Win.

Lose.

Win.

Lose.

So, was the New Mexico Highlands University baseball series half full, or half empty after splitting four games with Mesa State College at Brandt Field in Las Vegas?

The full? The Cowboys won two of three of the games that were of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference variety.

The empty? That feeling could come much later, when the regional rankings are released in April.

The Mavericks took Sunday's finale 12-8. That came one day after handing the Cowboys their first RMAC loss, 21-4, in Saturday's opener of a doubleheader. Highlands responded with an 18-4 victory to earn a split.

Highlands wraps the weekend
12-4, 5-1 in the RMAC. Mesa State leaves 6-8, 2-4.

"We're at home, we should have won three of four," Steve Jones, Highlands head coach, said Sunday. "Mesa outworked us on the weekend. We deserve what we got."

Danny Brown spotted the Cowboys a 4-0 head start with a first-inning grand slam on Sunday. It was Brown's third home run of the series, his fifth of the season.

But the Mavericks answered with a seven-run fourth inning and tacked on a pair of two-run innings in the eighth and ninth to make a winner of Dylan Evans (2-1) and a loser of Tyler Shaddy (1-1).

It was the third time the Cowboys wasted a lead and lost.

"I can't complain about 12-4," Jones said. "But if we don't give up leads three times, we're talking about being 15-1. We're not playing nine innings from an offensive standpoint."

That was the case Sunday.

And Saturday.

The Cowboys trailed 2-1 at the end of four in Saturday's opener. Then all — you know what — broke loose.

"We left 11 runners on base and that was mostly early on," Jones said Saturday. "We had our chances early, when maybe it could have been different."

Steven Becerra got the start for the Cowboys and lasted through four.

"He kept us in it, but he wasn't around the plate a whole lot and we had to go to the bullpen," Jones said.

The Mavericks teed off on two relievers.

"I don't think we had a sense of urgency," Jones said of the opener. "We've been on the winning end of those. You hope it was because they came out and swung the bats and their kid pitched well, not because your kids didn't show up ready to play."

Kyle Davis scattered three hits and one earned run in four innings to earn the pitching victory for Mesa State.

"He kept us off-balanced," Jones said.

Only Brown didn't struggle. The right fielder went 2-for-4 with a home run and three runs batted in for the Cowboys.

Brown continued his mastery of Mesa State pitching with a 3-for-3 performance in Saturday's second game that included another home run, a double and five RBIs.

Phil Rodriguez added a three-run home run in the fifth, and Oscar Sigala went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.

Trent Evans made his first start for Highlands. Evans (1-0) pitched four innings, allowed four hits and two earned runs. He walked three and struck out one. David Saiz earned a three-inning save, his first on the season. Saiz surrendered one hit, one earned run and struck out four.

Shaddy allowed on two hits and struck out five in 3 2/3 innings Sunday for the Cowboys. But he walked five and allowed five earned runs.

"You figure you have to score runs on Sunday," Jones said. "We did what we've done, score early. We just didn't do it for nine innings."

And until the Cowboys do?

"Until we get that mind-set, we're gonna have a lot of splits," Jones said.