May 13, 2007

The Northeastern Junior College baseball team dropped two games on Saturday in the Region IX Tournament to end the season. The Plainsmen finished the year at 28-25 and finished third in the Region IX Tournament.

Coach Bryan Shepherd's team defeated top-seeded Lamar in dramatic fashion on Friday, and the Plainsmen appeared to be poised to do the same against second-seeded Trinidad on Saturday.

Down 5-2 going into the eighth inning, NJC battled back to tie the game in the ninth on an RBI single by Gustavo Velazquez. Velazquez's homer on Friday was the go-ahead run as NJC knocked off Lamar. But Velazquez's heroics weren't enough on Saturday as Trinidad pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI single to win, 6-5.

Northeastern scratched out five runs on just five team hits in the loss.

The Plainsmen were eliminated by Western Nebraska in the second game on Saturday. Western scored nine runs in a disastrous third inning for NJC. The Cougars won, 11-6, but Northeastern had a couple highlights in their last game of 2007.

Sophomore pitcher Derrick Townsend threw five innings of scoreless relief after beating McCook in the first round of the tournament. The 6-3 right hander retired 16 straight hitters, but the Plainsmen bats could not mount a rally.

Sophomore Mike Mendenhall had three hits with a stolen base and a run-scored while Sterling product Jeff Squier homered for the second straight game.

Denver freshman Curtis Burback had a single, a double and a run scored in the loss.