Bronco baseball splits with Cisco

NMMI Sports Press
CISCO, Texas — The Bronco baseball team (5-13) had another night-and-day effort Saturday, falling to Cisco Junior College 13-0 in the Texas opener, then coming back in the nightcap to win 8-7.
Wrangler pitcher Jeb Bargfeldt two-hit NMMI in the opener, while Institute starter Anthony Martinez was rocked for nine runs and reliever Josh Souza four. The only NMMI hits were singles by Marion McLean and Chris Suarez.
Asked if Bargfeldt was really that good, Bronco coach Chris Cook said he was.
“We probably should have done a little bit better, but he’s pretty good.”
Bargfeldt came to Cicso from Wichita State, where he was in the starting rotation, and is headed back to a four-year college after his stint at the JC.
NMMI got its first run of the day in the first inning of Game 2 when McLean and Alex Howard walked to lead off the game, advanced on a wild pitch then McLean came home on a second errant toss.
Bronco starter Kody Jones kept the Wranglers (16-2) from scoring through the first two innings, but then gave up the lead in the fourth on a hit batter, walk and 2 RBI double. He let in three more runs in the third before being relieved by Preston Inman, and that, Cook said, was the story of the game.
“Kody Jones didn’t pitch poorly, but his pitch count got elevated real quick and Preston Inman came in and did a really good job.”
The reliever kept Cisco scoreless for the rest of the third and the fourth, then allowed the final two Wrangler runs on a walk, hit batter and two-out error.
The Broncos made it 5-2 in the fifth when Kirby Pimentel walked and came home on a two-out Winston Welch single. NMMI closed the gap to 7-6 in the sixth on singles by John Jensen and Joe Escarcega then Pimentel’s first college hit, an RBI double to left.
A rough outing by the Cisco battery — a walk, hit batter and two passed balls — brought in three more NMMI runs and the game had closed to one.
Inman then got out of the top of the stanza, and the Broncos added two in the top of the seventh.
With one out, Jensen walked and Colby Brown singled, then both advanced on an error. After Escarcega grounded out to second, Tanner Goodwin came in to pinch hit, driving in both runs on a single to left, giving the visitors the lead.
“We took advantage of some opportunities they gave us, wild pitches and some dirt balls that got away from the catcher,” Cook said. “We did a good job of laying off some pitches and working some walks. A couple of guys swung the bats pretty well.
“It was great to see that, then Suarez threw really well in the last inning.”
The reliever struck out three of the four batters he faced, and even the walk he allowed, Cook said, “possibly could have gone either way. So he threw really well.”
Jensen was 2-for-3 with one run scored and Brown 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Inman got the win and Suarez the save, and Cook was very pleased with the relief.
“Our bullpen threw well,” he said. “Inman put us in a position where we could try to get ourselves back in the game and we scored all but one of our runs in the last three innings.”
And while he was happy to get the win, Cook knows there’s still a lot that needs to be improved.
“It was a good bounce-back win, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “I hope that we can learn from the mistakes we made, given that we were able to come back and win that game and feel a little bit better about it. But we’re not always going to be that fortunate if we continue to make those mistakes early.”
The Broncos travel to Ranger, Texas, Sunday, to face the 16-5 Rangers, a team Cook called “a really good team, solid team all the way around. So I expect them to be pretty good and we’ll have to play well and give ourselves a chance.”