Saturday, March 22, 2008

Tiger baseball splits DH

Duane Barbati News-Bulletin Staff Writer; dbarbati@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas high school baseball finally won a game against Las Cruces High, which it hasn't done in four years. The Tigers (6-6) were hoping to sweep a doubleheader on Tuesday, but lost the first game to the Bulldawgs 10-9. They bounced back in the second game and won 3-1.

The last time Los Lunas beat Las Cruces was March 30, 2004.

"The kids did what we've never did," said second year LLHS coach James Doyle about this group of players. "We went down to Las Cruces and came back with a win. No errors in the second game, we bounced back from the first game."

In the second game of the doubleheader, the Tigers had two runners on base when JP Parra hit a line drive down the right field line in the third inning, which was barely fair, to lead 2-0. In the fifth inning, a double steal attempt moved Jimmy Gonzales to third, though Pat Ryan was thrown out at second. Gonzales scored on a hit by Parra for a 3-0 lead over Las Cruces. The Bulldawgs (8-4) finally scored in the sixth inning when Doran Jones hit a single to bring in Chris Silva, who had doubled.

Fausto Ortiz struck out seven batters and gave up three hits for the Tigers, who made no errors in the second game.

"Fausto had good defense behind him," said Doyle. "Gundrum and Romero are pitching good; They just have no defense behind them."

Los Lunas had a 9-6 lead over Las Cruces going into the bottom of the seventh inning of the first game. The Bulldawgs started off the bottom of the seventh with a three-single rally to load the bases.

Reuben Romero came on for the Tigers in relief, but walked in a run to make it 9-7. Las Cruces' Nick Sandoval doubled in two runs to tie the game 9-9. The next batter reached to load the bases again, and Romero ended up walking the next batter to end the game.

"We had an inning where we committed too many errors," said Doyle. "It puts added pressure on our pitchers when you have errors. Each game, we loose. We have one bad inning."

The Tigers committed three errors in the second inning leading to four runs. Los Lunas got all four of its third-inning runs on a grand slam by Parra.

Los Lunas is scheduled to host La Cueva on Thursday, March 27, at 4 p.m. Doyle said he knows the Bears are going to be a tough team to face.

"They have strong pitching and good hitters," he said. "It's going to be a tough game."

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