Western Nevada College quickly put a season-opening baseball loss to South Mountain Community College behind it on Sunday.
A day after collecting just three hits, the Wildcats of Carson City totaled 18 hits, including three home runs, in a 15-5 rout of the Cougars in Phoenix.
DJ Peters, Justin Mannens and Daniel Nist each homered and combined for 10 hits and nine RBI as the Wildcats made amends for a 6-3 defeat to the Cougars on Saturday.
"It was an incredible offensive explosion," said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore.
For the second straight game, the team that jumped out to a 3-0 lead wound up losing. South Mountain tallied two runs in the second inning and one in the third against WNC starting pitcher Jordan Dreibelbis.
After blanking the Wildcats for the first three frames, South Mountain starter Vinnie Tarantola ran into trouble in the fourth. The Wildcats loaded the bases with no outs, and Sam Salyers' two-run double over the left fielder's head made the score 3-2. Later in the inning, Casey Cornwell's groundout pulled the Wildcats even.
WNC took the lead for good in the fifth. Peters' sacrifice fly plated Mannens and Nist stroked a two-run single after Chad Bell and Brogan Secrist executed a double steal.
The Cougars trimmed WNC's lead to 6-5 in their half of the fifth, but the Wildcats scored five times in the sixth to take command, 11-5. Mannens knocked in a run before Peters hammered a three-run homer to center and Nist jacked a solo shot to center for his second homer in as many days.
WNC's bullpen struggled on opening day, but sophomore Chase Kaplan came out of the pen Sunday with a completely different result. Kaplan earned the win with 3 2/3 innings of one-hit relief, fanning three and walking one.
Eric Flores knocked in a run during WNC's two-run eighth. The Wildcats completed the scoring with Mannens' capping his big day at the plate with a home run and Secrist hitting a RBI single.
Mannens finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle, going 4 for 6 with three runs scored and two RBI. Peters was 4 for 5 with two runs scored and four RBI. Nist, Secrist and Salyers each connected for two hits.
WNC (1-1) continues its three-game series with South Mountain at 1 p.m. Monday.