Peter Dindinger – NMMI Sports Press
The season will continue for at least one more week for the New Mexico Military Institute Bronco baseball team.
On Friday, NMMI swept the Western Texas College Westerners 12-2 in five innings and 9-8 at NMMI Ballpark.
The wins helped the Broncos solidify the sixth-seed at next week's conference tournament, which will most likely be held in Clarendon, Texas.
"We live another week. Next weekend if we do the same thing we did today -- win two straight -- we're putting up another banner and going to another regional," said NMMI head coach Chris Cook.
In Game 1, the Broncos hit four home runs.
Edwin Martinez Pagani got NMMI on the board with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first.
Western Texas College answered back with a two-run home run by River Orsak which made the score 2-1 in the top of the third.
In the bottom half of the frame, Noah Nunez tied up the game for the Broncos with a leadoff solo home run that sparked a five-run rally to give NMMI a 6-2 lead.
Martinez Pagani tallied his second homer of the game when he drove in Nunez in the bottom of the fourth to extend NMMI's lead to six.
Mario Chacon later hit a two-run home run to make the score 10-2.
The Broncos (22-16 overall, 7-15 WJCAC) tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to close out of the game.
NMMI starter Megumi Fukuda had a solid outing, striking out 10 batters in a complete game outing. He only allowed four hits.
Martinez Pagani went 3 for 4 with a single, two homers and three RBIs while Chacon added with a single, home run and three RBIs to go 2 for 3.
Nunez finished 2 for 2 with a single, home run and two RBIs.
To start Game 2, NMMI held a 4-0 lead after two innings.
Western Texas College cut the deficit with a solo home run from Jalen Freeman in the top of the third.
Justin Lawrence then helped extend the lead to six runs for the Broncos with a three-run blast in the fifth inning.
The Westerners (13-30, 3-19) pushed across a run on an RBI single by Lance Little in the top of the sixth.
A sacrifice fly to right field by Cam Stevenson plated home Angad Takhar and Chacon in the bottom of the seventh to give NMMI a 9-2 advantage.
Aided by four hits, the Westerners rallied for six runs in the top of the eighth. Isaiah Ural and Jordan Grice plated home four runs with a pair of triples in the big inning.
Tristan Copeland struck out his final three batters to seal the victory in the top of the ninth.
Ryan Flake finished 3 for 4 with three singles while Chacon went a perfect 4 for 4 with four singles and an RBI.
Stevenson added with a 1 for 3 performance that included a single and two RBIs.
Jorge Garcia started for NMMI, striking out four batters and allowing two earned runs on six hits in 6.2 innings.
Henrique Date relieved for 2/3 of an inning, allowing two hits and three earned runs.
Copeland fanned four batters in 1.2 innings while allowing two earned runs.
NMMI caps off the regular season with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12 p.m.
"I think the guys were pressing. So I give them a lot of credit for hanging in there," Cook added. "That team's capable of beating teams. They've done it the last half of the year.
"Offensively, we had some good at-bats and pieced some things together. We hit some balls out of the yard, had some big innings. They were able to tighten it up. Copeland came out and did exactly what we hoped he would do."