Saturday, March 29, 2008

Class 5A teams ready Lady Eagles for title run

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

Belen With a tough pre-district schedule, the Belen High School softball team is facing top-notch competition to prepare further for their upcoming district schedule, which begins Tuesday. The Lady Eagles will go head-to-head with Del Norte (1-8) at 6 p.m.

Belen will come into District 5-4A with a winning record, even though the Eagles fell 9-2 at Class 5A La Cueva on Thursday. The Class 4A Eagles are set to host their final tune-up for 5-4A when undefeated 5A power Cibola comes to Belen on Saturday for a 10 a.m. game.

The Eagles swept all three games from Del Norte last season, including 10-1 and 6-3 wins in a dramatic home doubleheader on May 4. The second win clinched Belen's first trip to the state playoffs since 2003.

Del Norte has had some interesting experiences in facing some opponents it has in common with Belen. The Lady Knights beat Albuquerque High by the same margin as the Eagles (one run), but the Knights lost to Capital 1-0. Belen handily defeated 15-0 in three innings last weekend.

"We're going to practice like their all good teams," BHS coach Ken Zamora said. "They're all good teams. I haven't seen the other teams other than what's on nmact (.org)"

St. Pius went undefeated in 5-4A last year and reached the 4A state title game, but the Lady Sartans graduated their top pitcher and lots of other talent. The Sartans are 3-7 and are next Saturday's Belen opponent in a doubleheader.

Where the Eagles defeated Bernalillo 14-0, St. Pius (3-7) was only able to beat the Spartans 6-1. St. Pius lost to La Cueva 12-3, and Saturday's Belen opponent, Cibola, 10-0.

Belen kept pace with the Bears through four innings Thursday, but ultimately lost 9-2.

The Eagles were able to put runners on base in each of the first three innings of the La Cueva game with a walk and three base hits, but only managed a third-inning run. Belen batters had trouble making contact with the La Cueva pitcher Lauren Goldfarb's pitches, as Goldfarb struck out 13 Eagle batters.

Justine Gallegos went 2-for-4 and scored Belen's first run in the third inning, while Tomasita Smith was 1-for-4 and scored the other Belen run in the fifth.

Jasmine Gabaldon was 2-for-4 with one RBI, as was Rhianna Trujillo. Andrea Gabaldon was 2-for-3 in the game.

La Cueva (9-2) put runners on base with two Eagle errors and two base hits in the first inning, when the Bears took a 3-0 lead.

The Eagles had five errors in the game and were noticeably affected by the bright sunny conditions on the field.

"We had too many errors today," said Zamora on losing the game.

He said his team played 5A teams before district to get his players better prepared.

"Cibola and La Cueva, this is getting us ready for district," said Zamora. "That's why we play them. Good teams make you ready."

On Tuesday, Belen soundly won at 4A Los Alamos, a 3-6 team, by a 19-1 score. The game was mercy-ruled after five innings, the second mercy-rule win for the Eagles in four days.

Trujillo was 3-for-4 with a double, scored three runs and drove in a run, while Smith went 3-for-5 with a double with two RBI. Gabaldon was 2-for-5, scored three runs and had two RBI. Teammate RaeAnn Chavez scored three times, drove in a run and had two hits.

Megan Burditt scored the only run for Los Alamos in the third inning.

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