On Friday afternoon New Mexico Military took down Western Nebraska 13-3 in game one of Friday's doubleheader. The Broncos followed up with a 16-4 win in game two and improved to 4-2 on the year. With the pair of losses, Western Nebraska opens their season with a 0-2 mark.
GAME 1
Hyunwook Lee opened his second start of the year with a three-strikeout first inning as he retired the side in order. After a groundout for the Broncos, Joek Rivera smashed one over the left field wall to give NMMI a 1-0 lead. Back-to-back singles and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for the first time of the afternoon in the bottom of the first inning. Kylian Bamberger would score the second run with the help of a passed ball to make it a 2-0 ball game.
Following a scoreless second and third inning, Western Nebraska knotted the game 2-2 with a walk and an RBI-triple by Catcher Gladysh. In the next at bat, Gladysh reached home off an RBI-single by Harrison Hart.
Sangwoon Jeon opened the bottom of the fourth with a walk to get the explosive inning started. A single by Jose Rodriguez Mestre – his first of the season, and another walk loaded the bases for Damwoo Kim. In the first pitch of the at bat, Kim sent one to the moon to clear the bases and give the Broncos a 6-2 advantage. In his second at bat, Joek Rivera was walked before Kylian Bamberger tallied his first homer of the season, a two-run shot, to put NMMI ahead 8-2 after four innings.
Two pitches later, Western Nebraska responded with a solo home run by Austin Cooper to make it an 8-3 ball game.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Joek Rivera opened with a lead off triple to continue his excellent game one performance. He would later score on a wild pitch. With a runner on second, Eliseo Ramirez tallied his homer of the year with a two-run blast to give the Broncos an 11-3 lead. After another walk, Javier Yepiz-Galindo recorded his first collegiate homer to walk off the 13-3 run rule victory.
GAME 2
In game two, the Broncos exploded in the second inning as they tallied 10 runs in frame. First, Missael Maldonado Baez singled to get himself on base. After back-to-back walks loaded the bases, Alec Guevara tallied an RBI on a sacrifice fly out to put NMMI ahead 1-0. Damwoo Kim helped score a run on fielder's choice to make it a 2-0 ball game. After the third walk of the inning, Kylian Bamberger recorded a two-RBI double to give NMMI a 4-0 lead. Eliseo Ramirez followed up with a two-RBI single on a line drive to right field as the home side enjoyed a 6-0 advantage. Javier Yepiz then recorded an RBI-double to put the Broncos ahead 8-0 early on. The scoring would not stop there. Back-to-back singles gave NMMI their ninth run of the inning. The Broncos scored their 10th run of the frame with the help of an error.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Seungmin Shin blasted his first homer of the year with no runners on to give the Broncos a 11-0 lead. Following a double by Alec Guevara, Damwoo Kim notched his third homer of the season, a two-run shot to make it a 13-0 game.
In the top of the fifth inning Western Nebraska responded by scoring four runs as they trailed 13-4. However, Missael Maldonado Baez opened the bottom half of the final inning with a triple. Jose Rodriguez got on base with a single but it was not enough to score the runner at third. In the third pitch of his at-bat, Seungmin Shin put an end to the game with a three-RBI home run – his second of game two, to help secure the 16-4 win in game two.
Head Coach Chris Cook on the pair of wins, "we crushed the ball today and pitching was pretty good for us all afternoon," Cook said. "It's opening weekend for them, and I imagine they'll get a little bit better offensively as we play a few more games tomorrow and they showed what they can do a few times today," Cook said. "Overall we had some guys stay locked-in and have consistent at-bats … it's like I told the guys when we have seven or eight guys having great at-bats that's going to be a recipe for a lot of runs for us," Cook said. "So all in all, good day on the mound and we backed up at the plate," Cook said.
UP NEXT
The Broncos close out the series against Western Nebraska on Saturday, February 7, with another doubleheader scheduled to begin at noon.