Cave blast, Dionne gem lead T-Birds to win in Region 5 opener

LUBBOCK — A three-run home run by Jacy Cave in the first inning was all New Mexico Junior College pitcher Jean-Francois Dionne needed as the sophomore tossed a complete game to help the Thunderbirds past No. 13 Weatherford 6-2 on Friday in the opening round of the Region 5 Tournament at Rip Griffin Park.

In Dionne's nine innings of work, the right-hander gave up two runs (one earned) on 11 hits with four strikeouts and one walk in shutting down the Coyote bats. Dionne threw 138 pitches in the game with 86 for strikes.

NMJC (39-18) jumped right on Weatherford (34-14) from the start as Luis Pintor walked to start the game, and after a strikeout, Travon Benton singled to put two runners on for Cave.

Cave then blasted a ball over the fence in left field to give the T-Birds a 3-0 advantage.

Weatherford got its lone earned run off of Dionne in the bottom of the first on an RBI groundout by Turner to cut the NMJC advantage to 3-1.

NMJC got the run back in the top of the second as Zac Sanders, who walked with one out, scored on a Pintor single to right field to push the T-Bird advantage to 4-1.

NMJC got rolling again in the third when Cave and Austin Botello started the inning with singles and Jeff Deimling eventually cashed in with an RBI single to left to make it 5-1.

Weatherford scored in the fourth to make it 5-2 before NMJC answered with an RBI single by Deimling in the fifth to make it 6-2 as neither team scored the rest of the way.

Cave finished 2-for-5 for NMJC with three RBI and two runs and Deimling was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Matt Walker got the loss for Weatherford, going eight innings and giving up six runs (four earned) on eight hits with eight strikeouts and two walks.

Valente Canada went 3-for-4 with a double for Weatherford while Sam Mahofski was 3-for-5 and Zac Michener was 2-for-4.

NMJC takes on McLennan 5 p.m. (CST) today. McLennan defeated Western Junior College Athletic Conference champion Howard College 6-3 on Friday.