Cats rally to gain split with Hobbs

Staff report

HOBBS — Junior right-hander Austin Adams pitched a complete-game six hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks and Clovis High posted its first District 4-5A baseball win on Friday, beating Hobbs 5-3 to gain a doubleheader split.

The Eagles took the opener 3-2 when catcher Nathan Ross singled home the winning run with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the seventh.

link Clovis' Landon Williams delivers a pitch during the opener of Friday’s District 4-5A baseball doubleheader at Hobbs. Williams went the distance in a 3-2 loss before the Wildcats came back to get a split with a 5-3 win over the Eagles in the second game.

Clovis outhit the Eagles 12-7 in the nightcap, with Kordell Tindle going 4-for-4 with a double, a two-run homer and three RBIs. Eight Wildcats had hits in the contest.

Tindle put the Cats (6-15, 1-3 district) ahead 2-1 with his second-inning homer, following a double by Adams. Clovis built a 5-1 lead before the Eagles (15-7, 3-1) scored a couple of unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it close.

CHS also got a complete game from junior Landon Williams in the opener.

“Both of them threw well,” Cats coach Shane Leatherwood said. “They kept us in the ballgame.”

Williams alllowed 10 hits, walking three and striking out three.

Adams homered in the second to erase a 1-0 Hobbs lead. The Eagles went back in front 2-1 in the fourth, but the Cats tied it again in the sixth when, with runners at second and third and two out, Tindle grounded to third and the Hobbs third baseman elected to get the runner from second in a rundown as Matthew Lanier scored.

In the second game, Tindle drove a two-run homer in the second inning to again erase a 1-0 deficit. Lanier singled in the fourth and Ramos and Tindle added RBI doubles to make it 4-1.

Sophomore Keaton Greenwalt added an RBI single in the sixth.

Leatherwood said the Cats still have their work cut out in the district, but they’ll now host Hobbs and Carlsbad in the final two doubleheaders.

"We’re still at the bottom (of the district),” he said. “Two of our (district) losses are by one run, and we’re hoping we can turn those around at home.”

Leatherwood said the Cats have added a 5 p.m. Tuesday game against Roswell Goddard at Bell Park. Both teams were a game under their season limit.