HOBBS, NM---The Baseball program kicked off their 2020 RRAC schedule on Friday afternoon as they welcomed conference rival Our Lady of the Lake to 'The Jake'. The Mustangs came into Friday's matchup with a 5-12 record overall, while the Saints were 10-9.
The Mustangs were trailing 6-0 heading to the bottom of the 7th, but with 3 separate swings, the ball game was tied.
Bobby Galindo came to the plate with the bases loaded in the 7th and launched a ball deep over the right-center field fence to cut the deficit. The next batter was pinch hitter
Jacob Wyly, who sent the first pitch he saw over the fence in left to bring the score to 6-5. After a
Mikey Davis pop-out,
Dominic Baca walked to the plate with a chance to tie the ball game. And that is exactly what the junior outfielder did. Baca hit a line drive down the left field line that cleared the fence by only a few feet to tie the game at 6-6.
JJ Kruzel got the start on the mound and made history after the first batter of the game. Kruzel struck out leadoff hitter Robert Arrendondo to set the USW all-time career strikeout record with 158 in his career. Kruzel would go on to strike out 5 more hitters in his 7 innings of work. Kruzel left the game down 6-0, but earned the no decision after the Mustangs tied up the ball game in the bottom half of the inning.
OLLU would answer back with a single run in the 8th inning off of reliever
Carlos Baldenegro. Down 1 in the bottom of the 9th and down to their final out,
Nicholas Palomino stepped to the plate with
Dominic Baca on first base. Palomino laced a ball in the right-center field gap that would score Baca all the way from first and see Palomino end up on 3rd base with the triple. The Mustangs had tied the game up at 7-7.
But the magic had run out for the Mustangs in extra innings as Alec Martinez sent a slider out of the park to give the Saints the final lead of the game. Despite a rally in the 10th to load the bases, the Mustangs were unable to push one across and dropped the contest 8-7.
The two teams are back in action with a doubleheader starting at 12:00 PM MST and Game 3 of the series starting 30 minutes after the end of Game 2.
