Hobbs sweeps Wildcats

The Hobbs Eagles capped off a District 4-5A doubleheader sweep of the Clovis Wildcats on Friday night with Joseph Campos tossing a six-inning, 10-0 shutout.

Clovis (9-13, 0-4 district) lost 7-4 in the first game.

"The kid was nasty," Clovis coach Shane Leatherwood said of Campos. "Not a lot of our kids have seen a curveball that hard."

Campos had eight strikeouts.

Peyton Lott pitched five innings for the Wildcats in the second game, striking out four.

Centerfielder Michael Cordova led the Wildcats in the second game with two hits. Edgar Espinoza had three hits for the Eagles (11-8, 3-1), including a double and a triple, and drove in two runs while Josh Young helped out with two hits and an RBI.

Campos struggled a bit the fourth inning, walking two and allowing a hit to load the bases with no outs. Leatherwood called for a squeeze, but Hobbs catcher Nathan Ross fielded the play perfectly and was able to tag out Wildcat baserunner Jordan Holguin.

"Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't," Leatherwood said.

"I was rushing and trying too hard," Campos said of the fourth inning. "So I slowed down and focused."

After the failed squeeze, Campos got out of the inning by striking out the next two batters.

The Eagles put the game out of reach with a six-run sixth. Erick Rangel smashed an RBI double to right-center.

Clovis didn't have an answer at the bottom of the inning and the game ended early.

"They came out fired up and played with intensity on both occasions," Hobbs coach Marco Boyle said of his team. "We were focusing on winning both games today. We want to win the district championship."

Boyle said in both games the Clovis pitchers pitched to his team's strengths, throwing middle-away pitches that allowed his team to send balls into right-center field, which was problematic for Clovis' outfielders.

The Cats were fairly competitive in the first game, Leatherwood said.

"The difference was they got the big hits in the first game," he said.

The Cats travel to Roswell High for a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Tuesday.