Clayden Brandon tossed a 1-hitter and faced just 21 batters as the sophomore from West Herriman, Utah, nearly had a perfect game as the Western Nebraska Community College baseball team opened the 4-game Empire Conference series with an 1-0 win over Lamar Community College Sunday afternoon at Cleveland Field.
                The Cougars followed that outstanding pitching and defensive performance of game one with an offensive show in capturing game 20-5. The Cougars finished with 18 hits and seven doubles to get the Sunday sweep.
                The win moves the Cougars to 13-18 overall and 4-6 in conference play while Lamar drops t0 16-21 overall and to 5-5 in the conference.
                The two teams will wrap up the series with a doubleheader on Monday at Cleveland Field. First pitch is slated for 12 noon.
                Brandon, who never had a perfect game before in his pitching career, came within that one hit from achieving that baseball milestone. But, the big thing was after Lamar got that fifth-inning hit, the next batter tried to sacrifice the runner over but the bunt went into the air and Brandon stretched out, caught the popped-up bunt and threw to first base to get the double play.
                Brandon said the team definitely needed this win to gain some momentum heading in the final weeks of the regular season.
                “I think we did well with the pitching battle in the first game and the second game we came out and hit really well,” he said. “It is important to get these two wins right now because we are in the bottom of the basement in the standings. This really helps us with momentum as we keep moving forward.”
                While Brandon shined in the first game, it was the defensive plays that played well.
                “The defense was huge today,” Brandon said. “When I was on the mound, I was throwing the ball and thinking don’t let them hit the ball or let them hit the ball and let the defense do their work.”
                Brandon’s stat line in the first game for his 7-inning appearance was unreal. The right-hander went all seven batters facing just 21 batters with allowing no walks, one hits, and striking out 10. Brandon said he never had a perfect game before and those stats, however, are perfect-game material with facing the minimal 21 batters.
                “Unfortunately, I have not (had a perfect game,” Brandon said. “Fortunately, they got one hit and I was one away, it was pretty close.”
                That first game was a pitcher’s dual between Brandon and Lamar pitcher Manuel Garcia. Garcia, himself, allowed five hits, two walks and struck out nine. It was that one run that the Cougars got in the fourth-inning that was the difference.
                The fourth inning was one where the Cougars got timely hits. Vaughn Wilson led off the fourth with a single. Then, with two outs, Landon Lockwood hit an infield pop fly that the first baseman was tracking and as he was backing up, stumbled over first base and went down as the ball fell about a foot behind him, putting runners on the corner. Catcher Gladysh followed with an infield single that scored Jin Kobayakawa with the go-ahead run.
                Lamar came back and got their first base hit in the fifth to a hit to the rightfield. It was short-lived as the next batter popped up a bunt that Brandon caught and threw to first to erase the Lamar runner for the 15th out of the game.
                Brandon’s final two innings on the hill saw the right-hander induce a infield pop out, a strikeout, and then a grounder to shortstop in the sixth. The seventh inning saw Brandon throw just eight pitches inducing two ground balls and an lineout to centerfielder for the win.
                Vaughn Wilson and Gladysh each had two hits for the Cougars in the win.
                The second game was an offensive show for the Cougars as the scheduled 9-inning game was just a 7-inning contest because of the run rule. WNCC plated five runs in four different innings.
                Lamar scored first with a run in the first, but the Cougars answered with five runs in the bottom of the first.
                Calab Caciari and Vaughn Wilson started the game with walks and Caciari scored on a Cooper Wilson single. WNCC loaded the bases after that and Cooper Burgess came up with a 2-out double to make it 4-1. The final run came in on a Will Harbison single.
                Lamar scored two more runs in the second to make it 5-3, but the Cougars answered with five in the bottom of the frame. The big hit in the frame was a Cooer Wilson 2-run double and a 2-run Ren Sato 2-run triple.
                WNCC made it 15-3 with five runs in the fourth and then made it 20-4 with five runs in the sixth for the 15-run win.
                Three players had three hits each. Calab Caciari had three singles with three runs scored while Jin Kobayakawa had three singles with three runs scored as well. Cooper Burgess had three hits with two doubles, four RBIs and two runs scored.
                Three other players had two hits each as Cooper Wilson had a double, two runs scored, and three RBIs; Ren Sato had a triple with four RBIs, and four runs scored, and Will Harbison had two singles with a run scored and RBI.
 
Game 1
Lamar                 000 000 0 – 0 1 1
WNCC                000 100 x – 1 6 0
WP – Clayden Brandon.
2B – Vaughn Wilson.
 
Game 2
Lamar                 120 001 1 – 5 6 3
WNCC                550 505 x – 20 18 2
WP – Julian Garza, S – Matthew Hazzard.
2B – Cooper Burgess 2, Austin Cooper, Catcher Gladysh, Cooper Wilson, Vaughn Wilson.
3B – Ren Sato.