The Cochise College baseball team hosted Eastern Arizona College for a play-in game at the home field on Monday, May 3. Cochise turned the ball over to Nate Rohlicek for the start. The Apaches starter went one and two-thirds innings, allowing four runs on four hits, striking out two and walking one.
Marco Ozuna, Treyjen Meza, and Jose Velasquez all put work in relief out of the bullpen, steering their team towards the victory. Velasquez recorded the last two outs to earn the save for the Apaches. At the same time, Ozuna went on to get the win.
Eastern got on the board first in the top of the first inning. However, Cochise answered right away with five runs of their own in the bottom half of the first, thanks to a 2-RBI double from Makai Desoto and RBI singles from Aaron Marsh. Javi Gutierrez added two runs. Jimmy DeLeon added a sac fly. Cochise made two more runs in the fourth, making the score 7-4.
Eastern answered once more in the top of the fifth inning, closing the lead to 7-6. Hernan Yanez continued to clutch up for Cochise and hit an RBI double to make it 8-6 in the bottom of the eighth. Eastern failed to score in the ninth, ending the game with the Apaches on top at 8-6.
In total, the Apaches offense tallied ten hits on the day. Ethan Silcox, Yanez, and Aaron Marsh each collected multiple hits for Cochise. Aaron Marsh, Yanez, and Silcox each collected two hits to lead the Cochise offense.
Cochise baseball advances to ACCAC playoffs and will be back in action on Thursday, May 6, at 2 p.m. against South Mountain in Coolidge