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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Express 'Hit the Ball' To Win 12-and-Under Crown

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
      Moriarty Baseball League President Rhett Butler finally can reap some of the benefits of his labor.
    Butler has had some managerial success as the head of the local youth organization. But in the past seven seasons as coach of the Moriarty Express, he had never won a league championship.
    That is, Butler, now in his eighth year coaching the Express, hadn't ever won a title until Tuesday. The Express — with Butler's pitcher throwing a no-hitter, his fielders playing errorless ball, and his batsmen getting 10 base hits — defeated the Estancia Diamondbacks 10-3 for the 12-and-under MBL crown at Moriarty's sports complex.
    “It's unbelievable, just awesome,” said a clearly pleased Butler, who in the past had kiddingly complained that the Telegraph's sports reporter was bad luck during the Express' previous failures.
    Moriarty pitcher Elijah Diaz, a 5-foot-4 Grant Middle School seventh-grader-to-be from Albuquerque, struck out 10, walked seven and hit a batter en route to the victory. The game was called in the top of the seventh inning due to lightning with the Express in front 12-3.
    The official tally reflected Moriarty's lead after six innings.
    With bright flashes of lightning striking all around the area and thunder rumbling in the near distance, the contest was ended just as Express first-baseman R.J. Butler, the coach's son, got what would have been his one base hit of the day with a grounder to center field that drove in Juan Martinez for the 12th run. An error allowed the younger Butler to take third base before he was ordered into the dugout.
    Moriarty scored four runs in the fourth inning to gain an 8-3 advantage, and the D'Backs never threatened again. Isiah Garcia, Charles Tapia, Jesse Grider, Justin Woodhouse and Martinez all had base hits in the fourth for the Express.
    Estancia scored two runs to close to within one in the bottom of the first inning. Joseph Torres and Xavier Archibeque, the latter the son of Estancia coach Randy Archibeque, crossed home plate on passed balls.
    Joe Sava took over the catching chores for Moriarty in the second inning. He helped to settle the game down as he adroitly blocked most of Diaz's pitches.
    “The most important thing, though, was we hit the ball,” said Sava, a 5-foot South Mountain Elementary rising sixth-grader. “We had a hard time against their pitchers last time. But this time we came out firing.”
    Estancia upset the Express 7-4 in a third-round game on Sunday. That created a three-way tie between Moriarty, the Diamondbacks and the Estancia Bears, each of whom had one loss at the time.
    The D'Backs got the bye after a drawing from a hat, and the Express eliminated the Bears 14-6 in what in essence was a semifinals game on Monday. The championship was pushed out to Tuesday from Saturday after some of the contests were postponed due to rain.
    Martinez and Woodhouse paced Moriarty at the plate Tuesday. The pair both were 2-for-3 with two RBI and two stolen bases.
    Grider was 2-for-2 with a stolen base. Andrew Lucero, Devin Staley, Corey Carrasco and Austin Noel rounded out the Express roster.
    “We weren't getting around on the ball the last time we played them,” said Martinez, a 5-1 center fielder and leadoff hitter who will be in the sixth grade at Moriarty Elementary. “But we hit the ball this time.”
    The Estancia pitching duo of Cesar Quintana and Joshua Torres, who took the mound in the fifth inning, combined to strike out three and walk two with one hit batsman. But the D'Backs' three errors were costly.
    In addition to the rain, one game was postponed because some of Estancia's families, including the Archibeques and the Torres brothers, were affected by the Big Spring Fire.
    “I think the fire was about four miles from us,” Randy Archibeque said. “The smoke bothered us.”
    The Torres boys live in Tajique.
    “It's a good thing the rain came,” said the brothers' mother, Isabel Lesperance. “I thank God for all the air support. They had six helicopters going in.”
    Joshua Torres, a 5-7 Estancia seventh-grader-to-be, relieved his younger brother, the starting pitcher, in the sixth inning of Sunday's contest with their team holding a 7-4 lead. The siblings, together, had five Ks, walked four and gave up six hits.
    Joshua Torres was 3-for-3 batting with four stolen bases. He also scored three runs.
    The Express and both Estancia squads have been invited to compete in the state American Amateur Baseball Congress 12U Pee Wee Reese-division tournament in Las Cruces. The state competition will be July 10-13.
   

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