Peter Dindinger — NMMI Sports Press
It was a grind of a weekend for the New Mexico Military Institute Bronco baseball team.
Thirteen home runs were hit between both teams.
On Sunday at NMMI Ballpark, the Broncos won Game 4 by a score of 16-13 to secure the series split with Howard College.
The Hawks took Game 3 by a count of 5-4.
"We just kept grinding out some at bats and put the ball in play," said NMMI head coach Chris Cook. "What we've got to continue to improve on is making a couple routine plays and then our pitchers were a little bit uncharacteristically wild this weekend.
"Those guys were decent. They had the ability to hit for some power and move the baseball with two strikes. We just needed to come up with a two-out hit in Game 1 to give ourselves a chance."
NMMI was held to five hits in Game 3.
The Hawks pushed across two runs on an error in the top of the first.
Armando Ramirez Jr. got the Broncos on the board with a solo home run to right in the bottom half of the inning.
A two-run home run by B.Y. Choi tied up the game in the second. Diego Solis later scored on a wild pitch to give NMMI the 3-2 lead.
Aaron Manias came through in the clutch by hitting a three-run home run to put Howard back ahead by a score of 5-3 in the top of the third.
NMMI had a chance for some more late-inning heroics.
Choi lead off the bottom of the sixth with a triple to center to setup the scoring play on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to one.
Unfortunately, the Broncos left a runner stranded to come up short.
Choi had a solid day going 2 for 3 with an RBI while Ramirez finished 1 for 4 with an RBI.
Guillermo Borquez and Rhett Stokes each went 1 for 4 with a single.
Adrian Rubio suffered the loss after throwing three innings allowing three earned runs.
Saul Rocha and Leandro Tamaki kept the Broncos in the ballgame by allowing just two hits in two innings.
The duo did not allow a single run while they combined for four strikeouts.
Game 4 was another offensive marathon.
Howard jumped out ahead early once again by taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Hunter Simmons led off the inning with a solo home run while Manias and Nicholas Thibodeau hit back-to-back RBI singles.
The Broncos retaliated by putting together a six-run rally in the bottom half of the frame.
Ramirez blasted a two-run home run to cut the deficit to one run.
After three straight walks were issued to Ryan Flake, Rubio and Borquez, Choi delivered a bases-clearing triple to put NMMI ahead 5-3.
Edrien Martinez then drove in Choi on a groundout to first.
The tables turned when the Hawks scored five runs in the second inning to take the 8-6 lead.
Keenan Spence hit an RBI double while Thibodeau and CJ Difiglia delivered back-to-back singles that brought in three runs, which highlighted the rally.
Howard tacked on two more runs in the third to lead 10-6.
Trey Starr III came into the clutch for NMMI in the bottom of the third by hitting a two RBI triple to cut the deficit to two.
A miscue by the Howard shortstop later allowed Starr to score to make the score 10-9.
The game was tied up in the fifth when Stokes drove in Solis with a sacrifice fly to center. The Broncos then took the lead with a two RBI single by Flake.
Howard got a run back in the sixth after Spence scored on a groundout.
Holding a 12-11 lead, the Broncos scored three runs in the bottom half of the sixth.
Solis delivered an RBI single, Starr hit an RBI groundout and Stokes plated home Martinez with an RBI double to highlight the inning.
The Broncos got one more run in the seventh with a solo home run by Choi.
NMMI scattered 16 hits in the series finale.
Choi went 2 for 4 with four RBI while Starr finished 1 for 4 with three RBI.
Five Broncos had a multi-hit performance at the plate. Stokes tallied two singles, a double and two RBI to go 3 for 4.
Ramirez hit his third homer of the season to go 1 for 4 with two RBI and two walks.
Flake went 2 for 5 with a pair of singles and two RBI.
Martinez and Solis went a combined 6 for 8 with a double, five singles and an RBI.
Albert Oliva Velez notched his first victory of the season after throwing 3.2 innings of two-hit work with three strikeouts.
Marc Rios, Jose Cabanillas Jr. and Tamaki fanned a combined three batters while allowing just two earned runs.
Tamaki picked up his third save of the year after throwing a scoreless and hitless ninth inning. He now sports a 1.86 ERA in eight appearances.
"We just kind of grinded it out. Game 2 they just were locked in on Drew. Price battled and battled," Cook added. "We put ourselves in a hole, but offensively we came back.
"We had some guys step up. Albert stepped up and did a nice job out of the pen and gave us a chance to win."
>> UP NEXT: NMMI travels to Thatcher, Arizona for a four-game series with Eastern Arizona College beginning Thursday at noon. The Broncos resume conference play on March 25 with a series at Midland College.
Game 3
Howard 5, NMMI 4 (7)
HOW……2030000 — 5 9 0
NMMI….1200010 — 4 5 2
Cole Bramhall, Elijah Parks (7). Adrian Rubio, Saul Rocha (4), Leandro Tamaki (6). W — Bramhall. L — Rubio. SV — Parks. 2B — None. 3B — NMMI: B.Y. Choi. HR — Howard: Aaron Manias; NMMI: B.Y. Choi, Armando Ramirez Jr.
Game 4
NMMI 16, Howard 13 (9)
HOW……352001020 — 13 19 2
NMMI….60303310x — 16 16 1
Chris Brown, William Brown (1), Hunter Davis (1), Chase Oberle (5), Dylan Savino (6), Caleb Cassie (8). Drew Price, Albert Oliva Velez (3), Marc Rios (7), Jose Cabanillas Jr. (8), Leandro Tamaki (9). W — Velez. L — Savino. SV — Tamaki. 2B — Howard: Hunter Simmons, Keenan Spence; NMMI: Diego Solis, Rhett Stokes. 3B — NMMI: B.Y. Choi, Trey Starr III. HR — Howard: Aaron Manias, Hunter Simmons; NMMI: B.Y. Choi, Armando Ramirez Jr.
Records — Howard College (6-12, 2-2); NMMI (16-7, 2-2).