By: Justin Hargrove, NTCC Assistant Athletic Director
The Northeast Texas Community College (10-20, 5-11) Eagles baseball team traveled to Bossier Parish Community College (20-13, 6-10) Friday to start the second round of conference play. BPCC defeated the Eagles 7-4 to take game one of the three game series. The final two games were scheduled to be played at NTCC on Saturday, but rain forced a change of venue to Paris Chism High school’s turf field on Sunday. BPCC took games two and three by a score of 4-3 in game two and 7-4 in game three.
In game one, Jordan Martinez took the mound for the Eagles going six innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and four strikeouts. BPCC took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when lead-off hitter Kyle Jones scored off a double from Adrian Minjares. Bossier Parrish added another run in the fourth inning to increase the lead to 2-0.
After falling behind 7-0 the Eagles offense got on the board in the eighth inning. Cody Cleveland plated John Pron, who had singled earlier in the inning, to cut the lead to 7-1. Jonathan Carrillo, Matt Scheurich, and Jake Chapman all scored in the ninth inning to bring the game closer, but the Eagles comeback fell short.
Andrew Skivington, Carrillo, and Scheurich each had 2 hits to lead the offensive effort by NTCC. Hadyden Shaddix came in relief of Martinez to throw the final two innings for the Eagles.
In game two at Chism, Chandler Mauldin was on the mound for the Eagles for three innings, giving up four runs. Garrett Chappell relieved Mauldin in the fourth inning and Chappell was solid in his performance, striking out three and giving up zero runs the final four innings of the game.
Cody Cleveland had a walk and a double with an RBI to lead the offense in game one of the day. The Eagles stranded six runners in the 4-3 loss.
Game three saw the Eagles offense jump out to an early 3-0 lead. Cody Cleveland led off the game with a single to right field, and he was followed by John Michael Russ who was hit by the pitch to put two Eagles on base for Matt Scheurich to launch a three-run homerun to left.
BPCC cut into the lead in the second inning when Will Doughty hit a solo homerun just inside the foul pole in left field bringing the score to 3-1. This was the last lead the Eagles would see as Bossier scored three runs in the fourth, and one run each in the fifth and sixth innings to go up 6-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, Jordan Martinez hit a solo homerun to center field to bring the Eagles a little closer, down 6-4 heading to the 7thinning. Bossier would add one more run in the eighth inning to put NTCC away by a score of 7-4.
Tyler Navarro was on the mound in game two for the Eagles, Navarro went six innings giving up six runs on eight hits while striking out five. Mikel Howell threw two inning of relief, giving up one run on two hits striking out five. Hunter Riley finished out the day for the Eagles on the mound.
Martinez was the hot bat for the Eagles in game two going four-for-four with two singles, a double and homerun. Cleveland and Scheurich added two hits each to add to the offense in game two. Despite eight hits with two homeruns in the game, the Eagles could not manufacture more runs as they stranded nine runners in the game.
NTCC looks to get back on track as they host Carl Albert State College on Tuesday at 3:00pm at home at Bob Baker Stadium.
