WNC Baseball: Ragan's masterpiece keeps 'Cats in the hunt
Submitted by editor on Sat, 04/02/2016 - 6:16pm
Western Nevada College freshman pitcher Jordan Ragan picked an opportune time to throw his first complete-game shutout on Saturday. Facing one of the top junior college baseball programs in the country and the Scenic West Athletic Conference leaders, Ragan delivered a three-hit shutout.
Ragan's nine-inning masterpiece enabled the Wildcats of Carson City to salvage the final game of a series against College of Southern Nevada, 5-0, in Henderson.
The win followed a 10-0 shutout victory by the Coyotes, as Mikey York and Jullian Burrola combined on a four-hitter.
Written into the lineup card in Game 2, WNC freshman outfielder Abe Yagi went 3 for 4 with two RBI and a run scored.
Ragan improved his season record to 3-1 by limiting the Coyotes to three singles and holding the top six hitters in CSN's lineup to a 2-for-20 collective effort. He fanned four and walked four.
He was mystifying," said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore. "He threw three pitches for strikes in any count, changed speeds in the zone and was throwing low. He did it all."
WNC opened the scoring in the second inning on Sam Salyers' sacrifice fly. In the same inning, David Modler plated Yagi with a two-out base hit to make the score 2-0.
In the third, Yagi's double scored Brogan Secrist to give WNC a 3-0 lead.
The Wildcats stretched their lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Justin Mannens' bunt single scored Daniel Nist. Yagi completed the scoring with a RBI single in the seventh.
In the opener, WNC starter Kyle Thompson gave up eight hits and eight earned runs in two innings. The Wildcats' Jordy Van den Heuvel tossed two scoreless innings of relief, but the Coyotes scored once off Riley Ingram in the fifth to end the contest.
Jordan Hand, Brody Westmoreland and Drew Newsom combined for six hits and seven RBI for the Coyotes. David Modler, DJ Peters, Chad Bell and Casey Cornwell supplied the Wildcat hits.
"York was outstanding; he's going to get drafted," Whittemore said of CSN's starting pitcher. "Based on today, he improved his draft stock. He commanded his fastball at 92 to 93 mph. He's as good of a pitcher as we have in this league, and he might be the best."
With the twin bill split, WNC remained three games behind the Coyotes in the SWAC standings. The Wildcats are 14-6, compared to CSN's 17-3 mark.
"We gave ourselves a chance," Whittemore said. "They are still prohibitive favorites, being up three games with 20 to go. We're still on the lead lap, but we're a few cars back."
At the conference halfway point, the Wildcats only need to play one more road series — at College of Southern Nevada — later this week.
"We feel like we're long-range truckers. We've been crisscrossing the U.S. in 30 days," said Whittemore of playing five of their first six conference series on the road. "Give a lot of credit to the guys for the work they've put in in the weight room and conditioning in order to get through this."
