Pirate's baseball took another Region 16 series win over the weekend when they traveled to East Central College and went 2-1. Thursday, the Pirates dropped the opener 5-3 before rebounding to take game two by the score of 4-3. On Friday, NCMC bested the host 8-5 to improve their Region 16 record to 4-2, tops in the league. Currently East Central sits in 2nd place at 3-3 and Moberly Area's 2-4 record is good for 3rd. The Pirates are halfway through region play with all remaining league games to be played at Burleigh Grimes Field.
The NCMC pitching staff was a major key to victory against East Central. They tossed 24 innings allowing just 9 earned runs. The key improvement came in the limiting of walks, just 6 for the weekend. Getting wins were starter Bailey Quint (4-1) and relief ace Evan Johnston (2-1). Taking the tough luck loss was Kevin Toala (1-4) despite his complete game in which he allowed just 2 earned runs.
Offensively, Quint stayed hot by going 5-12 with 3 runs scored. Layne Rutherford also had a nice series as he scored 3 runs and totaled 3 RBIs by going 4-12. Hagen McGarrah added 4 hits to improve his team leading batting average to .383.
Next up for NCMC, 11-21 overall, will be a home doubleheader on Tuesday with Missouri Valley College JV. First pitch will be at 1pm and the games will be broadcast at PiratesDigitalMedia.com.