Spring is fast approaching, and the college baseball season, at least in Division II, is starting to approach the midway point of the season. The Hornets baseball squad played a series against Central Oklahoma over the weekend, looking to bounce back from their last series against Pittsburg State.
Starting game one of the three-game series for the Hornets would be junior Seth Stover, as he looked to continue his stretch of solid play. The first inning saw both starting pitchers get clean innings, then the Hornet bats got going in the top of the second. After a hit batter and a walk, senior Coooper Schwindt opened the scoring with an RBI single. The Hornets played station-to-station as freshman Tyler Coffin hit another single before junior Logan Myers added another RBI on a sacrifice fly. The scoring was capped off by freshman Evan Abbott’s RBI single to give them a 3-0 lead early.
Stover got another shutout inning in the bottom of the inning before junior Nathon Cruz added the fourth run via a solo home run in the top of the third inning. The Bronchos got tired of seeing the Hornets score, so they conducted a big inning with three hits, three walks, five runs, and it was helped by an error from the Hornets to take the lead 5-4. The Hornets quickly tied the game back up as Abbott drove in another RBI with a double.
After three innings, Stover’s day was done, and turned the game over to the bullpen. Junior Nick Woodcock took over and started his day with a clean fourth inning. The Bronchos got to him in the fifth, however, to retake the lead 6-5, but it was the only scratch on Woodcock’s Day. Once again, the Hornet bats answered quickly in the top of the sixth as Myers tied the game with an RBI double and junior Frankie Santiago gave them the lead with an RBI groundout.
The Hornet bullpen, after Woodcock left the game, shut down the Bronchos, and the bats tacked on two more runs to give the Hornets a 9-6 win in game one. Myers, Abbott, and Schwindt led the offense as each had two RBIs to help lead the offense. The bullpen also only gave up one run after Stover left the game.
Game two of the series saw the Hornets send out their ace, sophomore Colby Deaver, to secure a series win. Both starters started well as both got through a clean inning. The Bronchos starter kept the Hornets off the board in the top of the second, but the Broncho bats opened the scoring in the bottom of the inning. After getting the first out, Deaver gave up a double followed by an RBI single. The Bronchos tacked on another run via a squeeze play to make it 2-0.
Both starters in the third inning got clean slates before the Hornet bats woke up. In the top of the fourth, Santiago opened with a single, but the Bronchos pitching got the next two outs. Up stepped sophomore Brady Unrein to start some “two-out lightning” as he drove Santiago in on a single. After another single from junior Dylan Brisbois, Schwindt drove in another run on a single, and to cap off the inning, Coffin drove in the final two runs of the inning to give the Hornets a 4-2 lead.
After another clean inning from Deaver, Santiago hit a solo home run to make it 5-2 in the top of the fifth. The third and final run from the Bronchos on the day came in the fifth inning before the Hornet bats, again, put together a four-run inning in the sixth courtesy of Santiago’s second home run of the game, which was a grand slam to make it 9-3. Coffin, Schwindt, and Myers each added another run to make it a 12-3 victory for the Hornets in game two, winning the series.
In game three with the Hornets looking for a series sweep, freshman hurler Quinton Chindamo took the mound. The Hornet offense started early as Cruz drove in the first run of the game via an RBI single in the top of the first inning. Unrein added the second run with an RBI groundout. Chindamo had a clean bottom of the first to give the Hornets a good early start.
Then things unraveled for the Hornets as the bats went cold and Chindamo couldn’t buy an out. The Bronchos went on to score seven runs in the second and third innings, and it would be an early dagger for the Hornets, with a 7-2 lead. They would claw back into the game with four runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings, but the Bronchos added three more runs to take the third game 10-6. While the pitching struggled, Santiago capped off a good weekend with another three RBIs to go along with Myers’ four hits in the final game of the series.
With a 2-1 series victory, the Hornets move to 16-6 on the season and 7-5 in MIAA play. They look to continue winning series, but their next game is a mid-week bout against Missouri Western as they meet for one game on March 18 in St. Joseph, Mo. After that game, the Hornets return home to host New Mexico Highlands for a four-game series at Trusler Sports Complex starting on March 20.