April 24, 2008

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter

STERLING -- It was a clean four-game sweep for the Northeastern Junior College Plainsmen baseball team, its third such sweep this season.

The first sweep came back in February, when NJC easily won several games against Seward County. Northeastern recently swept McCook last weekend, before taking four against Otero this past Saturday and Sunday.

The Plainsmen improve to 32-10 overall and host a 20-6 conference record, good enough to clinch the No. 1 seed with four conference games still remaining.

If that isn't enough, NJC has matched its program-best 11-game winning streak, a feat accomplished earlier this season.

"We're still playing like we can't lose, and we have guys stepping up and playing a big part of our success," NJC head coach Bryan Shepherd said. "Our pitching has been solid all year, and our defense is beginning to back them up on a more consistent basis."

Both have played an important role in the success of the team this season. In its current winning streak, the team has only allowed five or more runs just once, which came in a 10-9 victory over Western Nebraska.

Northeastern started its weekend on a good note with a 3-1 victory by getting yet another solid pitching performance from sophomore James Quisenberry. Arvin Perez came in Game 2 and delivered a 6-4 win, with sophomore Colton Williams getting the save.

Sophomore Zak Enriquez hasn't pitched much this season, but came in and served up a complete game while striking out eight batters in Game 1 on Sunday, with Darren Chavez finishing the deal in Game 2, also going the distance in the team's 6-3 victory.

"Our pitching is really consistent right now," Shepherd said. "For Enriquez to come in and give us a chance to win and throw as well as he did is the reason why we are playing well. It always someone different stepping up."

Offensively, on Sunday, freshman LaDarian Poole was 2-2 with a two-run homerun in Game 1 and was 2-4 in Game 2 with a run scored and an RBI. Rhett Welsh combined Sunday was 5-6 with four RBIs and three runs scored.

Sophomore Curtis Burback was a perfect 5-5 on the day with three runs scored and two doubles. Freshman Sean Flaherty had a good second game for the Plainsmen, going 2-3 at the plate, including a RBI double.

NJC hopes to continue its latest success when the team travels to Scottsbluff, Neb., to take on Western Nebraska for a two-game set Wednesday, April 23. Northeastern will come back home Thursday, April 24, for a doubleheader against Luna Community College (noon, 2 p.m.) before wrapping up the regular season at home against McCook Saturday, April 26 (1 p.m., 3 p.m.)

EXTRA: Quisenberry is 19th in the nation entering Wednesday in earned run average (ERA), with a 2.035 mark this season ... Williams has six saves on the season, ranking him in the Top-20 nationally ... Sophomore Josh Warren has 20 stolen bases this season, with a stolen base percentage of nearly 87 percent, also ranking him in the Top-50 ... Sophomore Danny Brock has 18 doubles while hitting .403 this season, as a team, NJC is hitting .320 ... The 32 wins so far this season is three wins shy of the most wins during the regular season and is six wins from Coach Shepherd's most wins guiding the program.