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The Yavapai College baseball team hit the road and headed south on Saturday afternoon for a doubleheader with Cochise College and is heading back to Prescott with a sweep of the No. 13-ranked Apaches with scores of 6-0 and 6-4, respectively.
Photo credit: Chris Henstra
“We answered every challenge today,” Head Coach Patrick Woods said after the victories. “These were complete team wins and that’s a sign of a tough team: to go on the road and beat a really good team like Cochise.”
The wins bring the Roughriders to 5-5 overall on the young season and 2-2 in conference play.
Game One
Sophomore righty Barrett Skaugrud was the story for YC in game one as he hurled a complete-game shutout against the No. 13-ranked Apaches, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out eight.
“Skaugrud set the tone for the day in the first game and the offense followed suit,” said Woods on the performance.
With Skaugrud dominating the Cochise lineup, the Roughrider offense scratched and clawed in every inning and was able to push runs across in four different innings.
In the top of the first, sophomore infielder Ethan Thomas brought home the first run of the day with a sacrifice fly. In the top of the third, YC pushed the lead to 3-0 on a bases-loaded, two-run, two-out single off the bat of sophomore infielder Mitch Wood.
In the fifth, the duo was at it again as Thomas tripled to right to bring home a run and scored on an infield single from Wood. The next inning, freshman outfielder Zachary Dando walked and later scored on a passed ball for YC’s sixth and final run of the ballgame.
With a 6-0 lead, Skaugrud cruised in the final two innings to clinch the shutout victory.
Wood led the Roughriders with two hits while Thomas, sophomore outfielder Blake Jacklin and freshman infielder Pierce Radke each had one apiece.
Game Two
The second game of the day, a nine-inning affair, had all the makings of being a duplicate of the first game as the Roughriders jumped out to an early lead and kept the Apaches scoreless through four innings, however, Cochise mounted a couple of late comeback attempts to make game two a nailbiter.
“Tommy Groom competed incredibly well for us and our staff behind him, Thomas Bartels, Loreto Siniscalchi, and Zach Hose, kept us in this game,” said Woods about game two. “We were in complete control and hurt ourselves defensively, but the offense answered the bell every time.”
The aforementioned pitching staff allowed zero earned runs on the day with sophomore righty Tommy Groom getting the start and going 4.2 innings with five strikeouts.
While Groom was on the bump, the Roughrider offense pushed three runs across the plate. In the top of the second, Wood brought home a run with an RBI triple and scored on a sacrifice fly from sophomore outfielder Jude Hall.
In the top of the fourth, freshman outfielder Danny Schweitzer dropped down a perfectly-executed bunt for a safety squeeze that turned into an RBI single and 3-0 YC lead.
Cruising and in control with a 3-0 lead, the Roughriders kicked the ball around in the bottom of the fifth inning and committed three errors that led to three Cochise runs to tie the ballgame. Sophomore righty Thomas Bartels came on in relief to stop the bleeding and got a strikeout to end the frame.
With the lead lost, it was time for the offense to answer the bell as Coach Woods alluded to earlier and it immediately did just that as Schweitzer singled to right in the top of the sixth to bring home a run and give YC a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, freshman righty Loreto Siniscalchi pitched around some trouble for a scoreless inning to bring the game to the final three innings with YC protecting a narrow one-run lead.
The trouble that Siniscalchi faced in the sixth was nothing compared to the bottom of the seventh inning as the Apaches were able to load the bases, after a hit, dropped third strike, and walk, to bring the tying run to third base with two outs in the frame.
Sophomore righty Zach Hose then entered the game and with a 3-2 count, was able to induce a popup to get through the inning unscathed and protect the Roughrider lead.
That lead, while precious, only lasted one more inning as Cochise benefitted from another two-out error in the bottom of the eighth inning and tied the contest up at 4-4. The aforementioned Hose, however, was able to limit the damage to just one run.
Heading into the ninth inning tied, the Roughrider offense had one more rally in them as Radke singled with one out to put the go-ahead run on base once more. After a strikeout, Radke ran the risk and swiped second base to put the go-ahead score in scoring position.
The next heroic move was made by freshman infielder Niko Rosell who came to the plate as a pinch hitter and chopped a single past the diving Cochise third baseman into left field to score Radke and give YC its third lead of game two.
Rosell moved to second base with some heads-up baserunning on the play after seeing the Cochise left fielder miss the cutoff man. That set the stage for freshman infielder Wailele Kane-Yates who singled home Rosell for an insurance run and 6-4 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Hose walked the leadoff man, got a flyout, and turned a double play on a comebacker to earn the victory on the mound and clinch the sweep.
Kane-Yates, Thomas, Hall, and Schweitzer all tallied two hits in the contest while freshman outfielder Nolan Sparks, Rosell, Wood, Radke, and freshman infielder Quinn Allen each had one as well.
Up Next
The Roughriders are back in action on Tuesday, February 21, in Yuma, Arizona, where they will take on the Arizona Western College Matadors with game one’s first pitch set for noon.
Read more stories in Sports on Signals A Z.com.
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