Suns Bust Out for 21 to Even Series with Thunderducks

LANCASTER, Texas – Dallas College Cedar Valley's baseball team bounced back in a big way Thursday, winning Game 2 of its three-game set with previously-ranked Dallas College Richland 21-9 at Lancaster High School.

The Suns, which have beaten ranked North Lake and Richland in successive series, will host the Thunderducks 12 p.m. Friday in the rubber game.

Julio Cuotto had five hits, including a home run and three doubles, and drove in five runs in six at-bats, and Hill Wiley went 4 for 6 with two doubles and four RBI, accounting for nearly half of the Suns' run production in a game where the bats were booming. They avenged a 12-6 loss to the Thunderducks in Game 1 a day earlier.

Cuotto's five RBI matched his career best.

Cedar Valley (16-27, 5-18 Dallas Athletic Conference) had 16 hits, and scored 20 runs for the third time this season – the first against a junior college opponent.

Blake Brown pitched the final 4 1/3 innings, allowing a run on five hits and a walk, and struck out a career-high nine batters in a shut down performance to close the door. He inherited an 8-5 deficit, and kept the Thunderducks off the board in three of the four innings, while recording the final out of the fifth after Richland (21-23-1, 13-10 DAC) scored three times in the bottom of the fifth to take a three-run lead.

The Suns, who used multiple hits also from Kai Kirchheiner and Elandis Taylor, scored twice in the sixth to pull within an run, and then exploded for seven in the seventh. They put the game away with five more in the ninth after doubling their lead to 16-8 in the eighth.

Kirchheiner doubled and drove in three runs. Easton Bettcher had two RBI.

It was the third straight game Cedar Valley pounded double-digit hits – two of those games resulting in wins over the top teams in the conference.