During the 2023 regular season, the New Mexico Military Institute Bronco baseball team made a name for themselves at the plate. Out of the 170 schools that play NJCAA Division I baseball, NMMI's offense ranked 13th in the nation in runs scored, 10th in hits, 3rd in doubles, 1st in triples, 9th in HRs, tied for 10th in RBIs, and 5th in Slugging Percentage.
Those astounding at-bats helped NMMI to win 38 ball games this season, the most in the program's century-long history, and earned them a post-season bid to the Region V Championships for the first time since 2016.
On Thursday in Weatherford, Texas, the site of this year's regional tournament, the Broncos took on the top-seeded team from the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference, Weatherford College.
And initially, it looked like the sticks were going to stay hot. The Broncos plated two runs in the top of the first. Rhett Stokes, the nation's leader in runs scored, led off with a single through the left side. Owen Alsup singled the other way, into right, putting runners on the corners. Edrien Martinez plated Stokes and got on board first safely on a ground-ball error, and Adonis Bernal brought in Alsup from second with his opposite-field single.
NMMI starting pitcher Marc Rios then went to work on the defensive side. After walking the Coyote's first batter, he got the next Weatherford hitter to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, one of three twin killings capped by the Bronco defense during the game. Rios then struck out the next batter, giving NMMI a 2-0 lead after the first complete inning.
In the top of the second, an error and a walk put two more NMMI runners on base with just one out, but the Institute came away empty-handed.
Weatherford College plated three runs in the bottom-half of the stanza, giving them a 3-2 led after two.
NMMI threatened to score again in the top of the third with singles by Martinez and Bernal, also with just one out, but left them both on base.
The Coyotes picked up another pair of runs to extend their lead, 5-2, in their half of the third.
NMMI managed just one two more men on base the rest of the game: Ivan Cogles drew a walk in the top of the sixth and B.Y. Choi hit what seemed to be his 12th triple of the season – which would have tied him for 1st in the NJCAA – but it was later ruled to have bounced over the initial outfield fence and came back into play after hitting a advertising wall spaced right behind.
Weatherford had a big five-run sixth inning against NMMI relief pitching, earning the first-round tournament victory, 10-2.
"We knew Weatherford was good, and they were," said head Bronco baseball coach Chris Cook. "We got on them a little bit early in the game – a defensive miscue on their part helped us out. But their pitcher settled in after that and just didn't make many mistakes. If he did, we fouled them off. We hit a couple of balls hard, but it was just one of those days. I didn't think a lot of our at-bats were bad, we just didn't string anything together."
"We turned some nice double plays and Marc [Rios] threw well despite a very tight strike zone," continued coach Cook. "He stayed out of the middle of the plate, except for one big home run on a 2-0 count – that kind of changed things. But the score stayed 5-2 for a long time."
Rios was tagged with the loss, just his second of the season versus eight wins and 15 starts. He threw five complete innings with a pair of strikeouts before turning over the ball to the bullpen.
"Paul is going to be a good one for us, it just wasn't there today and Dong Woon did everything he could to minimize the situation," said Cook about his relievers.
We've got one more game tomorrow morning. We'll be playing for our tournament lives – and it's not over until it's over," finished Cook.
That game will be against McLennan Community College on Saturday, May 13 at 10:00 am CDT. The game will be live-streamed by TBSN Sports: https://tsbnsports.com/.
McLennan lost their first-round match to Midland College, 9-3.
The regional tournament is a true double-elimination bracket, thus Broncos are not out, but they will have to fight their way through the loser's bracket to get back into the championship game.