No matter how you spell it, even the best teams and players are going to come back down to earth after playing at high levels for an extended period.
The Mavericks had examples of both Saturday against New Mexico Highlands. CMU enjoyed a 3-2 win in game one but couldn’t muster a fourth consecutive doubleheader sweep as they fell 7-6 in game two.
After six straight quality starts, senior Garrett Hutson suffered his worst loss of the season as the starter in the second game. He surrendered seven runs on seven hits and three home runs, all season highs, and never seemed to find the right rhythm against a powerful Cowboy’s lineup.
“I thought his pace was too slow,” Hanks said, “and I didn’t think he was sharp last week either. He didn’t look comfortable; his pace was too slow. The first or second visit I told him to pick up the pace, and we quit calling pitches in [the dugout] cause that was slowing it up. He was actually better there for a spell when he was working at a better clip.”
Highlands third baseman Gaylen Young, who homered Friday night, added another home run to his weekend tally with two outs in the first. This time, he tagged Hutson, who stood in disbelief as the ball reached the bleachers in left field.
Hutson came into the outing as one of the hottest starters in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. He had given up just five runs over his last 31 innings of work. The seven runs allowed increased his earned run average to 2.61, nearly a full run higher than it stood before the game (1.66).
Carlos Ramirez, the Cowboys’ designated hitter, was on a mission to play spoiler. The slugger belted a three-run shot over the wall in left in the third and duplicated the feat in the fifth, this time to the scoreboard in right center, to hand Highlands a 7-1 lead.
Both home runs were against Hutson, who gave up three home runs on the day after allowing just three home runs in 54 ⅓ innings all season.
Hutson did strike out the side in the fourth, and although Hutson struggled for the first time in weeks, several Mavericks seemed to deter from the line drive approach from Friday night’s game.
“They seemed flat all day to me,” Hanks said. “I think if we don’t get the great outing from Andrew on the mound, we might have lost two today. We thought the hitters were a little off in BP this morning.”
The loss didn’t come without a valiant comeback effort, though. Highlands entered the bottom of the fifth with a six-run lead and seemed to be in control, but no one told CMU that.
Josh Shapiro and Hunter Douglas hit back-to-back no doubt home runs in the fifth to cut the deficit to 7-3, and Chase Hamilton kept the line moving with a towering two-run shot to the bleachers an inning later.
Two batters later, Douglas admired his second home run of the game with another no-doubter to left field.
Saturday’s games were Douglas’s first since April 7th. He had been out with a sore hamstring, but you couldn’t tell with the way he played on Saturday. He finished the day 4-for-7 with two home runs and three RBIs.
Freshman Andrew Morris, named RMAC pitcher of the week for last week’s complete game one-hit performance, was two outs away from a no-hitter in game one when Ramirez, who DH’ed both games, looped a single over the head of shortstop Caleb Farmer with one out in the seventh, ending the no-hit bid.
“Where I messed up, I was trying not to think about it so much that I would think about it,” Morris said. “I knew everybody had me and we would win no matter what. I was trying not to think about it while I was out there cause I didn’t want to jinx anything.”
“He was close, wasn’t he? Hanks said. “That’s how they get broken up. It’s never anything firm it doesn’t seem like. That’s hard to do. He came close; that’s the closest we’ve had a kid in some time.”
Hanks left Morris in to finish the game, but the right-hander allowed a walk and an RBI single and was pulled for Will Dixon, ending his day at 6 ⅓ innings, two runs, two hits, four walks, and 11 strikeouts.
Even though he struck out 11, Morris felt he lacked command on the day.
“I didn’t feel like I had a lot of control,” Morris said. “So I was just trying to miss barrels and hit my spots the best I could. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
The Cowboys kept the game tense with another RBI single from Kalen Hammer to cut the deficit to 3-2. Auggie Francis, one of Highland’s best hitters, came to the plate with the tying run on second but struck out swinging after Dixon blew a 1-2 fastball by him.
Stubbings gave Morris some run support with a two-run home run to the left-field bleachers in the first, his second home run in as many days.
Spencer Bramwell added an RBI single in the third in the game one victory.
