Saturday, July 5, 2008

Close games and lopsided ones — not much in between

Yucca Minors beat Westgate, aided by late-inning heroics

By Duane Barbati And Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writers

Los Lunas Wednesday at Enchantment Little League, there were three games that were decided early and one with a close finish. However, like all of the contests in this first week of District 9 Little League Tournament action, each game was hard-fought, and every Valencia County team showed why its players were selected for the all-star tourney.

Tuesday, several county teams were playing their first district games, while a couple of others were already on to round two.

The excitement dragged well into the night at times. In the Minor Baseball division, Enchantment Orange edged Isleta by a 22-21 score in a game that ended about 11:15 p.m.

Enchantment's Blue team in the Minor division, one day after an easy tourney-opening win, fell 5-2 to a South Valley team Tuesday, and will face Yucca in a 9 a.m. game Saturday at Enchantment.

Also Tuesday, the Enchantment Majors and the Yucca Juniors easily won their first-round games. The Isleta Minor softball team squeaked by host Enchantment, 10-9, while the Echantment Majors easily won their softball opener, 13-0 over South Valley.

There was plenty of excitiing tournament action on Wednesday as well.

All of Thursday's games were completed after an early News-Bulletin deadline to accomodate the Independence Day holiday.

The tournament only started this week for parents and fans, but coaches and players of the teams have been working hard to get into the tournament since May. Each team is comprised of the best players from each league in District 9.

"If the kids want to play more games, they can play more games," said District 9 administrator Grace Estrada. "The players have to play in sixty percent of their scheduled games."

Estrada said she knows the excitement and thrill the kids have for the tournament, because she has volunteered for Little League for 25 years.

"A lot of the kids take the tournament to heart." she said. "It's very special for them to get here. They deserve to be out there. It's what they've been working for all season."

Saturday will be the tournament's busiest day, with about a dozen games being played at Enchantment and South Valley.

Here's a recap of some of Wednesday's action, with all games played at Enchantment:

Major Softball:

Isleta 12, Yucca 0

The Isleta team won on Wednesday in the Major softball division marking the first time the group had won a District 9 game in their three years of all-star play. Isleta won by mercy rule over Yucca.

At the end of the game, the Isleta team circled home plate and wrote Isleta in the sand at the top of the plate to commemorate their long awaited victory.

Isleta will face host Enchantment at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

"It means a lot for them to win," Isleta head coach Christine Abeita said. "They've come a long way and worked hard to get this far. We only have nine players on our rooster."

Isleta's shortstop Aikiko Herrera went 2-for-3 with an inside-the-park home run and a double.

"It means a lot to be here," said Herrera. "I always wanted to win and go on to the next bracket."

Herrera, in the bottom of the third inning, hit her three-run homer to left field.

"I just kept running and running," she said. "I was ecstatic."

Jacqueline Jiron, Isleta's pitcher, had five strikeouts and walked only one batter. Jiron went 2-for-3 at the plate, and hit two triples.

"It's fun," said Jiron about playing in the tournament. "It's not easy to play for an all-star team. You have to practice a lot, play hard and do your best. Yucca is a really good team. They played good."

Yucca coach Lawrence Vargas said his team has to work through their nervousness and get more experience of playing in the all-star game.

"It's a big accomplishment for the girls to get on the field," said Vargas. "They're learning to excel and play good. They don't have enough experience playing in the all-star tournament. They have to get the butterflies out."

Crystal Vargas said she is happy to be playing in the all-star tournament as well.

"I just try to play good," said Vargas. "The all-star games gives you more experience. I am just happy to be here."

Major Baseball

South Valley 11, Belen 0

South Valley Majors coach Steven Aldrete said Belen scouted his team, and even knew some of his players by name. That didn't stop South Valley from smacking 13 hits, hitting two home runs and sending Belen to the lower bracket after its first game.

