The Cooper baseball could never solve Lubbock Monterey starter Hector Villegas on Saturday, tallying just two hits off the right-hander in a 6-2 loss to the Plainsmen at Cougar Field.

Villegas kept the Cougars off balance all game, pitching around four walks and two hit batsmen by drawing weak contact more often that not.

The Monterey starter struck out only three, but he drew nine groundouts and four pop outs in helping the Plainsmen (8-11 overall) improve to 4-1 in District 4-5A play. Cooper, which managed single runs in the first and fourth innings, fell to 10-6 on the year and 2-3 in league action.