Cochise baseball drops 3 of 4 to Southern Idaho in Las Vegas 

Cochise baseball traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, over the weekend to meet College of Southern Idaho at UNLV for a 4-game set. Freshman RHP Fernando Barreda got the start for the Apaches and went four and a third innings, allowing two runs on six hits and striking out six. Relief appearances were made by Freshman RHP's Martin Miranda and Pablo Rojas and Returning RHP Angel Ortiz. Connor Caskenette led the Apaches with two hits, and Cameron Crotte had the lone RBI for Cochise, resulting in a 5-1 loss.

In game two of the series, the Cochise College baseball team showed resilience with an exciting win after going down early in the game and scoring to complete the victory with a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the seventh. Sophomore RHP Treyjen Meza got the start for the Apaches and went five innings allowing five hits, four walks, and tallied nine strikeouts. LHP Ismail Pontiac relieved Meza and was dominant in the closing innings, throwing two innings with four strikeouts allowing no runners. Cochise rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a double by Caskenette and an RBI single by Sophomore Makai Desoto. The Apaches tied the game in the bottom of the sixth after Freshman outfielder Dylan Bradford hit a sacrifice fly, making it 4-4. In the bottom of the seventh, Caskenette started the inning off with a single and reached second on a wild pitch. Sophomore outfielder Eduarny Martinez took charge on a 3-0 fastball shooting it through the infield for a walk-off Cochise Apaches victory. 

In the third game of the series against Southern Idaho, the Apaches struggled to find consistency at the plate all game and only had one hit in the seven-inning affair. Although the Apaches didn't have many hits, they managed to plate seven Apaches with the help of defensive miscues by Southern Idaho and timely sacrifice fly balls from Cochise. Marco Ozuna got the start and lasted one inning while allowing four runs on five hits, with one strikeout and one walk. Cochise had a chance to win the game, but errors in the last inning led to a 9-7 defeat. Caskenette had the lone hit or the Apaches in game three while also tallying three RBI's. Freshman outfielder Leo Melendez had 2 RBI's also. 

In game four, the last game of the series between Cochise and Southern Idaho, did not go the Apaches' way. After getting on the board first in the second inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by Freshman Damian Garcia, Southern Idaho answered back in the bottom half, tying the game at one. Adding a run in the third and three in the fifth, the Apaches were chasing early. Sophomore RHP Jose Velazquez got the start for Cochise and lasted four innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out three. Cochise added two runs in the seventh, making 5-3, but a three-run home run for Southern Idaho in the bottom of the eighth put Cochise down five. The Apaches added two more runs in the top of the ninth and had a chance to score but came up empty, resulting in an 8-5 loss for Cochise. Cochise had nine hits in the game. Multiple hits came from Caskenette and Crotte as they both had two hits in the game. 

Up Next

The Cochise College baseball team is back in action on Friday, Feb. 11, and Saturday, Feb. 12, welcoming Utah State Eastern for a four-game series for the opening series at home. Games start at noon at the Douglas Campus.