Thunderbirds use Late-Inning Offense to secure comeback win over Benedictine-Mesa, 6-5

Mesa, AZ – Looking to keep their spotless record alive, the Mesa Community College baseball team (9-0), came back from a five-run deficit to topple the Benedictine-Mesa Redhawks (6-4) by a score of 7-6 on Tuesday afternoon at the Mesa Baseball Complex.  

Despite a five-run second inning from Benedictine-Mesa, the Thunderbirds used multi-hit performances from sophomores Hunter Bross and Garrett Smith, along with five strikeouts in the middle innings from freshman Holden Bernhardt to edge the Redhawks in the late innings.  

While Benedictine-Mesa's sophomore Joey Covert and freshman Sebastian Espinoza kept the Thunderbirds off of the board through the first four innings, a single by sophomore Jared Crockett scored fellow sophomores Shawn Barrowdale and Drew Bailey to give Mesa their first runs of the game.  

Bross followed up Crockett with an RBI-single of his own to cut into Mesa's deficit and make the score 5-3.  

Both teams traded runs over the next inning of play, but in the bottom of the seventh, RBI-doubles from both Bross and freshman Marcus Skundrich brought the Thunderbirds back into it and tied the game up at 6-6.  

Then with two outs in the eighth inning, Smith ripped a triple to the centerfield wall to score Bailey from first and gave Mesa their first lead of the game, 7-6.  

After freshman Jake Suddreth sat down the Redhawks in one, two, three fashion, the Thunderbirds finished off their comeback and secured the 7-6 victory.  

The Thunderbirds will open up Arizona Community College Athletic Conference play this Friday afternoon when they travel west to take on the Glendale Community College Gauchos for a scheduled first pitch of 3:00 p.m. MST.