By: Justin Hargrove, NTCC Assistant Athletic Director
Weather forced the Northeast Texas Community College Eagles to move their season opening series to a road contest against 10th ranked Cowley County Community College this past weekend. After several days of rain, the field at NTCC was too wet to play on, so the Eagles hit the road to Arkansas City, Kansas for their 2020 season opener. The Eagles went 0-3 on the weekend against the nationally ranked Tigers.
Game one of the series on Friday saw the Eagles fall by score of 10-4. Alex Bruce (Hughes Springs, Texas) led the way offensively for the Eagles going 2 for 4 on the day. NTCC got on the board in the third inning off of hits by Bryce Crow (Mount Vernon, Texas) Isaac Rivera (Conroe, Texas) and Trevor Gowin (Cleburne, Texas). Crow led off the inning with a single and Rivera and Gowin took advantage of walks by the previous batters to get the Eagles on the scoreboard.
Hayden Shaddox (Athens, Texas) got the start for NTCC and took the loss. Justin Lambright (Trenton, Texas), Tyler Jeans (Texarkana, Texas), Mitch Turner (Willis, Texas), and Harrison Gaienne (Houston, Texas) all saw time on the mound in game one of the series.
In Saturday’s game one action, NTCC sent Javan Smitherman (Kilgore, Texas) to the mound for the start. Jake Chapman (Boerne, Texas), Kaleb Wisnoski (Navasota, Texas), and Chance Bolter (Plano, Texas) would come in relief for the Eagles. Cowley County held NTCC to two hits in game two action to come away with a 9-3 win over the Eagles.
Game three of the series saw a much closer battle between the Eagles of NTCC and the Tigers from Cowley County. The Tigers made a dramatic comeback in the bottom of the ninth when they hit a walk off triple scoring two runs. The Eagles started off the 10 hit day scoring one run in the first inning when Cody Cleveland (Rockwall, Texas) walked, stole second base, and scored on a double by Brian Juarez (Corpus Christi, Texas). Juarez, along with Gowin, and Nico Baumbach (Euless, Texas) would pace the offensive attack with two hits each.
Sawyer Smallwood (Texarkana, Texas) got the start in the final game of the series, striking out two in his first outing of the season. Mikel Howell (Huntsville, Texas), Camden Sargent (Lake Jackson, Texas), and Jacob Rosales (Mission, Texas) all saw action on the mound in relief.
The Eagles will look to clean up there game and keep the bats hot as they travel to Weatherford College on Tuesday, February 4th. NTCC will have their home opener this Friday against Pratt Junior College at 1:00pm on the campus of NTCC, weather permitting.
