Pioneers win 6th straight Region IX title

MILES CITY - Miles Community College defeated Dawson Community College 11-2 in the championship of the Region IX baseball tournament in Miles City this afternoon. With the win, MCC won their sixth consecutive regional title and will head off to North Plains District Tournament next weekend. This was the seventh consecutive win over the Buccaneers this season.
Losing the coin flip in the beginning of the game to determine who was the home team was the only thing that the Pioneers lost today. Being the visitors on the scoreboard, MCC jumped out with an early 3-0 lead against Tanner Newman. Dawson would get one back in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 3-1 after one full inning. The Pioneers would add two more runs in both the third and fifth innings to take a 7-1 lead. Not backing off, the host team MCC would put three more up on the scoreboard in the eighth and another in the ninth. Dawson would score their second run in the bottom of the eighth, but the final ended up being 11-2.
Starting pitcher Riley Horn threw six innings giving up just the early run in the bottom of the first, but his outing wasn't perfect but solid enough to keep the damage to just one run. He allowed four hits, four walks, and struck out eight in the game. Dawson left eight runners on base in the first six innings and 10 total. The Pioneers also turned three double plays in the contest, including one started by Horn. Relievers Ty Church and Mario Venturini combined to go the final three innings, allowing just one run, one hit, two walks and four strikeouts.
At the plate, MCC collected 15 hits including a homerun by Justin Mackert. Brock Murphy led the team with three hits while a handful of other guys collected two including Casey Johnson, Brayden Matheson, Nic Johnston, Ben Sansaver, and Justin Harcharik. Both of Johnson's hits were doubles. Eight out of the nine players in MCC's batting order collected at least one hit in the championship game. Not only did MCC's bat lead to the win, but also the lack of defense from Dawson as they committed seven errors in the game. Despite the wide margin of victory for the Pioneers, the score could have been even more lopsided as the Pioneers left 12 runners on base over the nine innings.
Newman gave up seven runs but only one of those were earned. Once DCC knew the game was out of reach, head coach Brent Diegle tried to get the majority of his guys playing time as their season was coming to a close. Twenty-one out of the 26 players on the roster saw some sort of action, including three different pitchers in the final inning for Bucs in their season finale.
After the game, MCC was presented with the Region IX Championship plaque and head coach Jeff Brabant was named Region IX Coach of the Year. The all-tournament team will be announced later this week. The North Plains District Tournament will be played at the winner of Region XI in Iowa, the site is still undetermined as their tournament was pushed back at least a day because of rain on Saturday. The tournament will also feature the winner of Region XIII in the three-team double-elimination tournament. The winner of the district tournament will head to Enid, Oklahoma for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II World Series.