NCMC baseball opened their home slate of games over the weekend by going 3-1. The Pirates twice defeated Dakota County Technical College (12-5 on Saturday, 6-3 on Sunday) and split with Ellsworth CC (10-5 win on Saturday, 18-0 loss on Sunday). The Pirates are now 11-3 overall with their next action coming in Tennessee for their spring break trip.
Wilmer Jimenez continued his hot start to the Pirate's season. He knocked a pair of home runs while collecting 5 hits in his 12 at-bats. He also drove in 6 runs and scored another 5. For the season, he's hitting a robust .417 and slugging .972, 7th best in the nation for Division II hitters.
Also having another solid weekend was Jordi Ventura. He went 6-14 with a homer and 2 RBIs. He has 41 total bases for the season, leading the Pirates in that category.
On the mound, winners included starters Max Wagers (6.0 IP, 7 K's) and Hikaru Mikami (5.2 IP, 3 K's) plus reliever Ethan Walker (3.0 IP, 6 K's). Alex Smith picked up a pair of saves in as many outings, in total tossing 3.0 innings without surrendering a run and striking out a pair.
Free bases and errors plagued the Pirates in their lone loss. The pitching staff walked 10 batters and hit another 2 over the 5-inning defeat. The Pirates also committed 4 costly errors resulting in 10 unearned runs. These are areas the team will look to improve upon moving forward as they look to build upon their excellent start to the season.
