NMMI Sports Press
The Colts bested the Eunice Cardinals 11-1 in six innings to win third place at the 30th Roswell Sertoma Colt Classic on Saturday afternoon at the NMMI Ballpark.
NMMI sophomore outfielder Caden Carter was named to the all-tournament team after another multi-hit performance and a solid defensive effort. Across all three games, Carter never struck out while racking up six hits, driving in three runs and scoring another two.
Against Eunice, sophomore catcher Nicolas Barcelo joined Carter with multiple hits and displayed his toughness after taking one to the face on a throw to home plate in the first inning that resulted in the Cards’ only run of the game. Barcelo went on to help the Colts pull away with RBI singles in the second and third innings.
Six other Institute players had hits and five recorded RBIs. NMMI reversed their fortunes from the previous day’s game with just four strikeouts.
“We’ve struggled at the plate some the last four or five games, and we just haven’t been taking the right approach,” said NMMI head coach Brad Blackwell. “We turned it around today and I was very pleased with the way the bottom of the order has been swinging the bats.”
Junior Tegin Maloney pitched the first four innings, allowing two hits and zero earned runs while issuing no walks and striking out 10 Cardinal hitters. Senior lefty Ian Thompson made his first appearance of the season tossing 15 strikes out of 27 total pitches in his two innings of work, walking one and fanning another.
“Ian did a great job in his first outing of the year. You could see some jitters at first, but once he dialed in he looked more comfortable and did what we asked him to do,” Blackwell said. “I was pleased with his performance and excited to see what he can do moving forward.”
The Colts started the tourney with a 15-13 win over the JV Coyotes from Roswell High and then a tight 4-2 loss to the eventual tournament champions, the Goddard JV Rockets. The 13-3 GHS squad has scored 10 or more runs in nine contests this season and did it again with an 18-6 win over Artesia’s JV in the championship game.