NMMI Sports Press
MIDLAND, Texas — The Bronco baseball team's woes continued Thursday as they lost a pair of games to the WJCAC leading Chaparrals (19-8, 9-1), falling 12-2 and 10-5 in Midland . But at least one of the games was close until the end, and coach Chris Cook saw at least some improvement.
"We played decent the second game," he said. "A few mistakes. (Midland) did a good job driving in runs with two outs and two strikes. So we were just a couple of pitches and a couple of defensive plays away in Game 2. Game 1 just got away early and we didn't string together any hits."
The only good news about Game 1 is that it took very little time to play, finishing in a little more than an hour.
NMMI (17-9, 2-8) managed only two runs on four hits in the match, scoring in the second when Victor Jimenez doubled and came home on an Albert Oliva Velez single and double play; and in the fifth when Cam Stevenson tripled then came home on an error.
Midland, meanwhile, roughed up Bronco ace Megumi Fukuda for nine runs on 10 hits through four complete — the Chaparrals scored in every inning — and took a mercy rule victory off reliever Ryan Flake when he gave up three runs on five hits in the fifth.
Fukuda did strike out five in his short stint.
Game 2 looked a lot better for the Institute, as the Broncos led twice and Drew Price threw a strong game through five, leaving after five-plus innings with reliever Henrique Date closing out the match.
After a quick first for both teams, NMMI jumped on top in the second on a Gavon Clemons single in the second, a wild pitch and and an RBI single by Flake.
Midland went up 2-1 in the bottom of the stanza on three singles, then the game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when the Chaps went up 3-1, scoring on a double, dropped-third-strike out and a wild pitch.
But the Broncos came back big in the top of the sixth to take their second lead of the game.
Edwin Martinez Pagani opened the inning with a first-pitch single. One out later, Guillermo Borquez singled and a Mario Chacon single scored Martinez Pagani. Clemons hit a sacrifice fly that scored Clemons to tie the game, then Flake and Stevenson each singled to score Chacon and make it 4-3.
Unfortunately, the Chaps again came back in the bottom of the stanza.
Price, who, Cook said, "pitched really well," gave up a walk and a single, and with his pitch count at 99, the coach pulled him for Date, who, after a double steal, got the next two batters out. But then a single and a double made it 6-4 Midland, and after NMMI got two runners out but couldn't bring them home in the eighth, the Chaparrals added another four runs in the top of the eighth.
Rudy Solis singled in the ninth for NMMI, but was stranded, ending the game.
"Henrique actually pitched OK. Just a couple of pitches. A couple of plays," Cook said of the nightcap. "They're a good team and we'll have to play better tomorrow."
The Broncos tallied 13 hits in Game 2, led by Martinez Pagani who was 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI. Solis was 2-for-5 and Flake and Stevenson each 2-for-4 with an RBI apiece.
Both Price and Date struck out four batters in their turn on the mound, and Price walked three.
Cook said the long string of losses has been hard on the team, but he's hoping things will improve in the second half of the season.
"It's been tough," he said. "The guys hadn't experienced anything like this yet so far. I think it did affect them a little bit, but I think we showed a little sign of something today. Hopefully we'll get a couple of guys healthy. We're still short a few guy who would help. We get past tomorrow we've got a week off to kind of recoup and finish the season at home. We don't have to win every game, but we've got to start playing better."