NCMC opens four-game series with Jefferson, with Thursday split

The North Central Missouri College Pirates lost 8-6, but rebounded with a resounding 13-5 victory, in a pair of Region 16 baseball games played on Thursday afternoon at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Missouri.

In the opener, Zach Lehmann went 2 for 3 for the NCMC offense, driving in a run and scoring twice, with singles in the second and sixth innings.  However, Wyatt Thomas struggled from the pitching rubber for the Pirates, taking the loss with 1 2/3 innings of work, with one walk, three strike outs, and three runs allowed.

In the nightcap, the Pirates offense was led by Stephan Vidal in the 13-5 road win.  Vidal had four RBI’s and three hits for NCMC.  Maverich Lourens struck out seven Jefferson batters, allowing only two earned runs, eight hits and two walks over eight strong innings.  Offensively, North Central was balanced and feisty throughout the game, scoring two runs in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and ninth innings.  An RBI double by Landon Figg, in the top of the 4th inning, drove home Dennis Pogue.  Jared Corbett scored on a fielding error by Jefferson in the top of the 5th.

Jefferson and North Central, after Thursday’s games, traveled to Trenton for rematches to be played at Burleigh Grimes Field at Eastside Park.  The FRIDAY doubleheader will start at 4 o’clock.  It will be sophomore recognition day for NCMC, with those events starting at 3:15.

This week, due to a combination of wet weather and the need to get the Jefferson games in by Monday, have seen a large amount of schedule shifting for the Pirates and Coach Donnie Hillerman.    The games with Jefferson were originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but moved up two days due to the weekend weather forecast of rain.  North Central’s original schedule had games at Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri on Thursday, but those games were moved to Wednesday, May 4th.  Region 16 protocol required North Central Missouri College and Jefferson College, both NJCAA Division 1, Region 16 members, to play their regular season contests by Monday, in order to properly seed the postseason Region 16 tournament.