Box Score PUEBLO, Colo. – It is not often a team gets outhit 11-5 but wins. The Cowboys did exactly that Friday night (April 25) in Pueblo, Colo.
The New Mexico Highlands baseball team (26-16, 23-9 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) saw six of its runs score after reaching on a walk or hit by pitch in the game and recorded 14 free bases for the night in a 11-9 comeback win over CSU-Pueblo (23-19, 19-12 RMAC).
The battle between the top two teams in the RMAC Plains Division did not disappoint, as the Cowboys trailed the ThunderWolves 6-0 after three innings and 7-4 after six. However, Highlands struck back with seven unanswered to take the four-run advantage after seven innings and held on for the two-run victory.
The Cowboys scored four runs on only one hit and six free bases to take the lead for good in the top of the seventh. Senior
Tyler Hayes kicked off the rally with a walk and advanced to second when junior
Andrew Ratterman made the slow trot to first. Senior
Justin Rodriguez drove in Hayes on the only hit of the inning to cut the deficit to five.
Rodriguez had three of the Cowboys' hits in the ballgame.
Redshirt junior
Matthew Chavez loaded the bases when he was hit on the first pitch he saw before classmate
Morgan McCasland was hit by a pitch to cut the deficit to one. After junior
Colby Wilmer fouled off the first pitch, he saw four straight pitches out of the zone for the RBI walk to tie the game. Junior
Nick Gonzales put Highlands in front with his first sacrifice fly of the season.
The top three hitters of the Highlands' line-up – Ratterman, Rodriguez and Chavez – accounted for eight of the Cowboys' runs and four of their hits. McCasland finished with a pair of RBI's despite no hits in three at-bats.
The Cowboys added a trio of insurance runs in the eighth, getting the hitting going with its walking prowess. Senior
Jordan Goliat, Ratterman and Rodriguez put the lead at 9-7 when they all tallied one-out singles. After Chavez was intentionally walked to load the bases, McCasland and Wilmer both drew RBI walks on only nine pitches to put the lead at 11-7.
The ThunderWolves cut the deficit to two in the bottom of the eighth when Dominick Bregar drove in a pair with a two out, two-RBI single, but senior
Ben Ruff retired the side in order – including a pair of strikeouts – in the ninth to close out the game.
Junior Cowboy starter
Blake Harrison battled through seven innings to improve to 5-2 on the season, allowing 10 hits and seven runs (six earned).
Falling behind 6-0, the Cowboys managed two runs in both the fourth and fifth off of CSU-Pueblo starter Mike Fabrizio. Despite only one hit and three of four runs unearned, Highlands chased Fabrizio from the game thanks to drawing five walks and 98 pitches through five innings.
CSU-Pueblo banged out six hits and scored six runs to take a 6-0 lead after the second inning. Evan Kenebrew reached on an infield single and Anthony Mascorro walked to begin the frame. Lonny Schoon scored the first run of the game after he doubled before a groundout to the right side moved Schoon to third and put the home team up two. A suicide squeeze that went for a bunt hit plated the third run of the inning.
Mario Sanchez and Scott Hoyt added singles around a groundout to score the fourth run. Mike Wagner drove in the fifth run with a single before an overthrow on a stolen base plated the sixth and final run of the inning.
Wagner led the ThunderWolves offensively with three hits in five at-bats with a run scored and an RBI. Ricky Casler only threw one pitch in the game, but that toss plunked the go-ahead run as Casler fell to 0-3 on the year.
CSU-Pueblo used nine pitchers in the game while Highlands only used two. The contest lasted 3:32 and had a total of 357 pitches as an CSU-Pueblo NCAA Division II record crowd of 4,468 fans watched the contest.
With the win, Highlands is 8-1 in RMAC series opener in 2014, avenging its only loss in such games to CSU-Pueblo earlier this season.
New Mexico Highlands and CSU-Pueblo return to action Saturday (April 26) at 1 p.m. for a pair of seven-inning games.
