NMJC offense explodes in DH split

The New Mexico Junior College baseball team answered its first three-game losing streak of the season by splitting a doubleheader with Midland College on Friday.

Midland got the best of the Thunderbirds (22-10) on Thursday by winning both games of a doubleheader, but NMJC came home one day later and jumped on the visitors in the first game with a 19-6 win.

The T-Bird offense flourished from top to bottom, as everyone in the lineup picked up at least one hit and six of those nine batters had multi-hit performances. Jake Dickerson, Ryan Rijo and Avery tuck all homered for NMJC, with each finishing with at least two RBI. Dickerson actually batted 4-for-4 with three RBI and fell just a triple shy of a cycle.

Rody Barker (2-for-4, four RBI), Daniel Hernandez (2-for-3, two RBI) and Jacob Cubillos (2-for-3, three runs, two RBI) also had big days for the T-Birds offense, which gave starter Carlos Ortiz an 12-0 lead after the second inning.

Ortiz allowed six runs on 12 hits with six strikeouts over all five innings of the mercy-shortened game, proving just how valuable the offense's effort was.

The second game didn't go as well for NMJC, as it fell 9-8 to mark its fourth loss in the last five games.

The T-Birds led 8-6 after seven innings behind two homers and three RBI from Hernandez, but Brayan Garcia – who pitched 5 2/3 innings – coughed up all three of the runs he'd allow in the game over the last two frames to forfeit the win.

Other than losing the lead and the game, though, he was mostly dominant by allowing two hits and four walks while striking out nine. One of his three runs allowed was unearned as well.