On Saturday afternoon, New Mexico Military Institute improved to 7-3 on the year as they defeated Otero College 6-4 in game one and followed it up with a 6-5 win in game two. With the pair of losses, Otero College dips to 0-6 to start off the year.
Game 1
After an opening scoreless three half innings, the Broncos took an early 1-0 lead after an RBI sac fly by Hunter Martin, who scored Yahir Fonseca Ortiz who reached third with a walk and a wild pitch. Otero responded in the third with a run of their own in the top of the third inning.
An inning later in the fourth, Misael Maldonado Baez opened up with a double to left field. An out later, Fonseca picked up his eighth RBI of the season as he drove in a runner with a groundout to give the Broncos their second lead of the afternoon. The Rattlers used a two-out rally and pair of defensive errors to put runners on second and third base. With two runners on base and two outs, Eddie Montoya knotted the game at 2-2 with an RBI single.
In the home half of the fifth, NMMI conducted their own two-out rally. Jose Rodriguez Mestre got the rally started with a single. An error moved Mestre to third base. Seung Min Shin loaded the bases as he was hit by a pitch. The Broncos took a 3-2 lead as Baez was walked.
Otero opened the sixth inning with a walk. The walk was followed up by an RBI triple as the Rattlers tied the game at 3-3. Otero took their first lead of the afternoon as they grounded out but scored a runner to make it a 4-3 ball game.
After back-to-back outs to open the final inning, NMMI followed that up with a pair of walks to put runners on first and second base. In the next at bat, Seojun Oh blasted his first homer of the season to score three runs and secure the win for the Broncos in game one.
Felix Diaz Egea picked up the win for the Broncos in two innings of work. Jiyeong Park got the start on the mound, going five full innings while striking out seven batters and allowing just one earned run in the process.
Game 2
Trying to flip momentum, Otero opened game two with a sac fly to score a runner and take a 1-0 lead -their only lead of game two. In the bottom of the first, Joek Rivera Colon tallied his fourth double of the season to lead off for NMMI. With the help of a single by Seojun Oh, Rivera Colon was able to cross the plate with an error by the Otero catcher to make it a 1-1 ball game.
In the second inning, Wonjae Cho led off for the Broncos with a homer –his first of the season as the home team enjoyed a 2-1 advantage. An inning later, Rivera opened the frame with a lead-off single. Oh tallied his fourth RBI of the afternoon as he recorded a double to help Rivera Colon cross home plate.
In the next at bat, Hunter Martin notched his first collegiate triple as he helped Oh score another run for the Broncos to give the home side a 4-1 lead after three innings. In the fourth inning, NMMI scored another pair of runs. The first run scored with the help of an error and Rivera Colon picked up an RBI double to score the second run and put NMMI ahead 6-1.
In the away half of the fifth inning, Otero scored two runs off the bat of Ryan Ray who scored an inside the park home run. After a pair of scoreless frames, Otero scored their fourth run with the help of an error and a fly out in the eighth inning. After holding the Broncos scoreless in the final four innings, Otero was able to cut the deficit to just one run as they scored with an RBI single in the top of the ninth inning by Noah Chamblee.
Head Coach Chris Cook on today's pair of wins, "I like that we came away with a win in both games. However, in game one some defensive mistakes put us in a hole and we can't have that come conference play," Cook said. Despite being ahead 6-1, "a lot of little things showed up late in game two, which made the final three innings hectic ... we'll clean that up an dplay a lot better tomorrow," Cook said.
The Broncos conclude the four-game series on Sunday, Feb. 22 as they host Otero College for a doubleheader, starting at 12 p.m. MST