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. Â Krause was superb, giving up just one hit. Â 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. Â Gordon Arthaud took the pitching loss for NCMC, lasting just 1 2/3 innings, walking four, and allowing five runs. Â Mineral Area had four runs in the second inning, but a Pirate uprising in the sixth, scoring three runs, cut into the Cardinal advantage. Â 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. Â Mineral Area scored six runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to put the contest out of reach.
