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Texico routs NMMI to start busy week

TEXICO — The weather was warm on Monday. And the Texico bats were scorching.

Hosting New Mexico Military Institute, the Wolverines erupted for 13 runs in the fourth inning and collected 13 hits overall, as they walloped NMMI 17-3 in five innings, starting a busy week in impressive fashion. Monday’s game was the first of five the Wolverines will play this week.

“I thought the bats really came alive today,” Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. “I was pleased with the performance we had today at the plate. We had some really good at-bats.”

The Wolves (19-2), though, struggled initially against tough NMMI pitcher Gavin Maloney. After Dalton Thatcher led the game off with a double, eventually leading to a first-inning run, Maloney settled in.

For a while anyway.

“We got to him in the third,” Coach Thatcher said, “and tacked on a few more runs and had him on the ropes just a little bit and got to his pitch count.”

Maloney was on a strict count because NMMI has a big 4A matchup against Portales later this week. After he was pulled from Monday’s game, Texico got to the Colts’ bullpen, “and really hit the ball well, obviously, and did a really good job of driving some runs in with two outs,” Coach Thatcher said.

At one point during the 13-run fourth-inning barrage, Texico strung together six consecutive hits, starting with the bottom of the order and ending with the top. “That always makes for a good inning,” Coach Thatcher said.

The Wolverines also dominated pitching-wise, as Ben Crist ran his season record to 8-0, throwing all five innings, striking out seven and walking just one.

“He had command,” Coach Thatcher said. “He lost a little bit of focus there (in the fifth inning) with the 17-0 game. We got through it and got out of there with the win.”

Crist helped himself with the bat, driving in four runs while going 2-for-3.

Cole Rohrbach was 2-for-2, including a double, three RBIs and two walks; Chris Harrison went 3-for-3 with two RBIs; Dalton Thatcher was 3-for-3, including two doubles; and Robin Winton went 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

Texico freshman Freddy Davalos played second base and added two hits. “So we’re starting to create some depth at this point of the season,” Coach Thatcher said.

Texico is right back at it today, hosting Santa Rosa (4 p.m.).

“We beat (Santa Rosa) twice at their place,” Coach Thatcher said. “We’ll have Dalton on the mound (today), so hopefully we’ll get a good performance out of him and keep things rolling.”

The Wolverines are scheduled to face Clayton on Friday (4 p.m.) and play a doubleheader against Lubbock Christian on Saturday, with the first game slated for a 3:30 p.m. start.

A whole lot of baseball, just how Coach Thatcher likes it during the last week of the regular season. After this week, Texico won’t play again until the district tournament begins next Wednesday. After that’s over, the Wolverines don’t play again until starting the state tournament the following Wednesday.

“At this point of the year I kinda stacked some games on them,” Coach Thatcher said, “for the simple fact that I wanted to test the bullpen and get some guys on the mound.

“We really try to get a lot of at-bats here in this last week. Hopefully, we can finish the regular season strong going into the postseason.”

 
 
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