Box Score

By James Hernandez

The College of Southern Nevada escaped day two of the Western District playoffs with a pair of close victories over Trinidad State and Arizona Western College.

Staring elimination in the face for a third straight game, the Coyotes braced for a heavyweight slugfest with Central Arizona College.

CAC got to "Championship Saturday" through the winners bracket by blasting the Coyotes 15-5 and outlasting the Matadors 5-2.

CSN jumped on CAC early, dropping a three spot on Peyton Remy and putting the Vaqueros on notice. Jordan Macias and Christian Maggi led off the game with back to back doubles, followed by RBI hits off the bat of Blake Wiggins and Dillon Johnson. The Coyotes continued to approach each plate appearance with a sense of urgency, scoring one run in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh.

Staring a 7-1 deficit in the the face, the Vaqueros rallied back for a pair of runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to trim the CSN lead to 7-4 heading into the top of the ninth.

With all the momentum seemingly in the corner of the Vaqueros, the Coyotes flipped the script in the top of the ninth with a six spot that put the game on ice.

Nicco Festa got the scoring started with a two-RBI single and Jordan Macias followed two batters later with a rope double that brought another pair of runs to the plate. With CSN in control 11-4 Wiggins found some outfield grass back up the box to plate two more runs, followed by RBI singles off the bats of Jarrett Perns and Dillon Johnson. When the dust had finally settled the Coyotes held a 15-4 advantage over the Vaqueros.

CSN surrendered a run in the bottom of the ninth, but closed the show by a final score of 15-5. The victory forced a winner-take-all championship game for the 2017 Western District Championships between CSN and CAC later Saturday afternoon.