BASEBALL: Young Ks 11 to help Chaps beat Ranger College

By Oscar LeRoy
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - The Midland College baseball team got the performance that it needed from its ace pitcher to get off to a good start at the NJCAA Region V Tournament on Friday morning.

Luke Young struck out 11 and fellow Oklahoma State University signee Tyler Wulfert drove in two runs to help the Chaparrals defeat Ranger College, 2-0, at Christensen Stadium.

"Luke pitched the best game I've ever seen from him. He was awesome," Wulfert said. "It's always good to get the first win."

MC (38-18) advances to play No. 4-ranked McLennan Community College, a 15-7 winner over Howard College, in the winner's bracket quarterfinal round at 5 p.m. Saturday. Ranger (37-20) will play Howard at 11 a.m. Saturday in an elimination game.

Young, who has had some up-and-down outings in the last few weeks, scattered four hits and walked two in the complete-game performance. Young, who normally started seven-inning Western Junior College Athletic Conference games, threw 139 pitches, 85 of which for strikes.

"I felt really good from beginning to the end," Young said. "Every pitch felt like it was working today and that was just an amazing feeling to have as a pitcher."

MC coach Hector Rodriguez said he was glad to see Young have as good of an outing as he did.  

"The last four or five weeks of the year, he hasn't been the Luke Young that he wants to be, but just showed some guts here, pitched himself out of some jams, and made some pitches when he needed to," Rodriguez said. "The team was behind him and just a heck of a start to the weekend."

The tall, lanky right-hander said he wasn't concerned about how long he was out there and just concentrated on doing his job as long as he could.

"I know we have some guys in the bullpen, who will come in and show what they could do, so it took a lot pressure off me knowing that they would come in and do their job," Young said. "Those insurance runs were very helpful, but those are the games we love."

Rodriguez said because Young's stuff was looking good, he decided to leave him in there and finish the game.

"The location, the velocity, the breaking ball, he still showed that he was sustaining that in the seventh and eighth inning," Rodriguez said. "When it became high-leverage situations, he was still able to make pitches. In the eighth inning, I asked him how felt and he said, 'I feel freakin' great.' And in the ninth inning, he said, 'I'm going to finish it.'"

Ranger got two on in the ninth inning and threatened but Young got a strikeout and a fielder's choice grounder to end it.

Young needed to be on top of his game with the way Ranger starter Elias Sanchez was pitching as he did a good job of containing the MC offense through the better part of seven-plus innings. He allowed both runs on seven hits, two walks and struck out six.

"He commanded his slider well and kept us off balance," said Wulfert of Sanchez.

The Chaps finally pushed a run across in the sixth inning when a fielder's choice grounder scored Garrett Williams (2-for-3, walk).

MC then added an insurance run in the eighth when Wulfert scored Williams on a single to left field.

"I think it helped with Luke's confidence a lot too. Getting that extra run was huge," Wulfert said.  "That was a good job by our offense to get one there in the eighth."

The Chaps say they feel good going into Saturday's game. Sophomore and nine-game winner Luis Rodriguez is scheduled to start for MC against the defending national champion Highlanders and he will have a well-rested bullpen behind him.

"This is huge," said Young of opening the tourney with a win. "It puts us up in the bracket in every aspect of this tournament and that's a great feeling to have."

Follow Oscar on Twitter: @OLeRoy_MRT 

MIDLAND COLLEGE 2, RANGER COLLEGE 0

Ranger College           000      000      000      --          0          4          1

Midland College         000      001      010      --          2          7          0

Elias Sanchez, Caleb Bunch (8) and Chris Kean. Luke Young and Ryan Blackwell. W – Young. L – Sanchez. 2B – Ranger: Kean, Josh Rodriguez

NJCAA Region V Baseball Tournament
at Christensen Stadium

Friday

First round

Game 1: (W2) Midland College (37-18) 2, (N3) Ranger College (37-19) 0

Game 2: (N1) McLennan CC (43-10-1) 15, (W4) Howard College (24-27) 7, 7 innings

Game 3: (N4) Weatherford College (36-19) 3, (1) New Mexico JC (41-15) 2

Game 4: (N2) Grayson College (36-16) 9, (W3) Odessa College (36-19) 5

Saturday

Elimination bracket

Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m.

Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 1 p.m.

Winner's bracket

Game 7: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 5 p.m.

Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 8 p.m.

Sunday

Elimination bracket

Game 9: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 loser, 10 a.m.

Game 10: Game 5 winner vs. Game 8 loser, 1 p.m.

Winner's bracket

Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 5 p.m.

Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 8 p.m.

Monday

Elimination bracket

Game 13: Game 11 loser vs. Game 12 winner, 1 p.m.

Championship game

Game 14: Game 11 winner vs. Game 13 winner, 5 p.m.

Tuesday

If necessary game

Game 15: Game 14 winner vs. Game 14 loser, 1 p.m.