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New Mexico bats
wake up to
bust Blue Dragons
By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Saturday, May 28, 2005
For five innings, Hutchinson Blue
Dragon sophomore right hander Jason Banks had the nation’s top offense
befuddled.
Then with one swing of Amadis Padilla’s
bat, that all changed.
Scoring single runs in the first two
innings, the Blue Dragons saw the awesome armament of No. 5 New
Mexico Junior College in a three-inning onslaught that spoiled
Hutchinson’s first-ever game in the NJCAA World Series. New Mexico
scored 11 unanswered runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to
defeat the Blue Dragons 11-2 in a rule-ruled, eight-inning contest on
Saturday at Suplizio Field.
The Blue Dragons (37-21) will play
Walters State, Tenn., at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. MDT) on Sunday in an elimination game. The Blue Dragons are 3-0 this season
in elimination games this season.
Walters State lost 3-1 to Iowa Western
earlier on Saturday.
The Dragons, fresh off their first
Region VI championship in 30 years, came out aggressively at the
plate, but were only able to produce single runs in the first and
second innings. It looked like Banks (6-3), who had his personal
six-game winning streak snapped, looked like he would make it stand up
with five impressive innings. Banks allowed only three hits to the
Thunderbirds (51-10), who hit a nation’s-best .411 this season.
The Blue Dragons had several offensive
chances in the first five innings against New Mexico starter Brian
Flores (11-1). But the Dragons stranded five runners in scoring
position and had two runners erased on base-running errors.
The New Mexico sixth started harmless
enough with a bloop single, but the trouble was starting when Lindy
Wray dropped a fly ball in right center to set up a big inning. After
another bloop single, Padilla drove a Banks offering over the
right-field all for a grand slam and a 4-2 lead.
The Thunderbirds rolled from there,
hitting three home runs and producing 12 hits overall. Flores settled
in and allowed just one hit after the third inning.
Sophomore first baseman Thad Weber went
2 for 4 with an RBI to lead the Dragons, who had only five hits in the
game. Lindy Wray, Noah Krol and Andrew Prignitz had the only other HCC
hits.
Banks lasted 5 1-3 innings, throwing
101 pitches. He allowed seven hits, fie runs and three walks while
striking out three. Sean Peery, Patrick Hilboldt and Jon Hansen
pitched in relief.
Padilla was 1 for 4 and drove in five
runs. Cory Zimmerman, Cory Fielding and J.M. Deveries had two hits
each to lead New Mexico Junior College, also making its first NJCAA
World Series appearance.
Highlights
The game started on a high note for HCC
with consecutive singles by Wray, Krol and an RBI single by Weber to
give Hutch a 1-0 lead. That potential big inning was thwarted by a
Ryan Whitely double play.
Prignitz led off the second with a
single and moved to second on a Luke Naccarato sacrifice bunt. After
moving to third on a passed ball, Prignitz scored on Torey Williams
groundout for a 2-0 lead.
The Dragons had Flores on the ropes in
the third inning. Brandon Doherty was hit with a pitch and Wary
walked. After Krol’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners up, the Dragons
failed to score in the inning.
After Padilla’s grand slam, Corey Johns
singled down the right-field line to score the fifth run of the New
Mexico sixth inning and a 5-2 lead.
The Thunderbirds’ offense didn’t let
up. New Mexico scored two in the seventh and four more in the eighth
on the power of home runs by Chris French and Zimmerman.
QUOTES
Head coach Kyle Crookes
Discussing the Dragons’ missed
chances and how they translated into momentum for New Mexico …
“We didn’t score near enough runs that
it was going to take to win that game. Anytime you leave guys in
scoring position and have a chance to execute and score runs without
actually getting a hit, you would like to capitalize in that
situation. We did a couple of things wrong. We didn’t execute when we
had a chance to go up three, four or five to nothing. We didn’t keep
putting pressure on them. They we made a couple of errors and they
capitalized on those errors.”
“That five-run inning really took the
wind out of our sails.”
On how the team reacted after the
Padilla grand slam and giving up the lead …
“It didn’t bother me, we’ve been in
that situation before. After they put up five, they put up two and
then they put up four. That definitely makes the hole a lot bigger to
climb out of. That’s what you see in college baseball. Give them a lot
of credit. They didn’t get many hits until that grand slam. Once they
did, they took advantage of their opportunities.”
“We just couldn’t stop it when we
needed to stop it.’
Pitcher Jason Banks
On his performance during the
first five innings …
“I felt good. I was throwing pitches
and getting ground balls and doing what I was supposed to do.
On giving up the grand slam …
“He made a good swing. It was the best
hit they got off me. It was down low about 6 inches off the plate and
he got a hold of it. It was the pitch I was told to throw.”
On the mood of the team after
giving up the grand slam …
“We were down 4-2. It wasn’t too bad.
We’ve come back all year long from five or six down. Two runs were
really nothing going into the sixth, seventh and eighth.”
First baseman Thad Weber
On the mood of the team after the
grand slam …
“Nobody was really worried. It was a
situation we’ve been in all year, all the wins in Region VI. We didn’t
need to panic. We had opportunities early in the game to put up runs,
so we thought it wouldn’t be a problem to put up runs. He pretty much
shut us down after the second inning and he got better as the game
went along. We can’t let opportunities to slip away.
On getting shut down after the second inning …
“We came out really aggressive and put
those two runs up and we might have relaxed just a little bit. As the
game went on, we got a little more lax and we didn’t have as good of
swings.”
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