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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Bears Threepeat in 5-2A
By By Harold Smith /
Mountain View Telegraph
The Estancia High baseball team clinched the three-team District 5-2A title, its third in a row, with doubleheader sweeps of East Mountain and Santa Rosa.
The two-time defending Class 2A state champion Bears (11-3, 4-0) defeated East Mountain 10-0 and 15-5, both in five innings, at Estancia’s field on Friday. The Bears also beat Santa Rosa 12-4 and 11-3 in Guadalupe County on Tuesday.
“I feel good about the way the boys performed,” said Estancia’s first-year coach Mike Cabber, who is the Bears’ third rookie head coach in as many years. “But I don’t feel any relief yet.”
The four victories also qualified Estancia for the state Class 2A playoffs.
“We just need to continue to hit the ball well and eliminate the errors,” Cabber said. “You can’t make mistakes at state.”
Coming off two straight losses during the Santa Rosa tournament on April 4 and 5 — to Tucumcari, which EMHS had beaten previously, and to Hope Christian — the Bears were a bit apprehensive going into the games versus the Timberwolves.
Cabber and his crew shouldn’t have worried.
“Isaiah (Ortiz) had a perfect game (in the first game’s 10-0 rout),” Cabber said. “He had like 10 strikeouts, and there were no errors. No one made it to first base. We had him sitting by himself in the dugout. No one was allowed to talk to him.”
In cold and windy conditions, Estancia scored eight runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Bears’ at-bats in the fourth included a triple by Clayton Gardner and doubles from Steven Gregory and Destry Oberg, the latter on a ground-rule double in which the ball, on one bounce, flew over the right-field fence.
Ortiz retired the side, three-up, three-down, in all five innings.
“We knew we had to come to play,” said Gardner, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound senior center fielder. “We knew they (the T’Wolves) were better this year from reading the newspaper. We knew they had beat Tucumcari, and we lost to Tucumcari. So we got pretty pumped for the game.
“Mainly, we hit the ball,” Gardner continued. “And our pitching and fielding was good. We played better than we did at the Santa Rosa tournament.”
Gardner pitched the first four innings of the second game, and Lawrence Chavez closed it out in the fifth.
Ortiz and Gregory both hit home runs in the second contest.
“I told the East Mountain coach that they were the best team we’ve faced, attitude-wise, this season,” Cabber said. “I think their coach is doing a heck of a job. But we’re tough to beat when we’re hitting.”
The Timberwolves (12-3, 0-2) defeated the Hope Christian junior varsity 28-4 at their home field at Vista Grande Community Center on Tuesday. East Mountain’s No. 2 pitcher and No. 3 hitter, Marco Grieco, remains out of service due to illness, and EMHS coach David Naylor said he might be out for the season.
“This next week is a big one for us,” Naylor said. “I hope that we won’t be one of the best teams that don’t make it to state.”
The T’Wolves travel to Santa Rosa on Friday. East Mountain then hosts Estancia on Tuesday.
Moriarty
The Pintos (11-5, 5-3), ranked second in last week’s Albuquerque Journal Class 4A coach’s poll, blanked District 5-4A rival St. Pius, ranked No. 5, 10-0 in five innings at the Pintos’ field on Tuesday.
Moriarty senior Ben Gonzales was the winning pitcher. At the plate he helped himself with a 2-for-2 performance with an RBI, a run and two stolen bases.
Ben’s cousin, Nick Gonzales, was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, and he scored two runs.
The Pintos rebounded from a split with No. 9 Del Norte at the Knight’s field on Saturday. Del Norte first-baseman Wade Hinkle, who leads Class 4A in home runs and batting average, smacked a two-run homer over the right-field fence in the bottom of the sixth inning for the 2-1 win in the first game.
“We talked about (walking Hinkle) earlier in the game,” Moriarty coach Michael Chavez said. “But it wouldn’t have been a problem if the one in front of him (Joel Romero) hadn’t gotten on base (with a single).”
The Pintos turned on the afterburners in the second game. Moriarty pummeled Del Norte 14-0 in five innings.
The Pintos have been down in the district race before and always seem to be able to rebound and then play well in the state playoffs.
“It’s going to be tough,” Chavez said after the Knights’ game and before the St. Pius contest. “We’ve lost to some teams that we’ve never lost to before. But we’re not done yet. This was just the first half.”
Moriarty defeated Grants 14-3 in a district game at Thomas J. Schnell Complex on April 10.
“I think everyone is trying not to be the one to make a mistake,” Pintos senior James Gambling said in the aftermath of the Del Norte split. “We’re worried too much about doing something wrong. Now, we’ve got to win out, or we’re going to have trouble getting to state.”
Manzano
The Monarchs (9-9, 4-2) defeated Highland 15-3 on Saturday at the Hornets’ field and Los Lunas 3-1 at home on Tuesday in a pair of District 5-5A games.
Eldorado beat Manzano 12-0 in district action at the Purple Pride’s field on April 10.
Monarchs first-baseman Russell Hartshorn, an East Mountains resident, led Class 5A in batting average, 23-43, .535, according to last week’s prep sports report in the Albuquerque Journal.
Baseball • Manzano hosts Rio Grande, today, 4 p.m.
• East Mountain vs. Cuba at Vista Grande Community Center, today, 3 p.m.
• Moriarty at Cibola, today, 4 p.m.
• Estancia at Laguna-Acoma, Saturday, 11 a.m.
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