BASEBALL: Eagles battle back to spoil Bronchos’ home opener

March 05--The Odessa High baseball team had two chances Tuesday to distance itself from Abilene High, but the Bronchos couldn't capitalize.

So the Eagles swooped in and snatched a District 2-5A win on the road.

Odessa High stranded the bases loaded in the fifth and sixth innings, keeping its lead at one run entering the seventh. Then Abilene High loaded the bases and proceeded to pounce, pushing three runs across and spoiling the Bronchos' home opener with an 8-6 win at Pressly Field.

"We knew it wasn't over," said Abilene High junior Mark Burrow, who pitched the final two innings and drove in the go-ahead run. "We got out of the bases-loaded jam and we had the momentum going into the seventh."

Odessa High pitcher EJ Alvarez, who struck out nine batters in a complete game, couldn't protect a 6-5 lead entering the final frame. He started the top of the seventh with a walk and a hit batsman, and Abilene High then loaded the bases with no outs on a bunt single by Derek Scott.

Mark Pearson, who finished 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs for the Eagles (6-5-1 overall, 2-0 district), drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to right field. The go-ahead run scored on Burrow's fielder's-choice grounder to shortstop, and an insurance run came across when two Odessa High fielders missed a grounder down the first-base line by Conner Nichols.

The Bronchos (7-6-1, 1-1) then went down quietly in the bottom of the seventh, drawing a two-out walk but nothing else.

"It's pretty devastating," said Alvarez, a senior left-hander who fell to 2-1 this season. "It hurts a lot when you lose knowing you should have won, especially when you were the man in charge and all you had to do was come in and shut them down and you couldn't do it."

Abilene High starter Payton Coffman couldn't shut down Odessa High after the Eagles built a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the third. The Bronchos scored two in that inning on run-scoring singles by Jakob Nunez and Kevin Guzman, and after the Eagles went up 5-3 in the top of the fourth, Odessa High tied it in the bottom half on a two-run single by Cal Pequeno.

The Bronchos then took a 6-5 lead in the fifth, when Guzman hit a leadoff double and beat the throw home on a grounder to shortstop by EJ Carrasco. Odessa High later loaded the bases for Nunez, its senior catcher and three-hole hitter, but he grounded out to end the inning.

The Bronchos had an even better chance to pad their lead in the sixth, when they loaded the bases with no outs on a double by Pequeno, a bunt single by Ubaldo Rios and a walk. But Burrow kept them off the board by recording back-to-back strikeouts and inducing a popup to shortstop.

"When we loaded them up in the sixth and didn't score, it really gave a lot of energy to Abilene High," Odessa High coach Josh Hulin said. "The momentum was clearly on their side."

It stayed that way as the Eagles rallied for a win that left them in a first-place tie with Midland High. They also doubled their district win total from last season, when Abilene High was 1-15 in league play.

Odessa High fell into a four-way tie for third place and will try to bounce back Saturday at Midland High. Pequeno, a sophomore third baseman who drove in a team-high three runs, said the Bronchos will do just that and be better for their experience Tuesday.

"It's not the end of the world," said Odessa High designated hitter Jared Bennett, who finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored. "Yeah, it does hurt, but we're going to bounce back from it and we're going to go from there."

Contact Adam Zuvanich on twitter @OAzuvanich, on Facebook at OA Adam Zuvanich or call 432-333-7649.

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