NCMC baseball earned a pair of wins in their home opener on Thursday when they downed Graceland University JV 1-0 and 3-2.  The team now holds a season record of 4-17 ahead of a home weekend series with Hesston College.  The format of those games will be a Saturday doubleheader and a single 9-inning game on Sunday.

Pacing the Pirates offense in their Thursday wins was freshman Rawlins Brant.  He went 4-6 with a double and an RBI.  As a team, offense was hard to come by for NCMC as they batted just .185 on the day.

Pitching is where the Pirates shined.  In the opener, sophomores Layne Rutherford (4 IP, 5 Ks) and Nathan Fine (2 IP, 1 hit) combined with freshman Allan Martinez (2 IP, 2 Ks) to shutout the visiting Yellowjackets.  Martinez earned the win to improve to 2-0 for the year.  Bailey Quint got the win in game two by twirling 5 shutout innings of his own and striking out 7.  Jacob Rehkow got his first save of the season, recording the final two outs of the nightcap.