MCC Drops First Series Game to Richland, 10-5

TYLER, TEXAS – (May 17, 2008) MCC has dug an early hole in the NJCAA D-3 World Series and will have to pick up their game if they want to stay alive in the NJCAA World Series.

The Cougars lost to District C Champion Richland College 10-5 Saturday afternoon in the double-elimination tournament and will have to beat Hudson Valley CC in Sunday at noon (1 p.m. EDST) to continue. Hudson Valley lost to Ridgewater College 10-2 in 7 p.m. game that was delayed two and half hours by rain.

“We got lucky and caught some breaks,” Richland Head coach Joe Wharton said.
“We buried a lot of those lucky breaks because they did help us out a bunch, so we dodged bullets.”

Manchester left 10 men on base and had two runners thrown out on the bases – one at the plate with two out in the first and another at third with two outs in the fifth. MCC out-hit Richland 12-8. Manchester also failed to execute a sacrifice bunt with runners on first and second and nobody out in the seventh, resulting in a 1-3 double-play.

“We had a little execution issue, but stranding runners, that’s always tough. But that’s a testament to us that we happen to have that many guys on base,” MCC Head Coach Chris Strahowski said.

Ohlmann retired the side in order in the first inning and after a leadoff walk and stolen base in the second, retired the next three in order.

Richland got to Ohlmann in the third inning, scoring four times on just two hits. KC Pfister was hit by a pitch to start the inning and was followed by a walk to Jeff Sakowski. Leadoff batter Leighton Rush dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line for a single, which was followed by a sacrifice fly and an RBI double by Jeff Sakowski, who eventually scored on a fielder’s choice. Sakowski, who hit four home runs during the season, added a pair of solo homers – one in the seventh and another in the eighth.

“Liam threw the heck out of the ball,” Strahowski said of his ace. “He had a little bit of a bump in the road in the third inning, but other than that, he threw real well. They probably had three or four well hit balls all day.”

MCC got on the board in the top of the fifth when Kevin Clements drove in Alan Fredriksson, who had singled to lead off the inning, with an RBI single. Derek Grundman cut the deficit to 4-3 with his third hit of the game, a two-run homer that cleared the 18-foot wall directly above the 361 foot marker in left-center.

“That’s what Grundmann does,” Strahowski said. “He squares it up and got after a couple of balls. Clements hit the ball hard a couple of times. We hit the ball all over the ballpark. We had 12 hits and probably another three or four that they made pretty good plays on to get us out.”

“We didn’t play well,” Thurston said. “I’m very happy to get away with a win like that. We did have big hits at the right time and let me tell you, their pitcher did an outstanding job. His fastball he was probably 88-91 and a good curve ball that he was throwing in there for strikes that kept us off balance. Yeah, I was concerned, absolutely.”

Richland made it 5-3 on Sakowski’s first homerun leading off the seventh, then tacked on four more in and one more in the eighth.

Clements drove in Fredriksson and Pedro Acevedo with a double in the eighth, his third hit of the game keeping Manchester to bring MCC within three runs. Sakowski’s second homer of the game made it 10-5. Clements also was hit by a pitch in the third inning.

Wharton went with his number four starter, Casey Mayfield who was 8-3, but made just seven starts for him during the season. The sidearm throwing Mayfield was between 79-83 mph, but was able to strand runners when he needed to.

“Casey battled for us and we’ll take it,” Wharton said. “But we’ll have to play better if we want to achieve our goal, that’s for sure.”

The same can be said for MCC.