The Colorado Northwestern Community College Spartans baseball team was able to refocus and take game four against the College of Southern Nevada Coyotes on Saturday, March 26. The victory in the series finally was bittersweet as the Spartans lost two close games the day before 4-2 in eleven innings and 7-6 in the second game. The Coyotes got the better hand of the Spartans in the series opener as they defeated the Spartans 19-5.
Determine to not allow the Coyotes to sweep the first series between the two teams, the Spartans played with a chip on their shoulder the entire fourth game. The Coyotes were able to jump ahead early with a three to nothing lead on the Spartans. The CNCC fans at the game could not tell that the Spartans were down due to the upbeat support from the dugout and on the field from the Spartan players. Parker DeYoung (Draper, Utah) drew a five pitch walk off the Coyotes in the bottom of the second inning with two outs that brought to the plate Cade Butterfield (Riverton, Utah) smacked a double down the left field line, scoring DeYoung from first base and bringing the game to a three to one lead in favor of the Coyotes.
The Coyotes did not hesitate to respond and tallied three runs on the Spartans in the top of the third inning. Shortstop Peyton Wilson (American Fork, Utah) lined a single to center field with one out in the bottom of the third inning which sparked the Spartans hitters to follow suit. Ryder Christensen (Highland, Utah) drew a walk after a battle with the CSN pitcher in seven pitches putting Spartan baserunners at first and second and only one out. Designated Hitter, Cassidy Watt (British Columbia, Canada) then took the second pitch of his at-bat and drove a line drive to right field for a single that plated Wilson for the Spartans second run of the game. Next hitter, Berk Barnes (Alpine, Utah) forced a lengthy at-bat against the Coyotes in which a balk scored Christensen from third base and moved Watt to second base and resulted in a walk for Barnes. The next Spartan hitter, Jack Rea (Edmonton, Canada) drew a walk to load the bases, but the Spartans were not able to push anymore runs across in the inning.
Pitchers Andrew Kim (Las Vegas, Nevada) and Noah Bean (St. George, Utah) were able to keep the Coyotes as bay in the top of the fourth inning as they combined to allow only one baserunner and no runs. The Spartans were able to score a run in the bottom of the fourth when Pim Vijfvinkel (Rhoon, Netherlands) singled on a sharp ground ball past the Coyote third basemen. Kiernan Hagan (Parker, Colorado) laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Vijfvinkel over to second base. Peyton Wilson notched another hit on the day as he drove the very next pitch passed the second basemen into right that put Spartan runners on first and third. Christensen walked for the second time on the day in the next at-bat to load the bases and Watt then hit into an unconventional double-play. Wilson was caught trying to advance home on the botched fielder's choice for the third out of the inning. This brought the score to six to four with the Coyotes still on top.
The fifth inning proved to be the tough inning as both the Spartans and the Coyotes were unable to plate any runs. The Coyotes did drive a run across in the top of the sixth inning to push their lead to three runs. The Spartans still scratching away at the Coyote lead woke up their timely hitting tendencies to score eight runs in the inning. Butterfield led the inning off by reaching on a dropped third strike error by the catcher. Vijfvinkel the bunted the next pitch to the Coyote pitcher who airmailed the throw to first base that advanced Butterfield to third base. Hagan then was struck by the fourth pitch of his at-bat to load the bases with no outs. Wilson added his third hit of the day when he singled to left field that scored Butterfield bringing the lead closer for the Spartans at seven to five. Christensen was hit in his next at-bat the moved all the runners up 90 feet, including Vijfvinkel who scored to bring the Spartans to within one run. The Coyote pitcher again hit Watt to move the Spartan runners and tie the game up at seven runs apiece. After the next Spartan hitter struck out, Jack Rea drew a walk and scored Wilson in the meantime. DeYoung then drove a hard-liner to centerfield that was caught, and the Spartans were unable to tag-up on the play. Butterfield then entered the box for his second at-bat of the inning. Butterfield started the inning on base via a strike-out and this time the Coyotes decided to play coy with the ever-dangerous hitter and bring in a new pitcher after Butterfield went up in the count 3 balls and no strikes. The new Coyote pitcher was able to get a first pitch fastball across the plate for strike one, but he made a fatal mistake when he threw another fastball to Butterfield who smashed it over the leftfield fence for a grand slam. This brought the score to twelve runs for the Spartans and seven for the Coyotes.
The Spartans won the next inning again when they were able to score two runs on a single by Barnes to left-center field and score Wilson and Christensen who both singled in their at-bats.  This brought the score to fourteen to eight in favor of the Spartans and that is how the game ended as well.  The win brought the Spartans to 10-22 on the year and 6-14 in SWAC play.  The Spartans will take to the road to Twin Falls, Idaho to take on the Golden Eagles from the College of Southern Idaho.