PRESCOTT — The Cochise College baseball team split its doubleheader with Yavapai College on Saturday, falling in game one 2-1 and outlasting the Roughriders in game two 16-12.
With the late-afternoon win, the Apaches clinched the top seed for the NJCAA Region I Division I Tournament.
In the first game, Yavapai took the lead early with a run in the first on a solo home run. Nick Borowski tied it in the top of the fifth with a solo home run to right field. Yavapai won it in the bottom of the seventh on a single to center field that scored a runner from second.
Jordon West took the loss for Cochise. He gave up just four hits and a walk while striking out five over 6 1/3 innings. At the plate, Louis Boyd was 2 for 2 with a walk.
In the second game, Cochise’s lineup combined for 13 hits, including home runs by Bryan Nunez, Nate Stepna and Dan Hetzel. Cochise and Yavapai exchanged the lead six times, but three runs for the Apaches in the sixth put them ahead and they held on the rest of the way.
Cochise, ranked 12th in the latest NJCAA Division I poll, is 40-12 overall and 25-7 in conference games with two doubleheaders remaining in the regular season.