BASEBALL: Offense keys Chaps in DH sweep of Western Texas
The Midland College baseball coaches had a feeling that their hitters might have a strong doubleheader on Friday with the way they were swinging the bats in recent practices.
By Oscar LeRoy
Midland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - The Midland College baseball coaches had a feeling that their hitters might have a strong doubleheader on Friday with the way they were swinging the bats in recent practices.
They were certainly right as the Chaparral offense combined for 26 runs, 25 hits and eight home runs in just 12 innings of action against Western Texas College on Friday.
MC outlasted WTC in the first game, 13-10, before getting a strong pitching performance from Jarek Wells and hitting five homers in a 13-1 run-rule victory in the second game at Christensen Stadium.
"They had a great 10 days of practice," said MC coach Hector Rodriguez about their hitters. "In our (batting practice) rounds, we just kind of centered everything into the middle of the field and opposite field gaps. Whether it had anything to do with it, I don't know, but the guys were in the middle of the field, they drove ball to the other side of the field, had some big hits, had some good approaches. I thought our guys were relentless today and I congratulate them. That was awesome to see."
Leading the way for the Chaps (33-15, 19-7 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference) was shortstop Tyler Wulfert, who was 4-for-6 with three home runs and five RBI.
"I think we saw the ball well," said Wulfert, an Oklahoma State signee, who now has a team-leading 16 home runs on the season. "We were hitting the ball to all parts of the field, which was good. We were hitting ball hard and scoring runs."
The Chaps needed those runs in the first game as WTC (28-17, 17-9) rallied for eight runs in the fourth inning against MC ace Luke Young after the Chaps had taken a 10-0 lead.
"We had a big inning too but sometimes you lose an edge," Rodriguez said. "I thought Luke Young lost a little bit of an edge and we also didn't make plays behind him. There were some plays that if we're paying attention and we're locked in, I think we can make those plays."
MC added a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth and also got good performances in relief from Evan Hebert and Aaron Molina to hold off the Westerners.
"Hebert and Molina have done a good job for us all year, especially Molina late in the game," Rodriguez said. "That's not how you draw it up. You don't want to bring in Molina late when you have your ace on the mound for a seven-inning ballgame, but he was ready to go."
Matthew Sandoval and Lee grad Michael Weidner also homered for the Chaps, while Odessa High grad Gibrian Pena was 3-for-4 with a double, triple, two RBI and two runs scored.
Wells stepped up in the second game and gave the Chaps what they needed after using two key bullpen guys in the opener. Wells, a Houston Baptist signee, allowed just one unearned run on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts over five innings of work and 60 pitches.
"Jarek, a lot of times, his pitch count goes high in a hurry," Rodriguez said. "That didn't happen today. It was just a quality outing, and he was able to make pitches when he needed to, lots of balls on the ground and it was huge that we didn't need to go to the bullpen. And not having to play four innings also helped in saving the bullpen."
Wells said he felt really good on the mound.
"I had a good week off, got to recover, had some good practices this week and got after it today," Wells said. "It was really cool to see the offense put up a ton of runs, they got home runs, it was fun to watch. It was easy to pitch today with the offense we had."
Wells also knew the importance of having the kind of outing he had in order to save some bullpen arms for the rest of the series.
"Every single day you want your starter to go as long as possible, so that's just my mentality," Wells said. "I just want to help my team out as much as I can and get as many outs as I can with every start."
The MC offense backed Wells with two homers from Wulfert, two homers from Roman Thompson (four RBI) and a three-run blast from Ryan Blackwell. The Chaps also had a seven-run third inning.
The Chaps will close out the regular season on the road with hopes of winning a conference title as they are in a tight race with WTC and New Mexico Junior College. MC will play WTC in another doubleheader at noon Saturday in Snyder, before going to El Paso Community College for a four-game series next weekend.
"It was great to sweep our last conference home games," Wulfert said. "We're ready (for Saturday)."
Follow Oscar on Twitter: @OLeRoy_MRT
First Game
MIDLAND COLLEGE 13, WESTERN TEXAS COLLEGE 10
Western Texas 000 820 0 -- 10 10 0
Midland College 163 120 x -- 13 15 2
Adam Alexis, Brady Allbrooks (3) Michael Murray (5), Tanner Carter (5) and Sam Adams. Luke Young, Evan Hebert (5), Aaron Molina (7) and Ryan Blackwell. W -- 2B – WTC: Lance Little, Chris Shull, Adams, Jordan Grice, Cole Steinmetz; MC: Blackwell, Gibrian Pena. 3B – WTC: Marshal Jonas; MC: Gibrian Pena. HR – MC: Tyler Wulfert, Matthew Sandoval, Michael Weidner.
Second Game
MIDLAND COLLEGE 13, WESTERN TEXAS COLLEGE 1, 5 innings
Western Texas 000 01 -- 1 3 1
Midland College 417 1x -- 13 10 2
Davis Benton, Thomas Geiger (3) and Adams. Jarek Wells and Blackwell. W – Wells. L – Benton. 2B – MC: Sandoval. HR – MC: Wulfert 2, Roman Thompson 2, Blackwell.