STERLING, Colo. — After a 45-minute rain delay Thursday, the Cochise College baseball team had no trouble handling Northeastern Junior College through six innings. But the Plainsmen chipped away at the six-run Apache lead to tie it in the ninth before Cochise rallied for a 9-7 win to close day one of the NJCAA Western District Championship tournament.
“It’s kind of been our issue all year is when we have a chance to score enough runs to put somebody away, we don’t do it,” Cochise head coach Todd Inglehart told the Sierra Vista Herald. “But our guys are a really resilient group… a team not quite as tough would have an issue with that.”
Cochise moves on to face Western Nevada today at 11 a.m. Arizona time in the double-elimination tournament. The winner moves on to Saturday’s championship game, and the loser plays again this afternoon against the winner of this morning’s elimination game between NJC and Lamar.
Weather halted play at the end of the second inning Thursday, and when the teams took the field again, the Apaches struck for two in the top of the third thanks to a single from Tyler Bess. Cochise was up 5-0 after the fifth and 6-0 after the sixth.
The Apaches stole eight bases and Northeastern helped their cause with seven errors on the day.
Cochise’s Xavier Altamirano started on the mound and held NJC scoreless until the Plainsmen brought home three in the seventh. Kevin Dorantes came on in relief, but Northeastern scored another in the eighth and two more in the ninth on a two-out single to tie the game.
With the bases loaded in the 10th, Tagg Duce’s fourth hit of the day gave Cochise the lead again, and Duce would score on a sacrifice fly by Frank Salas for the Apaches’ ninth run. In the bottom of the inning, Jacob Potts, typically a starter, went to the mound and gave up a solo home run and a couple of hits before earning the save.
To keep up with today’s games, listeners in the Douglas area can tune into KDAP 96.5 FM for every Cochise game to hear the play-by-play produced by Arnold Broadcast in Sterling. Live video and audio streams can also be found online at www.ihigh.com/gonjc.