By Peter Dindinger
Pupfish Nate Enriquez dives back to first base on a pick-off attempt as Bisbee’s Brett Zaziski reaches for the tag last Saturday at the Griggs Sports Complex.
The White Sands Pupfish (12-20) defeated the Bisbee Blue (19-15) by the scores of 7-6 and 4-2 this past weekend in a doubleheader to win the series three games to four at home.
White Sands is currently 6-4 in their last 10 games. The Pupfish traveled to Alpine, Texas for a four-game series against the league leading Alpine Cowboys (26-10). In game one, the Cowboys won 9-5 as the squad tallied 13 hits and took advantage of three costly errors by White Sands.
J.J. Constantino and Nate Enriquez hit back-to-back RBI-doubles to give White Sands an early 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth. Cowboy Austin Prott then hit a solo home run to cut the lead to one at 3-2.
In the bottom of the fourth, Alpine compiled four hits and pushed four runs across the plate to take a 6-3 lead.
Alpine’s Matt Henrickson hit an RBI-single in what was a three run eighth inning as the Cowboys held on to win the series opener. Henrickson finished the night going 2-for-4 with a single, double and two RBIs while Luke Stark tallied three singles to finish at 3-for-5.
Constantino recorded three singles, a double and an RBI to go 4-for-5, raising his average to .351. He now has a team-best 34 hits. Mike Brandi hit a pair of singles as he went 2-for-4. Since coming over from the Ohio Travelers of the Independent Baseball League, Brandi is hitting a team-best .474 in 10 games with 18 hits.
Miguel Pereira started for White Sands throwing five innings, allowing four runs on eight hits. Pereira suffered his first loss in his second start of the season. Alpine pitcher Jasper Adams improved to 2-1 after allowing three runs in six innings.
Brandi had his nine-game hitting streak come to an end in game number two in Alpine. The Pupfish evened up the series with a 8-6 victory Monday night. White Sands only compiled six hits in the win and both teams committed a combined 11 errors.
Yermin Mercedes went 2-for-4 with two singles as the Pupfish took a 5-3 lead heading into the top of the sixth. The Cowboys committed two costly errors to help the Pupfish take a two-run lead.
White Sands scored three runs in the final three innings to hold on to the victory. Mike Pembleton fanned five batters to earn his first victory in four starts. Mercedes is now hitting .381 with 14 hits and 15 RBIs since arriving in a trade from the Douglas Diablos.
“Our pitching is a little up and down,” said Pupfish manager Darrell Carrillo. “Our relievers aren’t doing the job they’re supposed to do, our first three starters come out strong. The soft stop right now is our pitchers, that’s our weakest spot right now. I think if we get guys to hold them, we’ll win some ballgames. It was fielding, now it’s our secondary pitching.”
He added, “(Yermin) Mercedes is a big asset to the team, he’s probably one of the best hitters in the league. The guy comes out to play everyday. We’ve scored a ton of runs in Alpine, we’ve beat them the first five innings of every game we’ve played them and we just didn’t finish it. We can compete with anyone in the league. Hitting will come around, we got to finish games.”
White Sands will return home for an eight-game homestand beginning with the Las Vegas Train Robbers Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
“We’re trying to make the playoffs,” said Brandi. “We’re trying to turn this thing around. I think if we could win every series from here on out we got a shot. I just got here, I’m doing what I can for the team, help out and do my part, hopefully everyone else does their part.”