Not much went right for the Neosho County Community College baseball team on Tuesday afternoon in a 15-4 loss to Crowder College.The Panther pitching staff surrendered five home runs on a day with a stiff wind blowing out of Hudson Field. "We didn't locate very well today, and they can hit," coach Steve Murry said. "They took advantage of our mistakes."The Roughriders looked to set the tone early with back-to-back solo home runs with two out in the top of the first. Neosho County responded in the home half of the first with a run of its own, but it was in the bottom of the second when the bats got going.

Freshman first baseman Joe Mondragon led off the inning with a single,
and sophomore third baseman Will Clark walked. A wild pitch and an error
later tied the game at three apiece. All three runs scored by Neosho County in the inning came before Crowder
was able to record an out.
After a scoreless third, the Roughriders scored at least two runs in each of the final four innings, including five in the top of the seventh. "Like I told them at the beginning of the year, when you are up 3-0 it's easy to play, but when you are down 3-0, I wanted to see their reaction," Murry said. "Unfortunately, we got the reaction I was afraid
we were going to get. They got scared and nervous." Meanwhile, after the second inning, the Panther bats went silent. Neosho County tallied only two more hits for the remainder of the game. "We played like a young team," Murry said. "That was a talented team over there. That's why they are nationally ranked, but by the same
token, missing fly balls and going 2-0 to every hitter from our mound. We didn't do anything right today." Mix in multiple fielding errors, and Crowder was able to end the game
early, kicking in the 10-run rule in the seventh inning of a scheduled nine-inning contest.

"It's always going to make a difference, but if you are confident, it's
not going to make that big of a difference," Murry said of dealing with
the wind. "If you aren't confident, it'll make a huge difference.
Unfortunately, we dropped two routine fly balls that were just gross."
Neosho County got their first look at the bullpen which had not been
needed to this point in the season.
The Panthers went through four relievers over the final three innings.
They combined to strike out three and walk three, while giving up seven
runs.
"They weren't throwing strikes, but they got their feet wet," Murry
said. "So we hope to get them better as we go along. They are going to
have to get better. They have to learn how to throw strikes."
Sophomore shortstop Josh Norlin collected two of the teams six hits.
Freshman starting pitcher Tyler McGrew was tagged with the loss in four
innings of work. McGrew struck out two, walked one and surrendered 12 hits.
The Panthers (10-1) will travel to Overland Park to face Johnson County
Community College (9-3) on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled at 1 pm.
"They are going to be tough. They have some really nice arms, but again,
those are two really nice arms we saw today," Murry concluded.
"Hopefully, we can go get three out of four and that's really what you
shoot for."