A Tuesday afternoon baseball matinee is a bonus for college baseball coaches.
With conference contests dominating the schedule on the weekends, the weekday games allow teams a chance to take a look at players who wouldn’t normally see much playing time.
Such was the opportunity presented to Odessa College coach Kurtis Lay.
Facing Western Junior College Athletic Conference foe Western Texas College in a nonconference game, Lay watched the Wranglers score in every inning en route to a 18-10 victory at Wrangler Field.
Odessa College improved to 12-7 with the victory, 8-1 at home this season.
“The idea is always to get your starters some at bats and then get your starters out of there and get the guys who don’t get to see as may live at bats, let them see some live pitching in a game-time scenario,” Lay said. “That way, if you need to use them on the weekends, they’re ready.”
Five different Wranglers had at least two hits in the 16-hit outburst, with 12 different players driving in at least one run.
Austin Russell, off the bench, was 3 for 3 with two doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs for Odessa College.
Tyson Pointer homered for the Wranglers, with Cade McGlade and Tucker Gideon each adding triples to the victory.
Allesandro Acevedo was 3 for 5 with 1 runs scored and three RBIs to lead Western Texas.
Lawson Knight, the Westerners’ leadoff hitter, finished 3 for 4 with a pair of RBIs.
Both teams put pressure on the opposing defense as there was no half inning without at least one base runner and it most innings, multiple base runners.
In the end, the teams combined for 28 runs, 27 hits, seven errors, 16 walks and two hit batters (one each).
“I just had to get them out there,” Lay said of his pitchers. “We would have liked to have seen them throw the baseball a little bit better, but you know, for some of them they haven’t had a whole lot of innings on the mound and I think the more we can run them out there, after good outing, capitalize on some momentum and get the ball rolling down hill for them.”
After Western Texas threatened in the top of the first inning, the Wranglers broke through when Brandon Rincones led off with a single to center field, moved to second base on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a ground ball out and then scored on another ground out for a quick 1-0 lead.
The Westerners responded with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning, followed by Odessa College tying the game on doubles by Conor Myles and Liam MacDonald.
Western Texas pushed another run across in the third inning, but Pointer put the Wranglers in front for good with a two-run home run to right-center field.
After holding the Westerners scoreless in the fourth inning, Odessa College manufactured three runs in the bottom of the inning via a pair of walks, a triple and an error to get some breathing room.
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