The Broncos played a pair of one-run games against the visiting Western Texas Westerners Sunday afternoon at NMMI Ballpark, splitting the last two in a four-game series to go 3-1 for the weekend.
Sophomore outfielder Willie Borquez homered in both games, including a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh inning in Game 3 that resulted in the final score, a 10-9 loss for the Broncos.
Borquez put himself on in all five plate appearances in Game 3, going 2-for-2 with two RBIs and three walks. He went 2-for-4 in the fourth game, with another two runs plated.
"Willie definitely took some good swings," said NMMI head coach Chris Cook. "Even the balls he missed, he was taking better swings today. It's good to see. Some other guys further down in the lineup are swinging the bat a little better too."
In Game 3, the Broncos scored early and often, spreading eight runs across the first four innings, but a big top of the fifth for the Westerners tied the contest. Neither squad scored again until the eighth inning.
Freshman right-hander Diego Martinez had allowed no runs off two hits in the sixth and seventh innings, and got the first two outs with relative ease, striking out the first Westerner with three pitches and getting the next to ground out.
But the young hurler lost control during the next at bat, hitting the WTC player before giving up a two-run, go-ahead bomb to left.
After the Borquez lead-off homer to pull within a run, Daniel Lizarraga and Bernie Socarras-Puig drew five-pitch walks, with a WTC pitching change during the latter at bat.
But the ball wouldn't roll NMMI's way, as freshman infielder MJ Kim struck out in his pinch hitting appearance before sophomore outfielder Fran Gross grounded into a double play to end the game.
The Broncos stranded 10 runners and the usually sure-handed second baseman Rhett Stokes committed a rare fielding error.
"We let that one slip away," Cook said. "You just can't give anybody that many free bases, walks, hit by pitches and errors. So that one hurts a bit. Both teams were in the bullpen and runs are going to be scored, but you gotta make them put the ball in play to score. We did a better job of that in the last game.
In the final game of the series, which was shortened to seven innings after the first game went past that total, the Westerners started things off with a four spot in the top of the third.
The Broncos responded by scoring nine runs over the next four innings, including a five-run fourth.
Freshman reliever Paul Ruiz pitched a scoreless sixth inning, allowing a hit while fanning two and walking one.
In the top of the seventh, Yuki Shigeyasu took the hill with a 9-5 lead and gave up a triple and a run-scoring single before getting the first out on a fly ball. Then the Westerners pulled within a run with a two-run shot to left.
Shigeyasu got ahead 0-2 on the next hitter before getting him to pop out and then finished off the victory with a swinging strikeout.
Sophomore lefty Demitrius DiMatteo pitched the first five innings, giving up five runs off three hits and three walks with five Ks.
"DiMatteo threw pretty well, he was just behind in too many counts, but he did an okay job of controlling the running game and he threw five innings and gave us a chance. We needed to kind of stretch that starter in the short game so we could have our guys at the end."
After a rough first three games in the series, Stokes got back on track in the final outing, going 2-for-3 at the plate, with two RBIs and a walk, and made a potential game-saving play on defense in the top of the sixth.
With two outs and two on, WTC's Ryan Pruitt smoked a 3-2 offering that looked like it would be too tall for the 5-foot-9 second baseman, but he jumped, extended and snagged a ball that would've easily scored a run.
"Stokes really bailed us out in that sixth inning," said Cook. "Their lead-off guy hit that ball really hard and Rhett made a great play. It was a little bit of an uncharacteristic weekend for him, but I think he's snapped out of it with the way he played in that last game."
NMMI currently sits in fourth place in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference standings with a 6-6 record, two games behind Midland.
The Broncos hit the road for their next four-gamer with the Aztecs of El Paso Community College with doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday starting at noon.