MOUNTAINEER BASEBALL

Eastern Takes Two from 18th Ranked Cowley County
Story by staff (03/01/10)

On Sunday, the Eastern Oklahoma State College baseball team improved to 9-3 this season with a doubleheader sweep of Cowley County Community College.  The Mountaineers won the first game 2-1 and the second game 4-2.  Cowley County entered the game ranked 18th by the NJCAA.

Nate Coronado pitched six outstanding innings to help Eastern win a 2-1 pitcher’s duel in game one.  Coronado improved to 2-0 on the season.  He allowed an unearned run in the 1st inning, but that is all the Tigers could get in the game.  Coronado struck out three and surrendered just four hits.  Chris Munoz pitched a scoreless 7th inning to pick up his third save of the year.  Munoz struck out two of the three batters he faced.  Eastern got all their offense in the first inning.  Cameron Green and Houston Slemp hit back to back one out singles.  After a ground out, freshman infielder Jordan Mings continued his hot streak by singling in two runs in the bottom of the 1st inning.  That’s all the offense the Mountaineers could get, but their pitching staff made it hold up for a 2-1 victory.

In game two, Eastern jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings and again that was enough for the Mountaineer pitching staff.  Justin Klusak singled in a run in the 1st inning.  Jordan Mings and Ben Kozma began the 2nd inning with back to back bunt hits.  Nathan Goodall’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third.  Curtis Coyle sacrifice fly plated Mings and Cameron Green singled home Kozma.  Brandon Marris (1-0), usually one of the strong relievers on the team, made his first start of the year.  Marris pitched into the 5th inning and picked up his first win of the year.  He allowed two runs on three hits and struck out three.  The Mountaineer bullpen was rock solid again.  Andrew Watson and Jordan Mings combined to pitch 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.  Watson struck out three batters in his 3 2/3 innings of work.  Mings pitched a three up three down 9th inning to pick up his first save of the year.  Mings also doubled in the bottom of the 6th inning and later scored the Mountaineers fourth run on Nathan Goodall’s single.  The insurance run put Eastern up 4-2, which became the final margin of victory.

The Mountaineers will travel to Mt. Pleasant, TX this weekend.  They will play Navarro College on Saturday in a 2:00 pm doubleheader.  Then on Sunday, they will play a 1:00 pm double header against Northeast Texas Community College.

GAME #1
TEAMS            1  2  3  4  5  6  7     R   H  E
Cowley (3-2)    1  0  0  0  0  0  0     1   4   2
Eastern (8-3)   2  0  0  0  0  0  x     2   4   2
WP – Coronado (2-0)
LP – Rea
S – Munoz (3)

GAME #2
TEAMS            1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R   H  E
Cowley (3-3)    0  0  0  0  2  0  0  0  0     2   6   1
Eastern (9-3)   1  2  0  0  0  1  0  0  x     4   8   1
WP – Marris (1-0)
LP – Rainey
S – Mings (1)