"They were here Monday, and they scouted us good," said Aldrete, whose team will face either Enchantment or Yucca on Saturday. "Toward the end, they had to try some aggressive baserunning, but I wish those guys the best."

With Belen having trouble making contact and South Valley spoiling the host's tournament opener with powerful hitting, the rout was on pretty early. However, Belen never gave up despite being no-hit by SVLL pitcher Alejandro Aldrete in the mercy-rule four-inning game.

Aldrete also homered, as did Isaiah Ulibarri for South Valley. The SVLL Majors led 5-0 after one inning, got two more in the second, and pushed across their final four runs in the fourth and final inning of the game. A couple of misplays by Belen fielders also contributed to the rough outing.

The loss set the Belen Majors up with a Saturday matchup against Westgate at 12:30 p.m. at ELL. Belen coach Marvin Gabaldon said he hopes his team will hit better than it did Wednesday.

"I hope they'll come around," said Gabaldon. "Most of these guys have played in all-stars (district tournaments) before, and we practiced hard all week."

Belen did draw five walks, managed at least one baserunner in each innings, and made a couple of nice plays on defense. The Majors got two runners on in the first and second innings, but stranded both runners each time.

Belen pitchers Martin Narro, Jonathan Encinias and Gabriel Lucero worked hard, but the South Valley bats didn't miss out on very many good pitches to hit. The Belen staff walked five South Valley Majors on the day.

All three of the Belen players to reach base in the final two innings were erased by the SVLL defense. Encinias walked to lead off the third, while Josh Garcia walked at the start of the fourth inning.

South Valley is set to play Saturday at 4 p.m. against either Enchantment or Yucca. The winner of the 4 p.m. game will advance to the championship round.

Gabaldon said his team would be working out on the Fourth of July just to stay prepared for Saturday.

"We'll be practicing Friday," Gabaldon said after Wednesday's game. "The boys want to."

Minor baseball:

Yucca 12, Westgate (II) 11

In the Minor baseball division, Yucca came back from a 9-7 deficit in the fourth inning of its game against Westgate II to win 12-11. Yucca was fighting to stay in the tournament. It was Yucca's last chance to advance to the next game in the lower bracket of the double elimination tourney.

"The kids have a lot of heart," Yucca coach Rob Sharpe said. "They played their best game tonight. We get to play on Saturday."

Yucca will face South Valley at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Daniel Cable pitched 3 and 2/3 innings with six strikeouts and walking only two batters.

Yucca's comeback came in the top of the sixth inning when Gavin Sharpe led off with a triple into the left and center field gap.

With the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning, Jonathan Phillips drove one deep into left field to clear the bases.

Sharpe went 2-for-4 with a triple. Ruben Hernandez was 2-for-3 and Phillips had a triple and three RBI.

Yucca went into Wednesday's game after losing 13-6 to Westgate I in the first round of the tournament on Monday.

"The boys could have given up," said Sharpe. "They lost to Westgate I on Monday, but came back and played hard. Everybody came through for us tonight."

Junior Baseball:

Westgate 14, Yucca 5

One day after the Yucca Juniors scored 14 runs to beat Enchantment in their tournament opener, it was their turn to fall to a team scoring that many runs.

The Juniors battled hard, scoring a few runs in the late innings, but the Westgate bats were too much for Yucca's pitching. Josh Padilla pitched through some tough later innings for Yucca.

The Bosque Farms-based Yucca team was also buoyed by a few sharp defensive plays. Shortstop Molly Holliday made a backhanded stab of a line drive in the sixth inning, throwing to first to double up a Westgate runner.

Holliday also had an RBI groundout for the Juniors, who will face either South Valley or host Enchantment on Saturday in a 9 a.m. game. The loser of that game will be eliminated, while the winner will face Westgate on Monday at 5 p.m.

10-11 Softball:

Enchantment 28,

Westgate 1

With only Westgate in its tournament division, the host Enchantment squad can clinch the District 9 championship and advance to state with another win over WLL in Saturday's 4 p.m. game.

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