorado, and Nicolas Tremblay, a freshman from Canada.
The position players also have a lot of returners. WNCC returns six players that saw at bats a season ago. The list includes one of the players in Region IX a year ago in Eli Hernandez, a 6-foot-1 infielder, outfielder, and pitcher from Ontario, California.
The other returning players include Joseph Toubeaux, an infielder from Rouen, France, Ethan Johnson, an infielder from Clark, Colorado, Dylan Howard, a catcher from London, Ontario, Canada, Drew Book, an utility player from Sterling, Colorado, and Max Adam, an outfielder from Montreal, Canada.
The freshmen position players on the squad include infielders Dylan Harris of Colorado, Roangeraud Fraai of Curacao, Shintaro Inoue of Japan, Ashton Ross of Westminster, Colorado, Tyler Easter of Utah, and Jacob Jackson of Utah.
The outfielders include Isaac Smith of Aurora, Colorado, Garrett Dodd of Laramie, Wyoming, and Alex Ainsworth of Conifer, Colorado.
After the next two weekends on the road, the Cougars are scheduled to host Miles Community College on February 25 and 26 at Cleveland Field. Of course, that is weather pending and the field conditions.
