The Odessa College baseball team clinched a share of the Western Junior College Athletic Conference regular season title with a doubleheader sweep against New Mexico Junior College Thursday at Wrangler Ballpark.
Now the Wranglers are just one win away from winning the conference title outright.
Playing in their final regular season series, first place Odessa College (37-13 overall, 29-5 in WJCAC) defeated second place New Mexico Junior College (36-17, 26-8) by scores of 11-5 and 9-1 in the first two games of the series.
Midland College (44-9, 27-7), which won both of its games against Western Texas College Thursday, remains in the hunt and moved back to second place in the WJCAC.
Both Odessa College and Midland College split their series earlier in the season.
Odessa College and New Mexico Junior College will conclude the series with games three and four starting at 1 p.m. Friday in Hobbs, N.M.
Midland College will also finish its series against Western Texas College with a doubleheader, beginning at noon Friday.
“Our guys have played their tails off all year long,” Odessa College head coach David Wood said. “The resiliency, the grit and the determination, the buy-in and the love, the guys have done everything we’ve asked them to do and they deserve this. I’m really proud of them but there’s still work to do.”
After a quiet start from both teams, the Thunderbirds took a two-run lead in the top of the third inning of the first game to break the deadlock.
The Wranglers responded with a three-run homer by Nathaniel Mendoza to give the Wranglers a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.
A home run by Diego Alfonso-Rivera then made it 4-2 shortly after as the Wranglers bats finally came to life.
Lazaro Alvarado then hit a double to get on base.
The Wranglers continued to bring in the runs as De La Garza’s single scored Eiji Sawamura for a 5-2 lead with the fourth inning still in progress.
New Mexico Junior College then brought in a new pitcher as Monty Bognar came onto the mound.
The Wranglers managed to load the bases with two outs in the fourth as Mendoza went up to bat.
His single scored De La Garza and Alex Bustamante and the Wranglers had an 8-2 lead.
“We had a meeting with our guys about the events that happen and how we respond,” Wood said. “I asked ‘are we going to respond with a below the line attitude or above the line?’ and we responded very well. We had a positive response and when you do that, good things will happen.”
After holding the Thunderbirds scoreless in the top of the fifth, Odessa College got a runner in scoring position as Sawamura advanced to third with no outs.
Odessa College then loaded the bases.
After Bustamante drew a walk, Sawamura scored and the Wranglers’ lead became seven runs.
A sacrifice scored Jose Carmona for a 10-2 lead and the Thunderbirds made another change as Santana Hernandez took over on the mound with two on base for the hosts.
The Wranglers were unable to add to their lead an went into the sixth inning with a comfortable lead.
The Thunderbirds got a solo home run by Liam Schulz to make a seven-run deficit in the sixth.
A Casen Savage run on an error then cut the Wranglers’ lead to six.
The Wranglers then took Lopez out of the game and brought on Jackson Peters who was able to close out the top half of the inning without giving up a run.
An RBI single by Jose Carmona to make it 11-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Lachlan Maude’s sacrifice scored Jorge De Los Santos to make it 11-5 in the top of the seventh.
It wouldn’t matter as the Wranglers took game one with the six-run victory.
It didn’t take the Wranglers long to set the tone in game two, scoring two home runs in the bottom of the second inning as Odessa College cruised to a 4-0 lead.
An error helped score Sawamura and the Wranglers had a 4-0 advantage.
Mendoza then hit his second home run of the day in the bottom of the third inning over the center field fence and the Wranglers had a 5-1 lead.
The Thunderbirds got two runners on base in the top of the fifth inning.
Odessa College managed to use a double play to get out of the jam and maintained its four-run lead.
An error by the Thunderbirds allowed Bustamante to slide home and the Wranglers had a 7-1 lead in the seventh.
“We’ve come a long way,” Bustamante said. “We set a goal for us and we knew it would come down to these two teams. They have a good ball team but we got two wins today and now we need to do it again tomorrow.”
Odessa College added two more runs before the game ended.
Both teams will finish their series at New Mexico Junior College tomorrow.
“They have their two best arms tomorrow, so we have to come out and be ready to go,” Wood said. “They’re going to bring their A-game and we have to be ready to go.”
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