Out of Neosho County Community College's last 15 games, 11 of them have been against ranked opponents, including Tuesday's home nonconference matchup against the No. 16-ranked Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen.

A four-run seventh inning by the visitors was enough to end any hopes of a Panther upset in a 7-2 loss.

"I don't think we played overly terrible," Coach Steve Murry said. "We left too many guys on base."

Both teams found themselves leaving runners on base throughout the contest. Neosho County left six on, while NEO A&M stranded 11.

Meanwhile, both defenses committed three errors apiece.

"We didn't play well defensively," Murry said. "We made some plays that don't show up in the scorebook where at least the effort was there, but they didn't work out the way we wanted them to."

Up until the seventh, Neosho County had gone toe-to-toe with a team that has only lost three times all season behind a strong outing from freshman starter Tyler McGrew.

McGrew threw six innings, striking out four.

"Tyler was real good. He's getting better with every single outing. The goal is to get him ready for playoff time. He's got a lot of ability, and he showed that today," Murry said. "He had some really good pitches in certain situations. You hold a team like that to only two runs, you've done a great job."

Offensively, Neosho County mustered only six hits in the loss.

Down 2-0, Panther sophomore first baseman Tanner Arst drove in freshman outfielder Nolan Beets in the fourth inning, and a wild pitch scored sophomore short stop Josh Norlin in the sixth.

That is when things unraveled for the Panthers.

With one out and two runners on a double, an error and a pair of singles blew the game open for NEO A&M.

"You can't mistakes against good teams, but making them during a worthless midweek game is a whole heck of a lot better than making them in the playoffs," Murry said.

Adding, it's something the team will learn and build from as the Panthers move back into conference play on Thursday.

Neosho County (15-10 overall and 5-7 in the KJCCC) will host rival Allen County (24-5 and 10-2) at 1 pm Thursday at Hudson Field.

"We've played some really good teams in conference so far," Murry said.

"You'll start to see teams start to creep up and creep down. Hopefully, we are one of those who creep up."