Justin Garcia was charting pitches in February when Western Nevada Community College played New Mexico Junior College in a doubleheader in Hobbs, N.M.
“That helped me a lot being on the book and getting a scouting report on them,” Garcia said. “My changeup was working real well, keeping them off balance.”
What Garcia learned came in handy three months later, when he faced the Thunderbirds in the Alpine Bank Junior College World Series.
“We knew we could play with them, we just couldn’t get a W down there (the Wildcats lost 2-1 and tied 5-5). It was a long time ago.
“We took a good scouting report out of there. It’s pretty important.”
Garcia kept the ball down, made the Thunderbirds hit ground balls and let his defense do the work in an 8-4 victory Monday afternoon.
It was the first time New Mexico had lost a game in the JUCO World Series. When the Thunderbirds made their first trip to Grand Junction in 2005, they swept through the tournament.
It wasn’t that the Thunderbirds didn’t hit the ball — they had 11 hits, Western Nevada nine — it’s that they didn’t get the pitching and defense that’s critical this time of year.
“When you face good pitching, you’ve got to play good championship (baseball),” New Mexico coach Ray Birmingham said. “We’ve always had double digit hitting in Grand Junction. This is the first game we’ve lost in Grand Junction.
“It isn’t about the hitting. It’s about playing catch, pitching and defense. We’ve struggled all year with pitching and defense.”
The T-birds committed three errors and starting pitcher Adam Kramer had all kinds of control problems.
He hit four batters, two of them squaring to bunt, and plunked two in the third inning to set up Thomas Miller’s grand slam, breaking a 1-1 tie.
“Everybody’s dream is to be up there with the bases loaded,” Miller said. “I was just fortunate to get a pitch I could handle.
“The first at-bat he threw me three breaking balls and made me look pretty foolish. I took a fastball and I knew he’d throw me another (breaking ball).”
That pitch was a hanging breaking ball, and he was ready.
Western Nevada, a second-year program that plays in a wood bat league, didn’t abandon its wood-bat game when the Wildcats grabbed aluminum bats this week.
“We’re not really changing our style much,” Miller said.
After Miller got the hanging breaking ball he was looking for to hit his grand slam, the Wildcats tacked on three runs in the sixth.
With one out, Andrew Ferguson hit a sinking liner to center field. New Mexico’s Everett Evans tried to make a diving catch, but the ball skipped past him and rolled all the way to the wall.
Ferguson ended up with a triple and came home on a squeeze bunt by Taylor Mieras.
Kramer fielded the ball cleanly, but his toss to catcher Luis Cruz was too soft and he couldn’t make the play. Pat Grennan followed with a pinch-hit single to center that Evans misplayed, scoring another run and putting Grennan on third.
He came home on a base hit by Kyle Bondurant.
After New Mexico cut the lead to 8-4 with three runs in the bottom of the sixth — Brian Cavazos-Galvez hit a solo home run and Coty Wilson doubled home two runs — Dan Grubbs relieved Garcia and allowed two hits over 31⁄3 innings.
“I’ve got to give all the credit in the world to our starting pitcher, Justin Garcia, and our reliever, Dan Grubbs,” Miller said. “When those guys are in there, we’ve got all the confidence in the world.”
•
Patti Arnold can be reached via e-mail at parnold@gjds.com.
