Thunderbirds take three of four from Western Texas

SNYDER, Texas — The New Mexico Junior College baseball team split a doubleheader with Western Texas on Sunday to win the weekend series 3-1 and move to 7-1 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference play.

NMJC (17-8) won the finale of the series over Western Texas (5-15, 2-6) 6-4 Sunday by scoring two runs in the top of the eighth to break a 4-4 tie on a Jeff Deimling sacrifice fly and a Zac Sanders RBI single.

Roberto Delgado picked up the win in relief for NMJC, going 1 2/3 innings and giving up a run on one hit with three strikeouts. Brett Worthen picked up his 10th save of the season by tossing a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts.

Fernando Fernandez-Beltran got the start for NMJC, going 5 1/3 innings and giving up three runs (none earned) on five hits with six strikeouts and no walks.

Angel Vega went 1-for-3 for NMJC with a home run, two RBI and two runs, Travon Benton went 3-for-5 with a double and RBI and Luis Pintor, Branden Grieger and Sanders each had two hits. 

In the first game Sunday, NMJC lost 7-5. Starter Jean-Francois Dionne picked up the loss for NMJC going 3 1/3 innings and giving up six runs (four in the fourth inning) on 10 hits with no strikeouts or walks.

Vega went 2-for-4 for NMJC with a home run, double and two RBI and Grieger went 2-for-3 with a run to collect four of the T-Birds' seven hits.

In game one of Saturday's doubleheader in Hobbs, the T-Birds jumped out to a 7-1 advantage after three innings on the strength of a run in the first, three in the second and three in the third.

However, Western Texas scored four in the fourth, got to within a run in the seventh and had the tying run on third before Worthen was able to shut the door on Western Texas.

Mark Simon got the win for NMJC, going five innings and giving up five runs (three earned) on seven hits with nine strikeouts and a walk. Worthen got the save for NMJC.

Pintor went 2-for-3 for NMJC with two doubles, a run and RBI, Grieger went 2-for-4 with two RBI, a run and two stolen bases, Benton was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs and Austin Botello was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

In game two, Botello paced NMJC at the plate with a pair of home runs. Benton went 3-for-5 with a double, triple, two runs and an RBI while Pintor, Vega and Daniel Herrera each had two hits.

Blake Walden got the win for NMJC, going six innings and giving up a run on four hits with two strikeouts.

NMJC starts a four-game series with El Paso Community College on Friday in El Paso.