DOUGLAS — The Cochise baseball team beat Yavapai 2-1 in the first game of the best-of-three NJCAA Region I semifinal matchup on Thursday.
Jacob Potts started on the mound for the Apaches and went 7 1/3, giving up seven hits and two walks while striking out four. Potts gave up a run in the top of the eighth before Kevin Dorantes came on in relief to hold off the Roughriders and earn the save.
Cochise scored in the second inning after Esteban Bastidas was hit by a pitch, Frank Salas walked, Jake Luna bunted them over, and a sac fly to center by Zach Nance scored Bastidas. Stephan Desgagne then delivered his team’s first hit to bring home Salas.
“It’s tough to score runs when the wind’s blowing straight in,” Cochise head coach Todd Inglehart told the Sierra Vista Herald. “We executed, moved station to station and came up with the big hit.”
The Apaches face Yavapai again today in game two, starting at 2 p.m. on the Douglas Campus. Admission to the game is $5 for adults, $3 for students and free for children 12 and under.