Thunderbirds baseball slumps near season end
Stephen Peck
MesaCC Legend
Thunderbird baseball is in a slump losing five of the last seven games. Baseball will wrap up at the end of April and playoffs will begin for those that advance. Mesa is currently #3 in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC). This is the first significant losing streak for the Thunderbirds this season, opposite of what is normal for the team. The losing streak began with Arizona Central College, which the Mesa Legend ran an article about in its last edition. The team then traveled down to Yuma to play a doubleheader against the Matadors of Arizona Western College. Mesa would split the doubleheader with the Matadors which were run in reverse order as they played only 7-innings in the first game and after a traditional game.
The Thunderbirds fell in Game 1, 6-2. The bats were not awake for MCC as they only mustered 6 hits in the game. Game 2 MCC squeaked out a win, 7-6, off of 10 hits and two errors in the game. The Gauchos from Glendale Community College were next on the docket for Mesa. The first game was in Glendale and the Thunderbirds lost 9-1. MCC just could not get the ball going in this game. They had 32 at bats and whiffed on all but 5 attempts. The Gauchos, on the other hand, put runs on the scoreboard in every inning except the second, fifth, and seventh. The two teams played each other the next day in Mesa. The Gauchos claimed victory in our house, 9-4.
Mesa put all four of their runs on the board in the sixth inning with first baseman Riley Peterson hitting a Grand Slam. Glendale put up runs eight and nine in the top of the inning. Mesa went down swinging. They had three strikeouts, five walks, and seven hits. MCC decimated Arizona Christian University at home on April 4, 16-3. The Mesa CC Legend cannot provide any stats because the athletic website does not have any to provide. The Thunderbirds next games were in Prescott on April 7 against Yavapai College.
