Editor’s note: These games are not the most recent in the Chihuahuas’ season.
The El Paso Chihuahuas took down the Sugar Land Space Cowboys 5-1 in their six-game series, putting them first in the Pacific Coast League East for the second half of the season. Here’s how the Chihuahuas played this series at home:
Game 1
El Paso won the opener 6-5 in a similar fashion to their previous home series matchup against the Reno Aces. Sugar Land struck first with two runs in the first inning after batter Jesus Bastidas hit an 80 mph changeup into left field giving base runners Brice Matthews and Shay Witcomb the go-ahead runs to score. In the top of the second inning, Sugar Land scored another two runs from batter Luis Castro hitting a 90-mph fastball from Chihuahuas pitcher Omar Crus into center field. This gave Matthews the chance to score once again coming from second base this time. Sugar Land batter, Bastidas, hit another ball into play, allowing Whitcomb to score in the fourth run of the game.
At the bottom of the second inning, the Chihuahuas got their first run of the day off a single line drive to left field giving base runner Yonathan Perlaza time to score, cutting the Cowboy lead to three. The Space Cowboys earned another run from a ground out hit but the Chihuahuas’ 11 strikeouts held Sugar Land to five runs for the rest of the game. After not scoring for the past four innings, the Chihuahuas were given a chance to take Game 1 with batter Luis Campusano on the plate. Sugar Land pitcher Michael Knorr threw a cutter almost dead center, as a result, Campusano hit a 406-foot homer making it 5-4 with El Paso only down by one.
El Paso got a sacrifice fly giving Perlaza the tying run. The Chihuahuas didn’t skip a beat with batter Forrest Wall singling a line drive out to right field, giving base runner Mike Brosseau the winning run making the final score 6-5.
Game 2
The Chihuahuas won Game 2 14-8 against the Space Cowboys, making the series score 2-0. While Sugar Land did have a decent offensive outing from players like Bastidas, getting three hits out of five at-bats and earning two runs-batted-in (RBI). El Paso was able to create an efficient offensive that simply outperformed Sugar Land by getting 14 runs scored out of their 16 hits. Although the Chihuahuas had six different pitchers play which only garnered seven strikeouts total, notable offenses pieces like Dungan, McCoy and Campusano earned a combined seven RBIs and gave El Paso more than enough momentum to score in multiple innings throughout the game. They closed out the game with no need to play at the bottom of the ninth inning to make the series score 2-0.
Game 3 & 4
The third game of the series was rained out on June 26. As a result, Games 3 and 4 became a doubleheader with seven innings each taking place the following day.
Game 3 was an offensive performance from both teams, and the Chihuahuas were able to come out on top with a 10-7 win. The Space Cowboys were able to spread out points in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings with the help of Jon Singleton getting 3-4 in his at-bats and Brice Matthews earning three RBIs. El Paso scored their first runs in the fifth inning from Perlaza earning one RBI and scoring a run. Nate Mondou hit a double to right field and got three RBIs which tied the game 4-4. The Chihuahuas scored two more runs from Nate Mondou and Tim Locastro. The Space Cowboys scored three runs in the sixth inning, making the score 7-6. The Space Cowboys failed to score any runs after the sixth, nullifying the bottom of the seventh to be played.
The second game of the day saw Sugar Land win Game 4 11-5 against El Paso. The Space Cowboys started off with four runs scored in the first inning and continued to score at least one run every inning except the seventh. While the Chihuahuas did get two runs scored in the first inning, they would not score again until the fifth. Sugar Land starting pitcher Tyler Ivey struck out four batters along with relieving pitcher Blake Weiman getting three consecutive strikeouts in the sixth inning alone. While Sugar Land’s defense was getting the job done, their offensive performance was efficient as well. Scoring 11 runs out of 10 hits, every batter but three earned at least one or more RBIs. The Space Cowboys came out with an 11-5 win with El Paso still leading the series 3-1.
Game 5
The Chihuahuas won a close game with a 6-5 win. Although El Paso accumulated 10 hits, which is one less hit than the Space Cowboys, the Chihuahuas had key players like Perlaza getting 3-5 at-bats with one RBI earned and Dungan getting 3-4 at-bats, one RBI and one run scored. Sugar Land’s pitching squad for the night had all four pitchers earning one or more strikeouts. El Paso starting pitcher Kyle Hart got six strikeouts and did not allow any home runs in six innings. Hart’s successor was relieving pitcher Logan Gillaspie, who earned four strikeouts yet allowed two home runs. This defensive performance by the Chihuahuas’ pitching squad gave them enough space to get the series win 4-1.
Game 6
El Paso was victorious with a 9-3 win over Sugar Land. This game witnessed a strong pitching performance from both teams with Space Cowboys starting pitcher AJ Blubaugh earning nine strikeouts with no home runs allowed. Sugar Land’s pitchers would get a total of 12 strikeouts with only one home run allowed for the entire game. The Chihuahuas were able to gain 13 strikeouts with all five pitchers earning at least one K (strikeout), and no home runs were given. El Paso was able to score nine runs out of nine hits with the help of Dungan getting 3 RBIs and the Chihuahuas’ batting roster as a whole were able to get each other to home plate. El Paso won the series 5-1 and head out to Albuquerque, New Mexico to face off against the Isotopes from July 1-6.
Kristian Hernandez is the sports editor for The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected] and social media @northeastvideography.
