Texico baseball team bounces back, beats Eunice

EUNICE — Texico’s baseball team bounced back nicely from its first loss of the season by walloping Eunice 16-5 in the Cardinal Classic and improving to 2-1 on Saturday.

The Wolverines had absorbed their first loss on Friday, falling to Midland Christian 8-7.

“I felt like we played a lot more focused,” Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. “We still had more errors (3) than I like to have, and had a couple of base-running blunders, but I thought the effort was better mentally.”

Trailing 1-0 after one inning and still down by that score heading into the top of the third, Texico erupted for five in that frame, getting two RBIs each from Cole Rohrbach and Nathan Phipps.

The Wolverines’ lead was shaved to 5-3 in the bottom of the third, but they broke the game open with six runs in the top of the fifth, with the big hit coming on Ben Crist’s bases-loaded, bases-clearing, stand-up double from his No. 6 spot in the batting order, scoring Dalton Thatcher, Rohrbach and Nathan Phipps. “He’s swinging the bat pretty well,” Coach Thatcher said of Crist, who wound up 2-for-4 on the day. Dalton Thatcher finished 2-for-2.

Luke Phipps (1-0) started the game and picked up the win. Isaac Ortiz relieved him in the fifth and finished out the game.

Texico will head right back to Eunice for a doubleheader on Tuesday.

“Knowing that we have a doubleheader at their place on Tuesday, I think it was good to bounce back and get that win,” Coach Thatcher said. “We get to make this drive one more time.”

Tuesday’s first game is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.