LAS VEGAS, N.M. – Despite four walk-off wins coming into the weekend, it had been awhile since the Cowboys accomplished that feat. Enter senior
Morgan McCasland in his last baseball game in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
In the bottom of the 10th with one out and the game tied at seven, McCasland got the first pitch he saw up into the jet stream to clear the right field fence and propel New Mexico Highlands (19-23, 13-19 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) and 11 seniors to a win in their last home game, 8-7, against #11 CSU-Pueblo (35-11, 25-9 RMAC).
Junior
Julian Moroyoqui, who got a groundout on four pitches to close out the top of the 10th, got his second win of the season.
In a line-up that featured seven seniors, 8-of-9 Cowboys registered a hit. The one who did not get a hit, junior
Kenneth Fudge, had a pair of walks that came around to score both times.
With Highlands trailing 4-3 in the fifth, it scored four runs to take a 7-4 lead. With two down and junior
Jesus Caporal at second, Fudge walked. Senior
Andrew Ratterman singled in Caporal as Fudge advanced to third. A wild pitch put the Cowboys in the lead before senior
EJ Stanton singled home Ratterman. A new pitcher did not faze the Cowboys as senior
Matthew Chavez scored Stanton on a double.
Both teams failed to score until CSU-Pueblo's Manny Manocal hit a three-run home run in the top of the ninth with two outs and a 2-2 count off of redshirt freshman
Curtis Hynes. Manocal added an RBI single in the first to put the Thunderwolves up 1-0.
The Cowboys answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first and a single run in the second to open up a 3-1 lead. Ratterman led off the bottom of the first with a single and advanced to second on a fielding error. Stanton sacrificed him to second before a Chavez walk put runners on the corner. McCasland added a sacrifice fly to deep left field foul territory. Stanton tagged up and advanced to second, but CSU-Pueblo threw the ball home and it got stuck in the netting to allow Stanton to take third. Senior
Joe Cervantes added the RBI single. In the second, Fudge walked, advanced to second on Ratterman's single and scored on Chavez's two-out single. In fact, Highlands scored 7-of-8 runs in the game with two outs.
Chavez finished the game 3-for-5 with two RBI's and a run scored.
CSU-Pueblo took a 4-3 lead with three runs in the top of the third. Austin Mascorro hit an infield single to begin the inning and advanced to second on Dominick Bregar's single. A flyout and a balk advanced Moscarro to home to cut the Cowboys advantage in half. A walk to Menocal and a single by Shane Richins tied the game. A walk to Tyler Landrith loaded the bases and a wild pitch gave the Thunderwolves the one-run lead. However, junior
Alex Gutierrez got a pair of strikeouts to end the CSU-Pueblo threat.
Gutierrez went seven innings, allowing six hits and four runs with seven strikeouts.
Doug Finley, who threw the final 3.1 innings for the visitors, gave up only one hit in the game. However, it was a walk-off home run as Finley falls to 3-2 on the year.
The Cowboys will finish off the 2015 season next week in Denver, Colorado, against Regis. Highlands has to win three more games than Adams State to qualify for the RMAC Baseball Tournament.
