Pirate's baseball got their Region 16 slate of games started this weekend when they traveled to Moberly Area CC and took two of three against the Greyhounds. With the wins, NCMC now holds an 8-20 mark ahead of a road trip Tuesday to take on Graceland University JV.
Saturday the Pirates spoiled MACC's first home game at the newly renovated Howard Hills Athletic Complex. NCMC took the victory 6-2 behind strong pitching performances from Kevin Toala (5 IP, 0 ER, 5 K's) and Evan Johnston (1 Win, 4 IP, 0 ER, 9 K's). The duo only allowed 2 hits to Moberly in their dominating outings. Offensively, freshman Justin Dameron led the Pirates with 3 hits. Bailey Quint did damage from the cleanup spot by going 2-5 with a run scored and 1 RBI.
Sunday's opening game did not go as planned for NCMC. The Pirates spotted Moberly 3 unearned runs in the first and it was downhill from there. Taking the loss in relief was Jacob Rehkow (1-2) who surrendered 4 earned runs in 2 innings pitched. NCMC's defense committed a pair of timely errors, which led to 7 unearned runs for MACC.
Offense was aplenty in the series finale. Tanner Wright hammered a pair of home runs, his 2nd and 3rd of the day, and tallied 3 runs and 3 RBI's. Jesus Fonseca also homered and finished the game 2-6 with a pair of RBI's. Quint continued his hot hitting by going 4-7 with 3 runs and 3 RBI's.
On the mound, relief ace Johnston once again starred. He twirled the final two frames and struck out 4 allowing no baserunners. In the series, he pitched 6 scoreless innings and struck out an astounding 13 batters to lower his season ERA to 4.34.