YUMA, Ariz. – The Arizona Western Matadors Baseball team (1-0) opened the 2024 season with an 11-9 win over San Jacinto (0-1) thanks to an eight-run fifth inning on Friday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas.  

Robert Miranda, Nathan Houston, and Sergio De Cello combined to drive in seven of the Matadors' 11 runs with Miranda going 2-for-5 with a three-run trip and Houston finishing the game 1-for-5 with two runs batted in while De Cello went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.

The Matadors jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, scoring a pair of runs on a Houston single. After San Jacinto tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the second, the Matadors batted 14 times in the fifth inning, scoring eight runs highlighted by the Miranda three-run triple and a Sergio De Cello two-run double.

San Jacinto went on to score the next seven runs of the game to cut the Matadors' lead to 10-9 before Mason Ulm provided the Matadors' with an insurance run in the ninth inning, driving in Miranda with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 11-9.

Aiden Schmidgall closed the door shut in the bottom of the ninth inning, working around a hit and a walk while recording a strike-out to pick up the save. Brady Nelson earned the win for the Matadors, allowing two earned runs over four innings of work in the start, allowing just four hits.

The Matadors are back in action on Saturday, January 27, taking on Utah State Eastern at 10:00 am MST before taking on the hosts, College of Southern Nevada, at 1:15 pm at Morse Stadium.