Box Score GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – When the Cowboys met the Mavericks for the first time this season in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Highlands completed a big comeback to win. On Thursday (May 15), the Mavericks turned the tables with their own big comeback in the NCAA tournament on their field.
The New Mexico Highlands baseball team (32-21) took an 8-0 lead, but Colorado Mesa (41-10) scored nine runs over the final three innings as the Mavericks claimed a 9-8 win in the first game in the NCAA Division II Tournament for both teams.
Highlands scored three in the third and fourth before capping its offensive onslaught with two in the fifth. Senior
Jordan Goliat led of the third with a double and advanced to third with one out on a stolen base and a throwing error by the catcher. Senior
Justin Rodriguez followed with an RBI single as Highlands scored first in a game for the first time since the regular season. Rodriguez advanced to second on a junior
Morgan McCasland walk before junior
Casey Wilmer added a two-out single to put the Cowboys up two before an error on a muffed throw put the Cowboys up 3-0 after three innings.
Junior
Matthew Chavez – who had not hit a home run since March 28 – hit his fourth home run of the season with a pair on in the fourth before senior
Javier Ledford contributed a two-run double in the fifth.
Rodriguez, Wilmer, Goliat and junior
Nick Gonzales each led the Cowboys with a pair of runs while Chavez had only one hit in one at-bat, but made the most of it with a three-run blast to right field. Junior
Blake Harrison, who did not give up a run until the seventh after the leadoff man reached in the third, fourth and fifth, allowed eight hits and six runs in seven innings of work.
Derrick Garcia – who finished the game with a team-leading three hits with four RBI's and two runs scored – started the Mavericks off with a two-run home run in the seventh. Colorado Mesa scored six in the eighth to tie it up and had the go-ahead run at third with one out. However, senior
Ben Ruff got a strikeout and fly out to keep the game tied.
The Cowboys put the first two to lead off the ninth, but the runners failed to advance as the home team had a chance to win in the bottom of the frame. With one out, Austin Kaiser hit a shallow fly to right center, but the umpire got in the way and the Cowboys could not catch it as Kaiser scampered to second. Two singles around an intentional walk ended the game with the Mavericks pulling off the one-run win.
New Mexico Highlands returns to action Friday (May 16) at noon against Tarleton State.
