Opportunistic Cowboys take two from Minot State

LAS VEGAS, N.M. --- The New Mexico Highlands baseball team used solid pitching, defense and took advantage of Minot State mistakes to take both ends of a doubleheader from the Beavers, 5-2 and 9-3, on Tuesday afternoon at Brandt Field.
 
NMHU (6-4 overall) – which has won six straight – got solid starts from Kyle Bedsole and James Janco while the Cowboy bullpen didn't allow a run in three innings of work.
 
In the first game, Minot State (0-4) used three consecutive hits – capped by a Celestino Rodriguez two-run double – to take a 2-0 lead. NMHU bounced right back as the Cowboys scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning without the benefit of a hit thanks to back-to-back walks to start the game, a balk, an RBI groundout by Gaylan Young and a sacrifice fly from Jared Brown to make it 2-2.
 
The Cowboys took the lead for good in the third as Kalen Hammer started the inning with a walk before Auggie Francis hit an RBI triple to right to make it 3-2. Later in the inning Young hit a sacrifice fly to push the advantage to 4-2. NMHU tacked on another in the fourth as a Carlos Ramirez single, two wild pitches and an RBI groundout by Garrett Hammer made it 5-2 Cowboys.
 
That was more than enough for Bedsole as he faced just one over the minimum from the second to the sixth innings as he picked up the win – going six innings and giving two runs on five hits with four strikeouts and three walks (throwing just 79 pitches). J.T. Mossberg picked up the save after tossing a scoreless seventh – his first of the season.
 
Young finished with a pair of RBI at the plate while Francis was 1-for-2 with a triple, RBI and two runs.
 
In game two Minot State again took a lead – this time a 3-0 advantage after a three-run third inning. Like the first game, NMHU answered as the Cowboys took advantage of a pair of two-out errors by the Beavers to score six runs (both errors coming on dropped fly balls), including RBI singles from Brown and Justin DeHoog to make it 6-3. The Cowboys scored a run each in the fourth (Brown RBI single), fifth (Garrett Hammer RBI double) and sixth (Young RBI double) to make the final 9-3.
 
Janco got the win, going five innings and giving up three runs on three hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Sergio Lucero and Carl Shonrock each tossed a scoreless inning for the Cowboys to close out the game.
 
Brown paced the Cowboys at the plate in game two, going 2-for-4 with two RBI as eight of the nine Cowboys in the lineup got a hit.
 
NMHU and Minot State close out the four-game series with a doubleheader starting 11 a.m. Wednesday at Brandt Field in Las Vegas, New Mexico.