Seventh Heaven: Suns Stop North Lake
IRVING, Texas – Seven never felt better.
Dallas College Cedar Valley's baseball team won its seventh straight game Wednesday, beating Dallas College North Lake, 8-3, in the opening game of the Dallas Athletic Conference three-game series. In the process, Suns starting pitcher Caleb Pacheco won his National Junior College Athletic Association Division III-leading seventh game this season.
The Suns (24-11, 10-6 DAC) were scheduled to host Wednesday's game, but field conditions switched the game to North Lake (15-20, 7-9). The two teams are scheduled to play Game 2 at Cedar Valley 12 p.m. Thursday.
Cedar Valley improved to 15-7 on the road this season.
Cooper Brewer went 3-for-5 with a triple and four runs batted in, and Blaine Thomas was 3-for-5 with a triple and an RBI for the Suns. Caden Robertson, the NJCAA Division III Player of the Week, had two hits, including a double, and walked once. Antonio Sabala was 3-for-6 with an RBI, and Elian Gonzales had two hits in six trips to the plate. Daniel Brandon III was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Pacheco improved to 7-1 on the mound, scattering four hits and three walks without allowing a run in six innings of work. He had six strikeouts. Landon Kinder earned his third save after giving up four hits, three runs, one earned, and no walks to go along with four strikeouts in three innings of relief.
The Suns scored their first run in the top of the second inning on a wild inning-ending double play. Brewer sent a liner into right field, scoring Matthew Marsic. The throw went to North Lake shortstop Tyler Yancey, who with two other runners on base, fired the ball to right fielder Carlos Pirela, who crept in to cover the infield. Pirela cut down a runner at the plate before the Suns ran themselves out of an inning when another runner was tagged out at third base in an attempt to advance.
In the third, Thomas tripled to right, scoring Gonzales to make it 2-0.
North Lake starter Gabby Aragon kept the Suns off the board the next two innings before Brewer singled to center in the sixth, scoring Jayden Ramos. Cedar Valley added four more in the seventh on an RBI single by Brandon III, an RBI triple by Brewer, an RBI single by Ryan Talley and an error.
That cushioned the Suns' lead to eight.
North Lake put three runs on the board in the bottom of the eighth, but Kinder got out of the inning with a strikeout, and then retired the last three batters he faced to seal the verdict.
