Jaguars, Eagles meet in VHS baseball invite

TOMÉ — The high school baseball season opened last Thursday with an excellent lineup of teams at the Valencia Invitational.

It also started with a half dozen food trucks and a large contingent of Valencia students, enjoying the baseball, along with burgers and burritos.

As an added bonus, the three-day affair also featured an unexpected early March meeting between the host school and Belen, district and county rivals.

“We put (Belen) on the other side of the bracket,” so the two schools would not face off this early, said Carlos Ramirez, VHS coach. “It was good for our guys to be in that environment, that competition.”

After giving up a first-inning score, Belen reeled off 10 straight runs to post the 11-1 victory, shortened to six innings because of the mercy rule. The Eagles used pitchers Luke Harvey and Isaiah Vargas, who gave up just six hits. Overall, first-year coach Justin Miller was pleased.

“Today was really a test of what are we made of,” Miller said shortly after the game ended around noon. “I’m ecstatic.”

The two rivals faced off because each won their first game and lost their second.

In the opening round, VHS defeated Pojoaque Valley 11-0 and BHS handled Bernalillo 12-4. However, in the semifinals, both came up short; VHS fell to Aztec 11-1 while eventual champion Hope Christian edged Belen 2-1.

The three games, win or lose, were a learning opportunity to start the season.

“We’re still moving some pieces around to see who is going to fill in some roles,” said Ramirez. “I’m pretty excited for the group. They compete well.”

Bernalillo went up early against Belen, but the Eagles scored 10 in the sixth to rally for the win.

“The boys never quit. It could have been very easy to roll over down three against a good Bernalillo team,” said Miller.

Even in the loss to Hope, there were hopeful signs.

“They answered the call and the challenge,” Miller said. “This (tournament) could not have gone any better in my opinion.”

As for the atmosphere, it was quite a show, especially on Thursday, when many Valencia students were allowed to cheer on the Jaguars during school hours.

“It’s a nice, fresh breath from all the other stuff we’ve been doing, all the work,” said student Robert Brown, VHS sophomore.

When asked if it was a positive experience, Brown answered, “Completely. I feel more schools should do this.”

“The idea is we can reward students for hard work in the classroom,” said Paul Carder, VHS assistant principal. “It gives them an opportunity to support athletics here on campus and at the same time get that camaraderie. Education in a lot of cases is building relationships.”

The VHS baseball program organized a wide range of food trucks for visiting teams and fans, not necessarily for the student-body. The VHS campus is located miles from area restaurants.

Cleveland Invitational

It was a busy few days for Los Lunas as well, posting a 2-1 record at the Cleveland Invitational against three schools from Southwest New Mexico. The Tigers opened the tournament with a 4-0 victory over Hobbs, with JJ Utash and Matthew Castillo combining on a three-hit shutout.

Next, LLHS lost to Carlsbad 9-5, although Utash hit a home run. To end the tournament, Los Lunas handled Clovis 11-1, with JD Diaz having three of the Tigers’ 13 hits.