NMMI Sports Press
The Bronco Baseball team completed a four-game series sweep of the visiting Trinidad State Trojans Sunday evening at NMMI Ballpark with two walk-off victories; the first an extra-innings 8-7 win featuring three come-from-behind innings and the second, a 17-7 mercy-ruled triumph in six innings.
The Broncos racked up 12 hits in the first game of the day. Four players had multiple hits; sophomore shortstop B.Y. Choi went 2-for-5 with two runs batted in, sophomore first baseman Owen Alsup went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI, freshman designated hitter Bernie Socarras-Puig went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored, and freshman catcher Adonis Bernal was 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Sophomore right fielder Willie Borquez went 1-for-5 and struck out twice, but came up with the biggest knock in the game when he slugged a solo homer over the right field wall in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie and extend the game.
In the bottom of the ninth with two outs, Socarras-Puig hit a line drive to left field followed by a Bernal groundball single to left before another player that struggled to hit in the game, sophomore centerfielder Fran Gross, smacked his first hit into centerfield, scoring Socarras-Puig and giving the Broncos a hard-fought win.
Sophomore lefty Demitrius DiMatteo got the start for the Broncos, giving up two earned runs on four hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Freshman right-handed pitchers Paul Ruiz and Chan Yoon each pitch two-thirds of an inning, allowing four runs and striking out two.
Freshman righty Dong Woon Yuk pitched the final two and two-thirds innings and earned the win, allowing a single hit, no runs, striking out two and walking one.
Since the first game Sunday ended much like the first game on Saturday, with a comeback one-run walk-off, it was only natural that the second game Sunday would follow the same script.
While the Trojans managed significantly more offense than they did in Game 2 on Saturday, the result was the same, a 10-run mercy-ruled walk-off.
Freshman designated hitter Adolfo Rondon got NMMI on the board early with a two-out, RBI single that plated sophomore second baseman Rhett Stokes and put the Broncos up 1-0 in the bottom of the first.
The Trojans answered with two runs in each of the next two innings to take a 4-1 lead, but the Institute offense exploded in the bottom of the third, putting up eight runs.
Stokes walked to start the frame, then Choi tripled him in, followed by an Alsup homer to tie the game at 4-all. Borquez walked on four pitches, Gross singled, freshman third baseman M.J. Kim hit a liner to left to score Borquez and freshman left fielder Ivan Cogles doubled to center to send Kim home and make the score 7-4.
Sophomore catcher Antonio Ramazzini singled to move Cogles to third, who then scored during the next at bat on an error by the Trinidad right fielder. Ramazzini then scored on a wild pitch. The at bat belonged to Stokes, who drew another walk and ended up with five on the night with four runs scored.
The Trojans scored three more runs in the game, but couldn't catch up to the hard-hitting Broncos. Choi finished the game 3-for-3 with two RBIs, three runs scored and two walks. Alsup was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored, a walk and the big home run. Rondon went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in.
Freshman pitcher Julio Ramos started the game for the Institute, going four innings and allowing five runs on six hits. Freshman right hander Yuki Shigeyasu closed the game with eight pitches, seven of them strikes.
Bronco head coach Chris Cook was impressed by the Game 1 and 3 starters for Trinidad, but also impressed by his team's grit playing from behind.
"Both of those guys pitched really well against us and we just kind of kept it close enough and then started scratching away," he said. "And when we had some opportunities where we got some help, we took advantage of it."
Cook said he was pleased with the performance of his top two hitters, Stokes and Choi, despite neither necessarily playing to the best of their abilities yet.
"The top two guys in our lineup understand the strike zone," he said. "We still haven't seen Choi hit to his potential, but he's still good enough to produce and help you win. And Rhett just wasn't going to give in. He was waiting for a pitch to drive and had good at bats. It's very uncommon to get five walks in a game. I don't know that I've ever seen it."
Cook said he was very pleased with the 4-0 start and hopes the success will motivate his players to practice harder, smarter and improve in certain areas.
"I'm real proud of the guys. A lot of guys got their first college hit, one got his first college home run, a couple first college wins," he said. "There were some great defensive plays over the weekend, but also some poor plays, but that's stuff we can clean up. We've set a high bar for ourselves, but that's good. I thought all our starting pitchers did a tremendous job and kept us in game. Great first weekend."
The Broncos are back on their home diamond next Saturday and Sunday for another four-gamer, this time with Otero College. First pitch is at noon both days.