HOBBS, N.M. – Friday afternoon's two games for the Mid-America Christian University baseball team were two very different contests. MACU, though, was prepared, and the Evangels emerged with a convincing sweep.
MACU (6-3) got a complete game shutout from Keisy Portorreal in game one, and their offense pounded out 11 runs on 14 hits in game two, as the Evangels defeated the University of the Southwest (2-4) in both games by scores of 1-0 and 11-1.
Game one proved to be a pitchers' duel from the start. The Evangels went in order in the first, and Portorreal wiggled out of a bases loaded two-out jam in the bottom half of the first, and neither team threatened again until the seventh.
With Southwest starter Kevin Whitaker cruising along, Axel Poesmans rifled a one-out single to center field and Raymond Rodriguez followed with a double to right that put runners at second and third with one away. Abdiel Quinones then lifted the first pitch he saw to right field, scoring courtesy runner Trey Jackson to give MACU the 1-0 lead, and that was all Portorreal needed.
The junior right-hander cruised through the seventh inning, notching two strikeouts and a perfect inning on only eight pitches to lock up the victory, 1-0.
Portorreal (2-1) scattered six hits, did not walk a batter, and he struck out nine in the complete game shutout. Whitaker (0-2) also allowed only six hits and did not walk a batter, but the one earned run allowed proved to be the difference. Whitaker also struck out eight Evangels.
Rodriguez and Kevin Lentzner, who tripled in the second, had the only two extra base hits in the game.
Game two started very differently. MACU sent 10 hitters to the plate in the top of the first inning, and before he took the mound, MACU starting pitcher Jake White found himself staked to a 4-0 lead. Junior Aracena belted a 2-run home run in the second inning to push the lead to 6-0; in the third Felix Martinez and Aracena each ripped RBI-doubles to left field; and Trey Jackson and Antonio Dorado each picked up RBIs as MACU stretched its lead to 10-0.
The Mustangs scratched across a run in the bottom of the fourth, and in the top of the seventh, Luis Sanchez belted his second homer of the season to cap the scoring as MACU took the win 11-1.
Jake White (2-0) allowed one earned run on two hits, a walk, and three strikeouts in four innings of work to earn his second win of the season. Brandon Yount (0-2) was touched up for four earned runs on five hits and two walks in just one inning as he took the loss. Reid Wall, Juan Puente, and Arcangel Soto combined to work three hitless innings of relief to seal the win.
Martinez and Sanchez each had three hits in the game, Aracena had a double and a homer with three RBIs. Logan Gipson had two hits including a double, and two RBIs; and Aaron Davis singled twice and drove in a run.
MACU and USW will play another double-header on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.
