By Eric Butler
MaxPreps.com
Softball: Farmington Schools Collide
A precursor of things to come or a reminder of past events? A softball contest between Piedra Vista and Farmington on Saturday may have been just a little bit of both as the annual Kristin Griego Memorial Tournament came to an end.
The two powers from Farmington, who met last year in the Class 4A championship game and are strong possibilities to do that again, faced off in the title contest of the Rio Rancho tourney. As was the case when they won the 4A state crown last May, Piedra Vista again knocked off Farmington 2-1 behind the pitching of junior Jayme Fuller and the hitting of freshman Maurissa Ellis.
"We knew it'd be a dogfight and we knew we'd probably see FHS - they're a good ballclub," Fuller said.
The 4 p.m. championship game went only six innings as tourney organizers were forced to shorten games all day as rain, and wet fields as a result, forced a late start.
In the top of the sixth, in a 1-1 game, Fuller clubbed an opposite-field triple to right to lead off the inning. After Farmington pitcher Alyssa Rahm recorded a strikeout, Panthers' frosh Ellis connected for a single up the middle to score Fuller.
Piedra Vista (12-1) had loaded the bases the inning before, with two outs, but were unable to convert the runners into runs. However, the Panthers did connect for four hits in the last two frames against Rahm after getting only one in the first four innings.
"We knew we had to start in the position called 'choke-and-poke,' which is kind of to get our hands through the zone quicker, because she (Rahm) was bringing the heat," Fuller said. "She was throwing hard, so our coaches told us to shorten up our swings."
The only hit the Panthers got through more than half the game was when Ellis hit a rocket shot off Rahm that tattooed the centerfield scoreboard for a home run - and a 1-0 Piedra Vista lead in the second inning.
"That was one of the hardest balls I've seen hit in a long time. For a freshman, that's saying something," Piedra Vista coach Kevin Werth said.
Farmington (10-4) tied the game in the third when consecutive singles by Marissa Wallace and Taylor Miley turned into a run.
The two teams also met in the 2003 championship of the Kristin Griego tourney and Farmington, as well, faced Four Corners rival Aztec in the title game of the 2005 invitational.
"Our area has great softball at all levels," Farmington coach Darin Wright said. "If you want to see good softball, come to our area."
Piedra Vista edged Manzano 2-1 in one semifinal while Farmington nipped La Cueva 4-3 in the other. In the third-place game, La Cueva defeated Manzano 4-0 with the big blow coming from Kaylee Deutsch's two-run triple in the fourth inning.
Baseball & Softball: Valley, Cibola Building on Success
A pair of Albuquerque teams vaulted their way into the attention of the state by winning high-caliber tournaments in Las Cruces ten days ago. The task for the Valley baseball squad and the Cibola softball team on Saturday was to prove it was no fluke.
To a large degree, both the Vikings and Cougars showed they belonged in the upper echelon of Class 5A for each sport by taking on well-established powers over the weekend. Valley followed up its tourney win by beating Eldorado 5-1 on Saturday while Cibola took another trip south to play annual state contender Alamogordo in a doubleheader - a twinbill in which the Cougars suffered a pair of one-run losses to the Tigers.
Valley's baseball opponent, Eldorado, has advanced to the 5A state championship game in both of the last two years. In a playoff game last year, Eldorado eliminated the Vikings from postseason play.
On Saturday, however, the host Vikings took command of the contest by scoring three runs in the fifth inning.
While Valley coach Chad Kuhn said that his squad was going with its ace pitcher in Dominic Gallegos, Eldorado saved a pair of their top hurlers for the later innings. However, that's when the Vikings put up most of their runs - after getting a single run off Eldorado starter Sean Roney in the third.
"They didn't start their ace, but they brought two of their guys (Roman Montano and Kenneth Giles) in once they got behind," said Kuhn, who noted that the speed of Montano's offerings were, so to speak, right in the Vikings' wheelhouse. "We're a good fastball-hitting team. Once they brought Roman in throwing the heat, I kind of saw the smiles on our guys. We like to bat against guys that throw hard."
Valley freshman Estevan Romero had an outstanding day at the plate as he connected for a pair of doubles, while junior Chris Garcia also got a double in a two-for-three day batting.
As Kuhn noted, it's been the Vikings' pitching and defense that has carried his squad to a 10-2 record thus far. Gallegos, he pitched the first six innings against the Eagles, has a scant 1.20 earned run average and reliever Jeff Lucero, who worked the seventh, has a barely noticeable 0.50 ERA.
In fact, Eldorado's run against Lucero was the only one all year that the Valley senior - who has committed to play at the University of New Mexico - has given up all year long.
"I felt it was probably the marquee game of the weekend," said Kuhn of the victory over Eldorado. "It was a good game to kind of let us know where we are among the giants in the city. We aspire to be where that program is and I think we're starting to achieve that."
Similarly, the Cibola softball team went south to further cement its newfound reputation by playing perennial power Alamogordo.
The weekend before, the Cougars pulled off three tight wins in a row over very difficult competition (Artesia, Onate and Piedra Vista) to take the 16-team tournament crown in Las Cruces.
Although the Cougars found themselves at the other end of one-run games this time, the 4-3 and 2-1 losses to the Tigers weren't particularly devastating to Cibola coach Gene Victor.
"Alamogordo's a good team. The main thing is that we were competitive with them, so it's not like we went down there and didn't have a chance," Victor said.
In fact, Cibola (12-3) had a solid shot to win both games. In the opener of the doubleheader, Alamogordo scored four runs off Cougars' standout pitcher Missy Martinez in the bottom of the seventh to win the game. In the nightcap, trailing 2-0, Cibola loaded the bases in the seventh but could only come away with one run in the rally.
Victor thought that the short week between long road trips may have been a contributing factor in the losses, but the Cougars coach minimized that possibility.
"That probably had a little bit to do with it. We traveled Friday and Saturday the week before, then had to go back down there again this week," Victor said. "But, you know, Alamogordo has got a good team."