Region V tournament field announced; Tbirds earn No. 2 Seed in the west

Lubbock, TEXAS

On Monday morning, the NJCAA Region V tournament bracket was released and the NMJC Thunderbirds, as expected, earned the No. 2 seed on the west side and will play host to No. 3 seed from the north, Cisco College, at 10:00 A.M. CST (9:00 A.M. MST) on Friday, May 13, 2016 at Dan Law Field on the campus of Texas Tech.

NMJC's opponent, Cisco, will enter Friday's contest with a 42-14 (21-11) record. They're led on the mound by Jeb Bargfeldt who is 9-1 with a 4.36 ERA and at the plate, they are led by first baseman, Zachary Reams who hit .481 with 14 home runs and 86 RBI's on the season.

Offensively, the Thunderbirds will be a force to be reckoned with.  NMJC ended the regular season with 119 homeruns finishing second in the country.  They led the NJCAA in extra base hits (299), total bases (1227) and slugging percentage (.709).  They were third in runs (598) and doubles (149).

Seven Thunderbirds hit double-digit homeruns led by Jesse Becton with 18. Travon Benton (17), Luis Pintor (15), Jeff Deimling & Zac Sanders (12), Larry Leitha (11), and Angel De Jesus (10) rounded out the homeruns.

Benton led the Thunderbirds with 70 RBI's while hitting .354. Deimling (.413) and Pintor (.398) each finished the season with 69 RBI's.

Pintor lead the Tbirds  in runs scored with 69 while stealing 32 bases.

On the mound, the Thunderbirds were led by Blake Walden who was a perfect 11-0 with 4.24 ERA in 14 starts and 64 strikeouts. Fellow hurler Roberto Delgado led the Thunderbirds in strikeouts as he fanned 92 batters in 72.1 innings. Delgado finished third on the team with 6 wins. Alex Pinedo finished his freshman campaign with a 7-2 record and 77 strikeouts.

Eight baseball teams from Region V schools qualified for the tournament which will play out May 13th through 16th.

The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic birth to the NJCAA National Tournament which is held in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Midland College is the top seed from the WJCAC. NMJC locked down the second seed while Howard College (No. 3) and New Mexico Military Institute (No. 4) round out the qualifiers from the west.

In the NTJCAC, McLennan Community College is the top seed, Grayson College is second, Cisco College is third and Hill College is fourth.

All games of the Region V Tournament will be streamed at www.psblive.com.