April 24, 2006

By Ken McDowell Sports Editor The Northeastern Junior College Plainsmen received their second no-hitter in the baseball program's history Wed., April 12 from freshman right-hander Jacob Clinton of Golden. In the second game of a double-header at Plainsmen Park against McCook, Neb. Community College, Clinton no-hit the Indians to lead NJC to a 2-0 win. The first no-hitter ever by a Plainsmen pitcher was thrown by Jon Wilson in 2003. According to NJC Coach Bryan Shepherd, Clinton had just about everything going for him during his no-hitter as he fanned 8 batters and walked 4. "His velocity was better," Shepherd observed. "He came right out and went right after the hitters and threw strikes. He moved the ball in and out and he threw his breaking pitches for strikes. "He established his fastball early and built on that with his off-speed pitches. When he can do that and throw strikes he is a very difficult individual to hit." As the game progressed, Shepherd had it in the back of his mind that Clinton was working on a no-hitter. "We knew what was going on," he recalled. "But it was a pretty close game and McCook did have some opportunities to score. But that's something that always goes through the back of your mind when you're a pitcher." The no-hitter was officially recorded when Clinton fanned the final McCook player for the last out. "Wheels (Coach Luke Wheeler) was pretty excited and said 'He just threw a no-hitter,'" Shepherd said. "I told him that I knew, but I just wanted to watch the guys celebrate. "Jacob had an idea that he had a no-hitter going, and when he struck that last batter out he was grinning from ear-to-ear." Shepherd added that he was not really surprised to see Clinton throw a no-hitter. "Even though Jake is a freshman, he is a mature individual. He's 23 years-old and he has played a lot of baseball. He has a special intensity you can't teach a pitcher. "He has that look and determination in his eyes and every time he goes out on the mound you know he will give it everything he has. That means a lot as a coach to have a player like that, and we know we can always expect good things from him." NJC dropped the first game of that twin-bill to McCook 7-4. On Friday the Plainsmen played at Otero Junior College and dropped both Empire Conference games 6-0 and 3-2. NJC stands at 21-20 overall and 10-10 in the conference. Both teams were slated to face-off on Saturday for another double-header, but that action was postponed due to bad weather. Those games will be played this Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m. at Otero "We faced some pretty good pitching against Otero last Friday," Shepherd pointed out. "In the first game their number one guy kept us off-balance and we couldn't push any runs across. "We had some opportunities to score, but we just didn't get it done. We had several opportunities to score again in the second game, but again we didn't get it done." With Otero leading 3-2 in the second game, NJC had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh inning and was unable to score. "I'm not one to use umpiring as an excuse, but we had two calls that went against us that potentially cost us four runs," Shepherd said. "Those calls were blatantly missed, and the Otero coaches even agreed. "You hate to see something like that when the kids are playing as hard as they can, but those things happen and we just have to go on." The Empire Conference appears to have a lot of parity this year. Otero has spilt a double-header with Lamar, but has also dropped three-out-of-four to Western Nebraska. Even Western Nebraska has picked up a couple of wins against Lamar, and NJC has defeated Western Nebraska in all four meetings between the two teams. Trinidad State has also posted some big wins this year, so Shepherd knows that anything can happen against any team on any given day. "This has been a back and forth year," he noted. "Every team in the conference is improving. I don't think Lamar is getting worse, I just think everybody is catching up to them. "That is our goal is to catch up to a team like Lamar that has been ranked in the top 20 for the last 10 years, and I think we're getting there." Shepherd has seen steady improvement from his team as the season has progressed. "We have played great defensively," he pointed out. "We have turned 12 double plays in the last six games. Jeff Squier has been a big part of that at second base along with Gustavo Velazquez at short stop. They have been a very good double play combination. "And even though we slipped a little against McCook and Otero, our bats have shown improvement. We just need to keep working hard every day." On Sunday NJC will play a double-header at Trinidad State College