News
Luna sluggers rally to finish Lamar series on up note
What a comeback!
By Dave Kavanaugh
Luna Community College
Faced with an 8-0 deficit two innings into Sunday’s series finale with Lamar, it would have been easy for the Luna Community College baseball team to let the game get away.
The Rough Riders didn’t quit, though. They kept battling, one play at a time.
It’s a good thing, too. Luna rallied to score the next 14 runs and held on to take a 14-10 victory, snapping an 11-game losing streak in dramatic fashion against a program just three years removed from a Region IX championship.
The Rough Riders surged for seven runs in the pivotal third inning to pull within 8-7. Samuel Estrada’s two-RBI double produced Luna’s first runs. Later, Kekoa Ogawa blasted a three-run homer to right field with one out. The Lopes managed to curtail the damage and record two outs to end the inning.
But in the fourth, the Riders picked up where they’d left off. After Jeremy Martinez made it home courtesy of a Lamar error, Bo Kidd doubled to score Jake Seglem, giving Luna a 9-8 edge. Ogawa then singled to score Kidd for a 10-8 lead.
Solid pitching and defense played its role down the stretch, sustaining the home team’s momentum. Reliever Diego Quinonez came through with a couple of clutch strikeouts to strand two Lamar runners in the top of the sixth. In the Luna half of the frame, Kobe Carpio reached on an error and two runs scored. Then Martinez drilled a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to pad the lead to 14-8.
Dominic Lucero pitched well after that, although the Riders yielded two runs in the top of the ninth before shutting the game down.
Lamar had won Saturday’s nine-inning series opener 7-4 and Sunday’s seven-inning contest 7-2. Carpio had the first RBI of the series in scoring M.J. Cepeda in the fourth inning Saturday. Ashton Whiteaker added a solo home run and Tyler Sunstrom a two-RBI base hit.
Luna softball was competitive in three games but lost four at Western Texas College, 4-2 and 16-1 on Sunday and 3-1 and 12-8 on Monday in Snyder, Texas.
Luna led game one 1-0 going into the bottom of the third before the Westerners scored three to swipe the lead. The Rough Riders scored once in the sixth to get within two runs but neither side scored after that.
Taighen Whitzel homered twice and accounted for seven RBI in game two, which went five innings.
After looking solid defensively in a close game three, the visitors seemed to get their offense going in game four. Sinai Cisneros belted a two-run homer to cap an eventful third-inning rally that cut Western Texas’ cushion to 9-8.
Coach Randall Krutsch and the Rough Rider softball team are set to play in a conference roundup event starting Thursday (March 3) in McCook, Neb. On day one of the three-day round-robin, they’ll face Otero Junior College and Lamar Community College. Then on Friday, they play Northeastern Junior College and Trinidad State Junior College. They play tourney host McCook Community College on Saturday.
The baseball team, led by head coach T.C. Nusser, is scheduled to visit Southeast Community College on Saturday and Sunday in Beatrice, Neb.