NMMI Sports Press
The Institute was shut out by the visiting Odessa Wranglers 13-0 in the noon game Saturday at the NMMI Ballpark, but bounced back in the late game with a 9-6 victory that achieved a feat no other Bronco Baseball team has before; 30 wins in a season.
"I do look at numbers and watch stats and that's a plateau we hadn't been able to break," said 11-year NMMI head coach Chris Cook. "It raises the bar for the rest of the year and for the future of the program."
More immediately, the 2-2 split with Odessa keeps the Broncos in fourth place in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference standings, ahead of Odessa and within striking distance of the three squads above.
Cook praised his counterpart in the Odessa dugout for bringing an aggressive team to town that handed NMMI two of the worst losses of the season.
"I'm not going to make any other excuses. They were better prepared and exposed some stuff that's been out there all year," he said. "But we also battled through some injuries and some guys came off the bench and stepped up."
Freshman relief pitcher Adrian Ochoa left the first game with an apparent lower leg injury and sophomore designated hitter Bernie Socarras tweaked his wrist in the second.
In the noon game, the Broncos had just three hits, drew four walks, struck out eight times and had three fielding errors. Sophomore second baseman Rhett Stokes and freshman outfielder Adonis Bernal each had a double and reached on a base on balls.
The late game featured a much better start for the home team as Stokes led off the bottom of the first with a double and Bernal drove him in with single.
The Wranglers took the lead with a four spot in the top of the third inning, but the Broncos answered with six runs of their own in the bottom of the frame that started and ended with sophomore outfielder Fran Gross at the plate.
Sophomore shortstop B.Y. Choi singled to right field, plating Gross who led off with a single. Sophomore first baseman Owen Alsup grounded out, but drove in Stokes, who walked.
In the next at bat, Bernal was hit by Odessa pitcher Cade Griffin and Choi stayed at second, but a Socarras line drive to center sent Choi home.
Sophomore outfielder Edrien Martinez cleared the bases with a triple and then trotted across home plate on a ground-ball single by freshman infielder Jun Hyuk Kwon to make it 7-5 in favor of the Broncos.
The Wranglers scored another run in the fifth, the last allowed by sophomore starter Jackson Peters who allowed seven hits, struck out two and walked one.
Sophomore reliever Leandro Tamaki pitched the final four innings, allowing just two hits while fanning four and walking two.
"Peters made some adjustments and his misses were in the zone. They hit a few balls hard right at us, but it got him through some innings without throwing too many pitches, so he gave us five pretty effective innings."
"And then we went to Tamaki, hoping to get a couple innings out of him and it was obvious once he got in there that his change-up was effective, so we stuck with him."
The Broncos added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth when Bernal singled in Choi from second base before freshman infielder Daniel Lizarraga, hitting in place of Socarras, singled to right to plate Alsup.
Despite getting close to their season average of 9.6 runs per game, the Broncos left plenty of meat on the bone, stranding 12 baserunners.
"Their bullpen did a solid job, but we've got to be a little better offensively," Cook said. "Hopefully this extra day or two helps us get ready for a big series at Frank Phillips next weekend."
That four-game series in Borger, TX starts Friday at 11 a.m. CDT. Then the Broncos face current conference leader New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs on April 21-22.
The final Bronco home series against the Clarendon Bulldogs begins Friday, April 28 at noon.