WNC Baseball: South Mountain Ends Wildcats’ Season
For the second time in a little more than 24 hours, South Mountain Community College did what no other team in the West could do to the Western Nevada College Wildcats during the 2014 baseball season: win in abbreviated fashion.
The Cougars ousted the Wildcats of Carson City from the Western District Tournament, 9-1, in seven innings on Friday in Phoenix. The host Cougars scored five runs in the seventh inning on a pair of two-run singles to deliver he knockout blow to WNC, which staved off elimination with an 8-2 victory over Trinidad State on Friday morning.
South Mountain opened the tournament on Thursday by rallying for a 16-8 seven-inning victory over WNC.
The Cougars will meet Cochise of Douglas, Ariz., in Saturday’s championship game. Cochise defeated South Mountain, 13-3, in five innings on Friday afternoon.
WNC took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by Christian Stolo, but the Wildcat bats went quiet after that because of a dominant pitching performance by Cody Lawson.
Lawson pitched the distance for the Cougars, throwing a two-hitter. He struck out five and walked one.
Melvin Gray’s three-run triple off Rayne Raven highlighted South Mountain’s four-run fourth inning.
The Wildcats threatened in the sixth inning when Sam Hall singled and Jake Bennett walked with no outs. They moved up a base on a Connor Klein bunt. But Lawson retired Stolo on a strikeout and Joey Crunkilton’s line drive was snared by third baseman Jeff Carter, preserving South Mountain’s 4-1 lead.
Carter and Ethan Springston socked two-RBI base hits in the seventh, the latter ending the game.
Raven started for the Wildcats, giving up five hits and four runs.
Raven fanned five and walked two. He was followed by Max Karnos, who tossed the first two innings of the Wildcats’ victory against Trinidad State.
Karnos recorded a couple of scoreless innings before the Cougars started connecting off him. He gave up nine hits, five walks and five earned runs.
Bennett had the only other hit off Lawson, a double in the fourth inning. Klein moved him to third base on a groundout to the right side, and Stolo followed with a sacrifice fly.
WNC finished with a 40-18 record, its sixth straight season with 40 or more wins. The Wildcats also won their second straight Region 18 title and played in the Western District Tournament for a third straight season, winning the title in 2012 and losing last year’s final to Cochise.