The Cochise College baseball team won five of its six games last week at the Phoenix Area Juco Spring Classic Tournament.
The Apaches started strong, winning their first two games on Wednesday against Monroe Community College of New York 7-1 and Indian Hills of Iowa 5-1. Against Monroe, Frank Salas went seven innings on the mound, allowing a run on seven hits and two walks while striking out two. Jacob Potts picked up the win against Indian Hills, giving up no runs, walking one and striking out eight.
On Thursday, Cochise shut out Colorado State 2-0 in the morning behind six innings from Braulio Hernandez, who struck out two and allowed four hits, then lost to El Paso Community College 4-1 in the afternoon. Corey Fujimoto was a bright spot for Cochise against El Paso, going 2 for 4 with an RBI.
The Apaches went on to defeat Western Nebraska 6-1 on Friday and routed Monroe 12-0 to close play on Saturday. Zach Rodgers was the winner against Western Nebraska, with nine strikeouts, two hits and two walks in eight innings. Leading the offensive charge against Monroe were Zach Nance, 4 for 4 with three RBIs, a double and a triple, and Esteban Bastidas, 3 for 4 with two RBIs and a double.
“We pitched extremely well,” Cochise head coach Todd Inglehart said. “Five earned runs in six games is hard to beat. The pitching staff as a whole did a great job of throwing strikes and challenging hitters.”
Cochise resume its conference schedule on Tuesday with a doubleheader at Mesa Community College before returning to the Douglas Campus on Saturday against Phoenix College. Admission to the noon doubleheader at home is free.
“We need to carry that over into the second half of conference to take some pressure off of our offense,” Inglehart said. “All in all, it was a very good week for our team.”