By Devin Virissimo

Henderson, NV – The Coyotes took on the defending national champs one more time on Lied Field at Morse Stadium Friday night.

Herbie Good got the start for the Coyotes but his first pitch became the first run for the Roughriders.

After that, Good settled in and held the visitors stagnant through the end of the third.

The Coyotes continued the pattern of leaving runners on base until they lit up the scoreboard in the fourth.
With the bases loaded, a wild one from the Yavapai pitcher would gift the Coyotes the tying run.

Just two pitches later, Blake Wiggins would send a deep shot over the left field scoreboard to give the Coyotes a 4-1 advantage.
The Roughriders would not give in as they would score two more runs in the fourth.

Jay Martz' RBI single would score Jordan Macias in the bottom of the fourth to strengthen the Coyotes lead.

Once again, Yavapai would not back down as they tied up the game with two runs in the 5^th.

Bryce Bartlett would replace Good on the hill for the Coyotes, but the visitors would retake the lead with an RBI ground out in top half of the 6^th.

In the bottom half of the 6^th, Wiggins would step up to the plate with two on and two down. The third baseman sent a shot down the line to collect his fourth and fifth RBI of the game while retaking the Coyotes lead.

A scoreless seventh would be followed by a controversial eighth as Blake Inouye took over on the hill for the Coyotes.

The Roughriders had runners on the corners before seemingly grounding out into an inning-ending double play but the umpire called the runner safe at first and the game would again be tied with two outs.

Inouye would then collect his first strike out as he gave the bats back to the good guys.

Unfortunately, the Coyotes could not take the opportunity to collect the go-ahead run 90 feet away in the bottom of the eighth.

Going into the ninth and needing to hold the top-ranked team at bay, Inouye completely shut the door on the Roughriders by striking out the side.

The Coyotes were hot heading into the bottom of the ninth with another chance to take down the defending national champs for the second time.
With one out, a Jarett Perns single followed by a Joey O'Brien walk.

Now with two down and two on, Macias would single and load the bases for the former Roughrider Christina Maggi.

Maggi would stand tough in the batter's box as his 2-1 pitch would hit him and allow Perns to score from third, giving the Coyotes a much needed walk-off win.

The Coyotes will continue on tomorrow afternoon with a double-header starting at 3:30 p.m. against the South Mountain Community College Cougars and then a 7:00 p.m. showdown against the Coyotes from Okanagan College from Kelowna, BC.

For more info, check out csncoyotes.com