PECOS LEAGUE: White Sands Pupfish rout Alpine Cowboys 16-5
Peter Dindinger
Three White Sands Pupfish homered in a 16-5 rout of the Alpine Cowboys on Thursday at the Griggs Sports Complex.
White Sands is now 5-3 at home. The win gives the Pupfish (14-9) a two-game lead over Alpine (12-11) in the Southern Division.
Alpine got on the board early with a solo homer by Colin Forgey in the top of the first inning. White Sands' Wesley Wallace hit a two-run homer in what was a three-run inning for the Pupfish in the bottom of the first.
Will Dupont hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second to help give White Sands a 7-1 lead.
The Pupfish scattered six hits while pushing across six runs in the bottom of the seventh to lead 13-5.
Starter Cameron Powers (3-2) threw a complete game nine-hitter with two strikeouts. In addition Powers went 2 for 2 with a double and a single along with two walks. He reached base five times. Powers was hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the eighth.
"Cameron gave us nine strong innings. He had that one little hiccup," Pupfish manager Mickey Speaks said. "He got on base all five times. Anytime a pitcher can give you a complete game and he gets on base five times, can't ask for nothing more. Anytime we can beat Alpine it's a good thing. That's a very good baseball team. Hopefully we can carry this on through the rest of the series. We cannot have nothing less than a split with them."
Wallace's homer was his third of the season. He finished 1 for 3 with two RBIs. Joe Borowski went 2 for 4 with a single, double and two RBIs. Borowski has 18 RBIs on the season and seven in his last three at-bats.
Ben Lott homered for the third time this season. Lott went 1 for 4 while driving in three runs. Dupont added to White Sands 16 total hits with a 2 for 5 outing that included a homer, single and two RBIs. Dupont is 8 for 19 (.421) since joining the Pupfish June 7.
Dupont hit .242 in his three-year career in the minor leagues. He spent time in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League with the Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros.
"I got real lucky with joining such a great team," Dupont said. "I love the guys and I'm just humbled to get an opportunity to play for such a great organization and team. We plan on winning a Pecos League championship and I feel like our team's much more close knit than some other teams which may give us an advantage in a game or two just staying together and not playing as individuals."
Alpine's Daniel Aldrich slugged his second homer of the year to finish 1 for 4 with three RBIs. Colby Gee ranks second on the Cowboys with 37 hits. Gee went 2 for 4 with two singles. His .457 average is second-best in the league behind teammate Derrick Fox.
Yuta Okazaki finished 3 for 4 with two singles and a triple.
Robert Silky (1-1) suffered his first loss in his first start. Silky tossed two innings allowing seven earned runs off seven hits. David Gates, Mike Straub and J.J. Graham combined for nine walks and seven earned runs in 5 3/4 innings of relief.
"Starting off I had to work them backwards to get them off the fastball," Powers said. "As I got tired I had to work them with a fastball because I couldn't reach all my off-speed. We flipped the switch. The guys hit great. I was relaxed and it was easy throwing. We just need to come to the field everyday with a target on our back and realize everyone's going to give us their best.
"We can't lay down for one inning, one pitch, even one second. We're going to get everybody's best shot. We should come hungry everyday."
White Sands plays in Alpine, Texas, at 7 p.m. CST tonight at Kokernot Field. The Pupfish play the Cowboys for a doubleheader Sunday. Games times are at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. CST.