PRESCOTT, Ariz. – It was a great day at Roughrider Park for the Yavapai College baseball team as it hosted the No. 20-ranked (NJCAA DII) Glendale Community College Gauchos and earned a sweep via a walkoff and a dominant pitching performance with scores of 9-7 and 8-1, respectively. 

"This team continues to pick each other up," said Head Coach Patrick Woods after the sweep. "They never stop getting after it! We know there is a long way to go in this thing and we are going to keep grinding."

The Roughriders have now won six in a row and 10 of their last 11 to push their overall record to 18-11 and conference record to 13-7. 

Game One
It was a dream start offensively for the Roughriders in game one as sophomore outfielder Blake Jacklin sent the first pitch of the ballgame over the right field fence for a quick 1-0 lead and his fourth homer of the season. 

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— Yavapai Baseball (@YavapaiBaseball) March 28, 2023

The next batter, freshman outfielder Nolan Sparks, singled up the middle and moved to third on a single to right off the bat of freshman catcher Wailele Kane-Yates. After Kane-Yates' at-bat and a Roughrider stolen base of second, sophomore infielder Ethan Thomas tallied YC's fourth-consecutive hit with a two-run single up the middle and the Roughriders led 3-0 in the blink of an eye. 

The quick strike did not deter the Gauchos, however, as they responded with four runs in the next two innings (three of which came on three solo homers) and led 4-3 heading into the bottom of the fourth. 

In the fourth, sophomore outfielder Jude Hall walked and stole second and later came around to score on an RBI double off the bat of sophomore outfielder Jackson Lapiner. One inning later, the Roughriders took their second lead of the day on a solo homer off the bat of Kane-Yates, his third of the season. 

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— Yavapai Baseball (@YavapaiBaseball) March 28, 2023

Down 5-4 in the top of the sixth, the Gauchos played comeback once more and sent three runs across home plate and threatened to score more with runners still on second and third with just one out in the inning. 

Sophomore righty Tommy Groom, however, was able to get a strikeout and induce a ground ball to get out of the jam. Overall, Groom pitched 4.1 crucial innings of relief and struck out four along the way. 

The Roughriders looked poised for another comeback in the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back one-out singles from Lapiner and freshman infielder Pierce Radke, however, the rally fell short and the game moved to the final inning. 

Despite a leadoff double in the top of the seventh, Groom worked his magic once more and was able to strand the Glendale runner and keep the score at 7-5 in favor of the Gauchos. The zero from Groom was also thanks to a stellar play from freshman infielder Niko Rosell who picked a tough hop before throwing over to first and seeing a good pick on the other end by Thomas at first base. 

Three outs away from defeat in a game where they led two separate times, the Roughriders brought the rally caps out in the seventh and it started with a leadoff single off the bat of Kane-Yates. The next batter, Thomas, sent a jolt through the park with a mammoth game-tying two-run homer to left-center to tie things up and give him four homers on the season. 

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— Yavapai Baseball (@YavapaiBaseball) March 28, 2023

The Roughriders were held scoreless after the game-tying shot and headed to extras with sophomore righty Zach Hose taking the mound in the top of the eighth. Hose made quick work of the Gauchos with a couple of strikeouts and set the stage for a dramatic bottom half of the inning. 

Lapiner walked to start the frame and remained on first base after the next hitter struck out for the first out of the inning. After the strikeout, Jacklin stepped up to the plate and ended the game the exact way that he started it: with a home run. 

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— Yavapai Baseball (@YavapaiBaseball) March 28, 2023

This time, Jacklin smashed a line drive over the right field wall for his fifth longball of the season and the walk off winner. Hose wound up taking home the win in the 9-7 affair with the aforementioned scoreless frame in the top of the eighth. 

Jacklin wound up tallying four hits in the game while Kane-Yates had three and Thomas and Lapiner each had two. Sparks and Radke finished with one apiece. 

Game Two
Roughrider ace and freshman righty Dillon Orr was not interested in a dramatic game two and instead chose to dominate on the mound in his game-two start. Orr earned his fifth victory of the season with six innings pitched, just one run and three hits allowed and six strikeouts. 

Freshman righty Kaden Schiefelbein pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Orr and tallied two strikeouts in the inning. 

With the staff holding down the Gaucho bats, the Roughriders needed a few innings to get things going offensively. In the bottom of the second, Jacklin walked with the bases loaded to give YC a 1-0 lead, however, Glendale got that run back in the third and the teams went into the fourth tied at 1-1. 

Once Orr sent the game into the bottom of the fourth after a 1-2-3 inning, it was time for a two-out rally from the Roughriders. 

With two outs and no one on, freshman catcher Avery Isola singled to left and later moved to second on a walk from Jacklin. After Jacklin, sophomore utility man Barrett Skaugrud smoked an RBI double down the line and the Roughriders reclaimed their lead. 

The next batter, Kane-Yates, singled in a run with an infield hit and was followed by a walk from Thomas to load the bases. Sophomore infielder Mitch Wood then put an exclamation mark on the two-out rally with a two-run single to push the Roughriders' lead to 5-1. 

One inning later, Isola singled in Hall, who had hit a ground rule double earlier in the frame, and Kane-Yates doubled in two more to give YC a commanding 8-1 lead that proved to be the final. 

Isola, Kane-Yates and Skaugrud each tallied two hits in game two while Thomas, Wood, Lapiner, Hall and freshman infielder Quinn Allen each had one. 

Up Next
The Roughriders are back in action on Friday, March 31, in Phoenix, Arizona, where they will take on the GateWay Community College Geckos with game one of the doubleheader set to start at noon.