Peter Dindinger – NMMI Sports Press

To cap off the regular season, the New Mexico Military Institute Bronco baseball team took three out of four from the Western Texas College Westerners.

On Saturday, NMMI dropped Game 3 by the score of 7-0 before winning in walk-off fashion in Game 4, 11-10.

The Broncos have already solidified a spot at next weekend's conference tournament, which will most likely be held in Clarendon, Texas. 

Edwin Martinez Pagani hit the game-winning RBI single in the final game.

"Edwin's just having a tremendous season, tremendous career for us," said NMMI head coach Chris Cook. "It's huge for some of these two-, three-year sophomores to go out with a walk-off win in their last home game."

The Broncos (23-17 overall, 8-16 WJCAC) were held to five hits in Game 3.

Western Texas starter Reese Weaks struck out eight batters in a complete-game of work.

River Orsak drove in the first four runs for the Westerners with an RBI double in the first and a three-run home run in the top of the fourth.

Jordan Grice hit a three RBI double in the top of the seventh to cap off the game.

Hunter Roquemore led the Broncos going 2 for 3 with a double while Alejandro Lopez went 1 for 3 with a single.

Julian Lopez threw four innings striking out five batters and allowing four earned runs on five hits.

To start off Game 4, NMMI was held to three scoreless innings as Josh Walpole was tossing a no-hitter until the fourth inning.

Trailing 5-0, the Broncos rallied for eight runs in the fourth.

Ryan Flake started off the comeback with a two RBI double. Lopez then drove in a run with a single to cut the deficit to two runs.

Martinez Pagani tied up the game with a clutch two RBI triple. He later scored on a wild pitch to give NMMI a 6-5 lead.

The Broncos pushed two more runs across the plate with an RBI double by Albert Oliva Velez and an RBI triple by Jayden Diaz.

Western Texas College (14-31, 4-20) answered back with two runs in the top of the sixth that came off an RBI triple by Lance Little and an RBI single by George Alvarez.

NMMI extended its lead to 9-7 in the bottom half of the inning with a solo home run by Justin Lawrence.

The Westerners put together a four-run rally in the top of the seventh to take an 11-9 lead.

No lead is ever safe in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference, no matter how large it is.

NMMI's Armando Ramirez Jr. cut the deficit to one run with a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.

With two outs, Roquemore delivered a solo blast to dead center to tie the game.

Cam Stevenson singled and then Mario Chacon drew a four-pitch walk to setup Martinez Pagani's RBI single.

Martinez Pagani went 3 for 4 with two singles, a triple, two walks and three RBIs while Diaz finished 2 for 4 with a single, triple and an RBI.

NMMI narrowly out hit the Westerners, 12-11.

Ty Villareal started for the Broncos, throwing 3.1 innings allowing four earned runs on four hits with three strikeouts.

Drew Price relieved for 2.2 innings giving up six earned runs on seven hits. Jaydon Stephens tossed three scoreless innings of no-hit work with two strikeouts.

"We finished in sixth-place, which isn't anything to brag about but we did what we had to do in order to still have a chance to fight to be in a regional," Cook added. "We had some guys that swung it pretty well and they haven't had a lot of at-bats yet."