March 4, 2007

The Northeastern Junior College baseball team split with Miles Community College on Sunday to move to 5-3 on the season.

The Plainsmen dropped Game One of the doubleheader, 3-2; mustering just one hit in the first six innings. Danny Brock's two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh produced NJC's only two runs.

"Today's first game was a prime example of coming to the park not ready to play," Head Coach Bryan Shepherd said. "When you play a team playing its first games, you're up against a lot of emotion. They just had more intensity than we did and it showed."

Sophomore Derrick Townsend surrendered all three of Miles' runs in the first inning. Miles lined out three straight hits with two outs in the opening frame. Townsend settled down to hold Miles scoreless through five. The Baton Rouge native went to 1-1 on the year.

Lefty freshman Justin Sortino came on in relief of Townsend to throw two scoreless innings.

The Plainsmen took Game Two of the twinbill, 5-4. NJC clawed back from a 2-0 deficit with RBI singles by Colton Williams and Justin Matelka. Matelka scored on John Matey's RBI ground ball.

Jeff Squier and Rhett Welsh gave Northeastern the lead for good with RBI doubles in the third inning.

"That was an important win," sophomore outfielder Langston Frison said about the win over Miles. "Bouncing back after losing that first game proves we can play with a lot of heart."

Denver freshman James Quisenberry picked up his second victory of the season. Quisenberry was lifted in the sixth with a 5-2 lead. Brock moved from first base to the mound in the sixth inning to pick up the save. The freshman collected the last six outs of the game in relief of Quisenberry.

"We started off the second game without much intensity," Shepherd said. "But we played hard through the course of the game and did what we had to do to win the game."