Baseball splits against South Mountain

By Matt Hickman/Sierra Vista Herald 

DOUGLAS — An inability to produce offense consistently again resulted in the Cochise College baseball team splitting a doubleheader with a conference foe.

In Saturday’s opener against South Mountain, the Apaches rapped 13 hits, led by Zach Nance and Jake Luna with three apiece, and Frank Salas cruised through six innings to get the decision in a 9-1 win.

But in the second game, the Apaches managed just four hits, and lost in the ninth inning, 2-1, wasting an excellent start by Jacob Potts. Potts went 8 1/3 innings and was pulled for Steven Naemark after allowing a one-out walk in the ninth. Naemark got a groundout that allowed the Cougar base runner to get to third, and a two-out flare over the third baseman’s head brought home the go-ahead run.

Cochise went down in order in the ninth to remain a game behind South Mountain for first in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference standings.

“We played so well defensively; we pitched it all day,” Cochise head coach Todd Inglehart said. “We’re just giving away so many games offensively – that’s why we split.”

Tagg Duce and Nate Hale each had two hits in the first game. Nance and Hale each had two RBIs. Hale was the only batter with multiple hits in the second game.

Salas had eight strikeouts and allowed five hits to get the win in the opener. Roy Aguirre came on to throw the seventh.

Potts struck out nine and allowed seven hits in a hard-luck loss.

Next week, the Apaches get a break from the conference schedule, playing in a tournament in Phoenix, opening on Wednesday against Monroe College from New York.