The North Central Missouri College baseball team played competitively, but struggled in getting clutch hitting, held to just three runs over a pair of Sunday afternoon games at Mineral Area Community College.
The Pirates, despite a strong pitching effort by Andrew Krause, lost 1-0 to the Cardinals. Krause was superb, giving up just one hit. Maverich Lourens took the loss, giving up a first-inning run in 2 2/3 innings of work.
In a higher-scoring affair, North Central stayed close to Mineral Area, before the Cardinals scored six late runs to race to an 11-3 win. Gordon Arthaud took the pitching loss for NCMC, lasting just 1 2/3 innings, walking four, and allowing five runs. Mineral Area had four runs in the second inning, but a Pirate uprising in the sixth, scoring three runs, cut into the Cardinal advantage. Landon Figg had an RBI double, a run scored via a wild pitch, and Cameron Dean had an RBI single in the North Central 6th. Mineral Area scored six runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to put the contest out of reach.
