Mats’ streak snapped
AWC falls to Coyotes in game two of twin bill for 1st loss since March 3
The Arizona Western baseball team couldn’t keep its winning streak alive on Tuesday as the Matadors split a doubleheader with Chandler-Gilbert.
The Matadors extended their winning streak to 12 games in the first game of the day with a 6-2 win over the Coyotes (18-16, 5-13 ACCAC), but that streak came to an end after a slow start led to a 10-3 loss in game two.
“In the game of baseball you can’t win them all, but it’s not the way you want it to go,” AWC coach Drew Keehn said. “We didn’t have great starting pitching and that put us in a hole.
“When you’re down, you can’t run your offense. You can’t really do anything. You just have to try and get on base. We just dug ourselves into a hole in game two and it was too big.”
AWC (24-9, 9-5 ACCAC) won the opener behind Spencer Packard’s 2-for-3 and two runs, Yodelvy Merendez’s two RBIs and Daylan Nanny’s 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Irving Martin, who threw four shutout innings, was the winning pitcher. Martin struck 4 batters out.
The Matadores scored a run in each of the first two innings to jump ahead early and stay there for the game.
A slow start in the second game ended the winning streak as Chandler-Gilbert jumped all over the Matadores’ starter Chris Koeiman.
Koeiman pitched 2 1/3 innings with eight earned runs. He gave up eight hits, including a three-run shot in the top of the second that put the Matadors down 6-0 in the third.
He was pulled in the top of the third inning, but the team was already down 8-0.
AWC scattered 12 hits and left 13 runners on base