On Saturday afternoon, New Mexico Military Institute completed the series sweep over Frank Phillips College with a 9-7 win in game one, followed by a 10-9 walk off win in game two at the NMMI Ballpark. With the pair of wins, the Broncos improved to 4-12 in conference play and 16-18 overall. The Plainsmen dip to 2-14 in conference play with an 8-26 overall mark.
GAME 1
The Broncos opened the bottom of the first by scoring a run with the help of an RBI double by Misael Yahir Fonseca Ortiz, who scored Maldonado Baez after he reached base with a single to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead. However, the Plainsmen responded with a pair of runs with the help of a triple by Connor Sanderson to go up 2-1. In the home half of the second inning, the Broncos responded with a leadoff double by Wonjae Cho. Sang Woon Jeon recorded an RBI single to tie the game at 2-2. Two outs later, Seojun Oh tallied his 19th RBI of the year with a single to give NMMI a 3-2 lead.
Once again, Frank Phillips responded with a pair of runs with a walk and hit by pitch as the away team took a 4-3 advantage. In the bottom of the third, Jose Rodriguez Mestre belted his third homer of the year with a 2-run shot to put the Broncos back in the lead 5-4. In the bottom of the fourth inning, NMMI got two runners on with a pair of walks before Wonjae Cho recorded a two-out, 2-RBI double to give NMMI a 8-4 lead. The Plainsmen made it an 8-5 ball game as they scored a run with a walk in the away half of the fifth.
In the top of the fifth, Frank Phillips scored a run before scoring another pair of runs in the seventh but it wasn't enough as the Broncos took game one 9-7.
GAME 2
Continuing their momentum for the first three games, the Broncos scored a run in both of the first two innings to take a 2-1 advantage. In the top of the fourth inning, Frank Phillips recorded three hits and scored four runs to go ahead 5-2 as the Plainsmen scored with a sac fly out.
The Broncos responded with a leadoff double by Orvic Martinez Cid – his second of the year. He later scored off an RBI single by Oh. The next at bat, Maldonado Baez picked up an RBI double before scoring on an error to tie the game 5-5.
Frank Phillips responded with a pair of runs to take a 7-5 advantage. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Seojun Oh picked up an RBI double to cut the deficit in half, 7-6. In the top of the eighth inning, Frank Phillips scored with the help of a walk to go ahead 8-6.
The Broncos responded by loading the bases on the bottom of the eighth inning. Continuing his excellent day, Jose Rodriguez Mestre recorded a double to take a 9-8 lead after eight innings. Frank Phillips responded with a homer in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game 9-9.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Broncos used a trio of singles as Fonseca Ortiz completed the walk off win with an RBI single to complete the series sweep with a 10-9 win.
Head Coach Chris Cook on the win, "All in all I thought we pitched pretty well all weekend. Offensively, some guys had really good weekends. Yahir had a fantastic weekend, Oh was competing all weekend, Maldonaldo had some great at bats and Cho had a great day offensively."
"We've got to get a couple other guys back on track and we have to limit our base running mistakes and earn the final game and just be a little better. However, I am happy we found a way to complete the sweep," Cook said.
The Broncos return to action on Friday, April 4 as they take on Clarendon College for a four-game series with a pair of doubleheaders.