T-Birds Battle Gauchos Till Final Out, Mesa Conquers, 9-8

Mesa, AZ- The Glendale Gauchos gave Mesa all they could handle Friday night but Mesa came out victories in an ACCAC DII matchup, 9-8.

Jacob Boston singled to center to bring home Jarred Crockett to start the scoring for the T-Birds in the bottom of the first.

On the afternoon, Boston had four RBI's on two hits. 

Mitchell Morimoto then knocked in Hunter Bross on a sac fly in the third inning to push Mesa's lead to 2-0.

The T-Birds added another run in the fourth inning to give Mesa a comfortable 3-0 lead.  Michael Warning was pitching well for Mesa, not allowing a hit until the top of the fifth inning when Glendale's offense woke up and rallied to four runs of their own and take the lead,4-3.

Mesa tied it in the bottom half of the inning with a Mike Roberson bomb over the left field fence, his second of the season.

The T-Birds gave up the lead again the following inning, allowing two more Gauchos runs but Mesa came back again in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs on four hits and a walk to take 7-6 lead into the seventh.

Esteban Martinez started the eigth inning by roping a double to the right center field fence and he was quickly brought home on a Kody Funderburk single.  Roberson then singled which he eventually came around and scored, making it 9-6 heading into the top of the ninth inning.

The Gauchos made things interesting, getting three hits along with a walk, scoring two runs but Nick Ohanian nailed the door shut for Mesa, giving him his seventh save of the season, which ties him for second in the country in saves.

The T-Birds and Gauchos will be back at it tomorrow at Glendale, first pitch at noon.