Neosho County Community College had many opportunities to stay ahead of Kansas City Kansas Community College in the race for Region XI playing seedings, but the Panthers wasted those opportunities Saturday afternoon in a sweep at the hands of the Blue Devils.
KCKCC leaped back into the No. 3 seed heading into the final weekend of conference action with a 3-1 and 10-8 victories.
On a positive note, NCCC Coach Steve Murry felt these two games will make the Panthers better as the playoffs get closer.
"We shot ourselves. We had plenty of opportunities to win each game," he explained. "We just didn't get it done in some tight situations. That will hopefully work toward our advantage later in the year when playoff time comes because we've been in some tough situations this year."
KCK pitcher Shae Stephens shut down the Panther offense, limiting the visitors to only three hits in the loss.
Neosho County didn't get its first base runner until the third inning with a two-out single by freshman Kaleb De La Torre, but the Panthers didn't have a runner move past second base until the seventh inning.
"Their lefty did a really fine job against us, but we let him off the hook by swinging at a lot of his pitches instead of having plate discipline and waiting for something we could drive," Murry said. "When we finally did get on him, it was too late."
Down 3-0, Neosho County finally plated a run when freshman outfielder Nolan Beets scored on an RBI walk by De La Torre.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, they left the bases loaded to end the game.
"We went through five innings before we even touched the ball," Murry said.
Sophomore Mason Knopp took the loss, striking out two and walking one in six innings of work.
In game two, the bats came alive early for Neosho County, but the defense and pitching disappeared.
Neosho County raced out to a 7-1 advantage behind a grand slam from Beets, but the Blue Devils responded with five in the bottom of the second inning to quickly close the gap.
"Defense was bad. Pitching was bad," Murry said.
The Panthers committed six errors, including three dropped routine fly balls to the outfield. Throw in an injury to center fielder Aaron Dees, not much went right over the final seven innings for the Panthers.
"Dees got hurt (sprained wrist), so we had to move people all over the field that aren't used to playing in certain places," Murry said. "Those goes to our lack of depth, and it could come down to that in the playoffs."
Then, Brennon Covington lasted only 1-2/3 innings, and the Panthers had to rely heavily on the bullpen to settle the game down.
Freshman Hayden Wichmann looked to do just that. He went 5-1/3 innings.
"Wichmann did a great job," Murry said. "He's going to take the loss in that one, but he didn't deserve it."
Wichmann struck out three and walked none during his time on the mound but surrendered the go-ahead runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Just like in game one, the Panthers threatened in the top of the final inning, but Neosho County, once again, left the bases loaded.
The Panthers (33-18 overall and 20-12 in the KJCCC) travel to Crowder College on Tuesday in a game that has been rescheduled twice this season because of Mother Nature before returning home on Thursday for the home finale against Labette Community College (16-26 and 10-20).
"We'll play Crowder to get some guys some at-bats. Then Thursday and Saturday become very important," Murry said. "A lot can happen this last weekend. KCK (33-17 and 21-11) plays Johnson County (40-10 and 25-7), and Labette has been playing well of late.
"We need to play well," Murry concluded. "That'll be our last opportunity before the playoffs."
Tuesday's first pitch is scheduled for 2 pm in Neosho, Mo., and Thursday's doubleheader is scheduled for 1 pm.