Spartans send coach off with smile on his face

Cimarron-Memorial baseball coach Mike Hubel was in a hurry Thursday night, so a quick pitchers’ duel would have served him well.

That’s not what he got, however.

Instead, Hubel was forced to rush from the dugout immediately after the game in an effort to catch a plane on a family matter. He was able to do so with a smile on his face, though, as his third-seeded Spartans outlasted No. 2 Bishop Gorman in a 34-hit, 3 hour, 13 minute marathon for a 13-9 victory in the American Legion state tournament at UNLV’s Wilson Stadium.

The same teams will face off again at 7 p.m. Friday, with the winner advancing to Saturday’s championship game against Liberty.

“It’s always good to beat one of the top teams,” said Hubel, whose squad used a 23-hit attack to win it. “But we’ve got a good team too. We’re young, but we’re good. Hopefully we can face anybody at this level.”

The Spartans never appeared intimidated by the perennial powerhouse Titans, as Logan Bottrell opened the game with a line single to right field. By the time the dust cleared, they had scored two runs in the first inning, and would go on to score five more in the next two innings.

Gorman came to life in the middle innings, cutting the deficit to 8-4 with a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth.

“We knew they weren’t going to quit,” Hubel said. “Luckily we put some runs on the board. That’s what you’ve got to do against those guys.”

The Spartans appeared to put the game away with a three-run seventh, but Gorman responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 12-8. But the Titans left the bases loaded in the seventh and again in the eighth to seal their fate.

“We just answered back tonight,” said Hubel, whose team will be led Friday by his assistants. “They scored a couple, and we scored a couple.”

Nick Borowski went 4-for-5 with a double, a triple and an RBI to lead Cimarron, and teammate Trevor Lippard was 4-for-5 with three runs.

Matt Hudgins went 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and three RBIs to lead the Titans.

The late game was even more of a marathon, going 11 innings and lasting 3 hours, 52 minutes. In the end, James Martz's fielder's choice in the 11th inning drove in the winning run with two outs  to help top-seeded Liberty eliminate No. 4 Desert Oasis with a 11-10 victory.

The Patriots, who rallied from a 10-9 deficit to tie it with a run in the eighth inning, remained undefeated in the tournament and advanced to Saturday’s championship game.