Lopes Baseball earns three tough wins on the road

After a successful home stand last weekend taking five of six games in the series with Miles Community College, Lopes Baseball hit the road for a challenging road trip.

On Saturday, April 21, the Lopes defeated Western Nebraska Community College in Scottsbluff, 4-3 in a nine-inning conference make-up game.  Sophomore Keven Mackintosh picked up his eighth win on the year.

On Sunday, the Lopes traveled to take on Northeastern Junior College in a three game series that got pushed back two days due to the weather.

The Lopes split on Sunday losing game one, 11-2, and winning game two by a score of 6-4 in 11 innings.

Taking the loss for the Lopes in game one was sophomore pitcher Andrew Coverly.  Freshman Tyler Ruetschle earned the win in game two, pitching six and a third innings of relief for starter Christian Manmamo.  Steady closer Johnathan Ramirez picked up the save in the eleventh inning.

Freshman outfielder Aaron Faragallah had a clutch opposite field home run in the top of the eleventh to put the Lopes up by one; Faragallah had three home runs on the weekend.

The rubber match of the weekend saw an outstanding pitching performance by sophomore Zach Sundine.  Sundine picked up the win in a complete game shutout.

Faragallah homered again in the fourth inning and Miles Hilton had a clutch two run double in the fifth.

"Winning three of four on the road in Scottsbluff and Sterling was a big deal," Head Coach Scott Crampton said of the weekend.  "Both places are tough places to play and I thought we handled everything very well. The one loss we failed to play defense so we could have easily won all four."

Lopes Baseball's record currently stands at 26-19 overall and 18-10 in conference play.

Next on the Lopes' schedule is a nonconference game against Dodge City Community College in Dodge City on Wednesday, April 25.  The Lopes will then travel to Trinidad State Junior College for a four-game series with games on Friday and Sunday, April 27 and 29.