GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The New Mexico Highlands baseball team (31-18) will start its second season on Thursday (May 8) at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament in Grand Junction, Colorado against CSU-Pueblo (27-22).
The winner of the RMAC Tournament will get an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament and the South Central Region, which will be at a site to be determined.
The second-seeded Cowboys begin the tournament at 3:30 p.m. against third-seeded Colorado State-Pueblo. The tournament is condensed from previous years, with only four teams participating in the annual double-elimination tournament.
Highlands lost the first two games of the year against the ThunderWolves before winning the next five contests between the two teams. CSU-Pueblo won the final contest.
There are multiple ways you can follow all the action from Grand Junction. The first way is to follow live tweets @NMHUCOWBOYS. You can also follow live all the live stats by clicking
here while the games will also be broadcasted on America One by clicking
here. There All Nine-Inning Games Now Throughout the year, the Highlands baseball teams played 25 nine-inning games while taking part in 24 games scheduled seven innings (one seven-inning game actually went eight because of extra innings). The Cowboys were 17-8 in games that go nine innings, including a 15-4 mark in RMAC play. Highlands only went 14-10 in seven-inning games, including only 13-7 in RMAC play.
The offense does better in nine-inning games as the Cowboys are hitting .334 as compared to .316 in seven innings. Redshirt junior
Matthew Chavez, who is now third in the nation in batting average at .458, is hitting an amazing .488 in the longer games, compared to .400 in the shorter contests.
Highlands also gets going in the later innings. If you take the total runs this season in the first five innings, the Cowboys are being outscored 225-203. Meanwhile, take the same statistic for innings 6-9 and Highlands is outscoring its opponents 137-92 (including 16-8 in the ninth inning).
Ol' Ruff and Ready Earning starts in four of his first five appearances on the mound, senior
Ben Ruff was 0-3 with an 11.09 ERA, allowing 25 earned runs in 18.2 innings pitched. That all changed when Ruff came out of the bullpen.
Seven different pitchers, including Ruff, had exactly one save through 30 games. That all changed April 5, when Ruff recorded his second save of the season. In his last 11 appearances, Ruff has a 1-1 record, seven saves and a 2.84 ERA. It all started with a trio of saves against the Rangers, allowing no earned and only throwing 38 pitches in three innings of work that weekend.
Give Me Three Despite coming into the final series of the year among the national leaders in triples with 20, the Cowboys only had one three-bagger in its previous nine games. Thanks to six triples this weekend, including three in one inning, the Cowboys vaulted to third in the nation with 26.
Senior
Jordan Goliat hit two in the nine-inning game against Metro State May 2 after having no three-baggers in the previous 34 games on the season.
In fact, in the eighth inning of that game, Highlands hit three triples in four at-bats. It is tied for the second most in one inning in NCAA Division II history and the most in a single inning since 2001.
Heating Up Not only is the weather heating up, but so are the Cowboys. Since the beginning of April, the Cowboys are 17-3 with two RMAC series sweeps and three more 3-1 records. Over that stretch, junior
Greg Hansen is 4-1 with a 2.53 ERA and two complete games while senior
Ben Ruff is 1-1 with seven saves. Junior
Zach Settles is 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA.
Five different Cowboys are hitting above .500 in that span, led by redshirt junior
Matthew Chavez hitting .528 with 28 hits, 10 walks, and was hit by a pitch eight times. Junior
Andrew Ratterman is batting .415. After a slow start to the season, senior
Jordan Goliat is batting .375. Rounding out the people hitting above .350 in that span is senior
Justin Rodriguez (.362) and junior
Colby Wilmer (.350).
Since April 1, Highlands is hitting .346 while its opponents have hit .305. The Cowboys pitchers have a 5.30 ERA compared to its opponents 8.44.
Scouting CSU-Pueblo Staring down having to play Colorado Mesa in the first game of the RMAC Tournament heading in to the final week of the regular season, CSU-Pueblo won 3-of-4 to sneak up to the third seed and face New Mexico Highlands. It has been an interesting series with the Cowboys, as Highlands lost the first two in Las Vegas before junior
Cody Brown shut down the ThunderWolves and the Cowboys completed a comeback from being down 10-2 after four innings on March 9.
The ThunderWolves enacted some measure of revenge, overcoming a 4-1 deficit heading into the bottom of the eighth to claim the 5-4 win on April 27.
To read more about the Cowboys 12-11 comeback win, click
here. To read more about CSU-Pueblo's 5-4 comeback, click
here. While starters are unknown, the smart money is that the ThunderWolves will start Mike Fabrizio. Fabrizio is 3-0 in four starts against Highlands in his career with two complete games. In 29 innings against the Cowboys, he has allowed 22 hits and nine runs (six earned) with 18 strikeouts for a 1.89 ERA. However, the last time Highlands faced him, Fabrizio allowed four runs (one earned) in five innings for a no decision (Highlands won the game, 11-9). Fabrizio has seven wins on the year and is 46th in the country with 74 strikeouts on the year.
Fabrizio is the only pitcher to beat New Mexico Highlands in the opening game of a series this season.
From the plate, the ThunderWolves have a pair of heavy hitters as Anthony Mascorro is leading the team at .379 while Dominick Bregar is second at .378. Bregar is hitting .429 with 12 hits against the Cowboys this season, but Mascorro is batting only .346 with nine hits in 26 at-bats.
Next Up The Cowboys will return to action Friday (May 9) against either host Colorado Mesa or Colorado Mines. Game time is to be determined.
