The MCC baseball team traveled to Boone, IA on Thursday, March 3 to take on the DMACC Bears. The Tigers entered the double header with a record of 1-8 while the Bears were 7-5.
Game one featured a pitching matchup of Walter Hernandez for the Tigers facing off against Will Moritz of DMACC.
The MCC bats got to Moritz early as they plated four runs in the top of the first inning. Eli Berggeron, the DH, led off the inning by drawing a walk bringing Travon Hughes to the plate. The sophomore outfielder singled to move Berggeron to second. Candido Encarnacion was then hit by a pitch to loat the bases up for Tom Josten.
Josten plated Berggeron and Hughes with a line drive to the left-center gap.
DMACC struggled to find the zone as Tyler Coleman was also hit by a pitch to reload the bases for Ryan Carter. Carter popped out to shallow center field, too shallow to tag a runner. However, the next two batters, Joel Torrealba and Reece Blay were also plunked. Each HBP scored a run. With the bases loaded, Luis Menendez and Eli Berggeron each struck out swinging to end the half inning. But after a four run top of the first, the Tigers looked to be in control.
The Bears answered back with two runs of their own in the home half of the inning as Dylan Voves and Austin Murr each scored.
The first two Tigers went down to start the second inning before Tom Josten earned a walk. Tyler Coleman followed Josten with a double to put runners on second and third with two down. A wild pitch allowed Josten to score and Coleman to move to second. However, the Tigers couldn't do any more damage as Ryan Cater flied out to right field to strand Coleman on third.
The Bears answered with one run in the bottom half of the second to make the score 5-3, Tigers.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they struggled to put much together after the second inning. They had limited opportunities with runners in scoring position, but were unable to score the remainder of the game.
The defense and pitching didn't fare any better for the Tigers after the second inning. The Bears led off the third with a home run and scored three more runs to claim a 7-5 victory. In the last two defensive half innings, the Tigers committed two errors and walked or hit three other batters.
Game two again saw the Tigers start off hot. Tyler Coleman launched a three-run homerun to center field to drive in Hughes who'd double and Josten who had earned a walk.
Those three runs were the only runs on the board until DMACC responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth as they strung together three hits.
The Tigers exploded for seven runs between the sixth and seventh innings.
Coleman and Joel Torrealba started off the top of the sixth with back to back singles before Nick Hagan came up with a double. With an open base, Ryan Carter was intentionally walked before Colston Dukes earned a walk the hard way for the first five batters of the inning to score. All but Dukes would end up scoring before Hughes ended the inning going down on strikes. After six, the Tigers led 7-2.
The Tigers weren't done though. Candido Encarnacion led off the top of the seventh with a line drive to the right center gap for a leadoff triple. Josten walked and Coleman wore one. Encarnacion scored from third on a wild pitch and Josten and Coleman scored on a single by Hagan to add three insurance runs for the visiting team.
The Bears continued to fight and were able to get their first two batters on through a single and a walk. But the Tigers did a nice job minimizing the damage as the Bears scored two runs on three hits and a walk to end the game 10-4, Tigers.
The Tigers have the weekend off and are back in action next week at Kirkwood on March 27.
