Pitching key again in Nunez road sweep of Spring hill

MOBILE, Ala.  –  Freshman Landon Cortez pitched the second complete-game shutout in team history, a 2-hitter, and Lutcher’s Noah Detillier continued his blistering pace at the plate with a home run and double in each game, as Nunez Community College won its sixth straight game and 10 of its last 12 in taking both ends of a twi-night doubleheader from the Spring Hill College Junior Varsity Monday at Sims-Galle Field.

Cortez, who tossed Nunez’s first such masterpiece exactly one month ago, also in Mobile against Bishop State, recorded 9 strikeouts in Game 1 while yielding just 2 hits and 3 walks.  The Hahnville right-hander took a no-hitter deep into the sixth inning, before finally giving up an “unearned” hit on Parker Doyle’s grounder into left field following a 2-out infield error on a routine grounder.

In the nightcap, sophomore starter Payton Cooper followed up his 5-inning, 1-hit performance just 6 days ago against Triton College, going another 5 innings in scattering 4 hits and yielding just 2 earned runs while striking out 4 and walking four.

GAME 1 – NUNEZ  5   SPRING HILL  0   (7 innings)

Nunez opened the scoring in the top of the second as Aidan Lambert tripled to deep right-center and then was awarded home as the throw to third bounded into the Nunez dugout.

The Pelicans then plated three in the fourth as Evan Rohlfs lined a single to left and Lambert was hit-by-pitch.  Rohlfs then tagged and moved to 3rd on James Bendeck’s long fly-out to right, after which Lambert stole second.  Ashtyn Ellis then scored both runners with a line single to left field.  Detillier next followed with a line double into left field to plate Ellis and put the Pels up 4-0.

Later in the sixth, Detillier launched a 1-out towering fly ball that stretched over the left field wall for a homer to give the Pelicans their final 5-0 margin.

Pinch-hitter Eli Benoit lined a 1-out single to left for the Badgers in the bottom of the 7th to account for the second hit off Cortez.

                            Nunez –  010 301 0 –   5  6  3

                    Spring Hill –  000 000 0 –   0  2  4                         

                               W – Cortez   L – Riley. 

                     Cortez and Rohlfs.   Riley, Mahoney (5),

                          McKeever (6), Coe (7) and Carrera.

                    2B – Detillier. 3B – Lambert. HR – Detillier.

GAME 2 – NUNEZ  9   SPRING HILL  4   (7 innings)

The home team took their only lead of the night in the bottom of the first as John Mahoney scored on a passed ball, after opening the inning with a single and moving to third on Jared Heck’s double.

The Pelicans tied it in the second as Lambert opened with a walk and raced all the way home on Davison Stokes’ smoker into the left-center gap for a double, and then grabbed the lead for good in the third on Detillier’s second homer of the night, a long solo blast over the 370-ft sign in left center. The Pels then added another in the inning as Reggie Bergeron’s 2-out ground single into centerfield scored Collin Zeringue who had earlier reached on a base-on-balls.

Spring Hill cut it to 3-2 with an unearned run in the fourth as Doyle singled to right, stole second and moved to third as the throw from the plate sailed into centerfield, and then scored on a wild pitch.

But Nunez then managed single runs in the next 2 innings.  In the fifth, Crews walked and Zeringue was hit by pitch. Lambert then reached on a fielder’s choice that forced Zeringue at second and moved Crews to third.  The baserunners then pulled off a double-steal with Crews beating the throw home to make it 4-2.

Stokes’ speed then gave the Pelicans their next run as, after leading off with a walk and swipe of second, Stokes alertly stole third on an attempted pick-off of Detillier at first who had walked, and then scored on a wild pitch.  With the Pels now up 5-2, reliever Ira Austin relieved Cooper with that 3-run lead to start the sixth and pitched out of a 1-out bases-loaded jam with a strikeout and pop-out.

Nunez put the game out of reach with 4 runs in the seventh.  After Zeringue led off with another walk and Caleb Webb followed with a line single to left, Bergeron notched his second RBI of the game with a line single to left to plate Zeringue from second.  Stokes then grounded into a fielder’s choice at second, with Webb coming around to score on the wild throw to first on the back-end of the double-play attempt. Bendeck then reached on infield error, after which Ellis plated Stokes from third with an infield single in back of third, and Detillier then doubled home Bendeck from second with a liner to center to move the score to 9-2.

Finally in the seventh after the Badgers plated one run on a hit-by-pitch, passed ball, and single, Austin bore down to strike out Riley McKeever for the first out of the seventh before handing it off to Andre Roux after qualifying for the hold.  Spring Hill managed one more in the seventh as Mahoney singled, took second on defensive indifference, and then scored after a wild pitch and passed ball to make it 9-4.  But Roux then struck out the final 2 batters to end the night, giving him 5 kayos in his last 1.2 innings of work.

                            Nunez –  012 011 4  –  9   7  1

                    Spring Hill –  100 100 2  –  4   7  2                                        

                      W – Cooper. L – Blessing.  H – Austin

                Cooper, Austin (6), Adr Roux (7) and Webb.  

                           Coe, Blessing (3), Bennison (6),  

                     D Wilson (7) and Benoit, Edmond (5).

                  2B – Detillier, Stokes, Heck. HR – Detillier.

Detillier again led the Pels offensively over both games, going 4-for-7 with those pair of round-trippers, 2 doubles, 2 walks, and 4 RBI’s, while reaching  base 6-of-9 times from the lead-off spot.

NEXT UP:

The Pelicans open conference play this weekend with a 4-game series against Delgado Community College at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium.  The teams will start with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 25 beginning at 1PM and will follow with a single game Sunday, also at 1PM.  After an off-day on Monday, the series will conclude with a single game Tuesday evening, March 28 at 6PM.