By Jim Richards
Sophomore right-hander Daniel Romero’s brilliant 13-strikeout, complete-game performance lifted SMCC to a 5-0 victory in Game 1 of Saturday’s key double-header with No.17 and ACCAC-leading Yavapai College. But a defensive breakdown in Game 2 left the Cougars in a different kind of race with 10 games remaining in the regular season.
Four errors --not including several other defensive misplays--led to Yavapai’s 14-8 win that left the Cougars (18-8) in a second-place tie with Cochise College instead of just one game behind Yavapai (21-5.)
“The thing that we lose is the chance to win the league,” Cougars coach Todd Eastin said. “Losing that game allowed the pack behind us to get a little bit closer.”
The Cougars will head to Pima CC Tuesday for another key double-header, the first of four consecutive double-headers on the road and they’ll do it with a two-game lead on Chandler-Gilbert (a double-header winner over Cochise Saturday) and Central Arizona (both at 16-10) and a three-game lead on Pima.
Only four teams reach the NJCAA Region I tournament.
Austin Wooldridge homered in the opener to help Romero move to 5-2 with a miniscule 1.82 ERA.
“He’s been like this for two weeks now,” said Eastin, who moved Romero, a transfer out of Pima, into the starting rotation after he’d been used as the closer.
Poor defense led to Eastin’s replacing of Game 2 starter Jordan Whatcott in the fourth with Yavapai leading 5-1, but the Cougars battled back and tied the game three different times.
Wooldridge came through again with a two-run single in the fourth. Steve Castillo delivered an RBI single and Joey Petosa an RBI triple in the fifth that tied the game at 6-6.
Jason Summer’s single brought home a run to tie the game at 8-8 in the sixth, Cougars reliever Kyle Hurst was forced to leave the game in the seventh and the bottom soon fell out.
“We never played defense,” Eastin said. “We kept answering and answering and it just got to a point where we couldn’t answer back.”
The Cougars won’t return home until April 22 when they’ll host Cochise in a double-header.