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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Las Cruces Wins Spot at World Series

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
          An all-expenses-paid trip to Puerto Rico was up for grabs.
        The Las Cruces Lookouts edged the Farmington Athletics 7-6 in the championship game of the American Amateur Baseball Congress 12-and-under South Plains Regional Tournament at Moriarty's sports complex on Sunday. The Doña Ana County team earned the right to compete in the AABC Pee Wee Reese-division World Series at Levittown in Puerto Rico's Toa Baja municipality on Aug. 7-10.
        "They (AABC headquarters) usually pay for all the kids plus two coaches, for the flight and the rooms," Lookouts coach Carlos Maez said with a smile.
        Las Cruces, the state runner-up, took a 7-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning on a solo home run from Michael Perez. His blast, off A's right-hander Sean Barela, sailed well over the left-field fence.
        The Lookouts barely held off a concerted Farmington rally in the seventh to garner the victory. The Cruces shortstop's leaping snag of a batted ball that seemed to be headed for left-center field garnered the third out and kept the would-be tying run from scoring from third base.
        "The difference was the pitching," Maez said. "We had a great closer (in Andrew Serna). And we had some good plays in the field that helped us out."
        The state-champion New Mexico Stars, who hail from Mesquite, opted to compete in a United States Specialty Sports Association national tournament rather than advance up the AABC ladder, Maez said.
        <b>Estancia Bears</b>
        Estancia — third in the Moriarty Baseball League, eighth at state — had a good showing at the South Plains tourney. The Bears, for seventh place in the eight-state region, ended the year on a high note with a 17-10 upset of MBL-champion New Mexico Express during the consolation game on Saturday.
        Farmington, scoring five runs in the second inning, defeated Estancia 12-4 in a first-round game on July 17. The Bears had a 1-0 lead after leadoff-hitter Clay Cabber — he walked to get on base, stole second and then sprinted to third on a wild pitch — scored on a Josh Torres groundout in the top of the first.
        The A's amassed a 9-1 lead before Estancia got three runs in the fifth to close to 9-4. Farmington errors helped Cabber, who walked to get aboard, score once again.
        Stetson Lujan also crossed home plate on a Torres base hit, and Tito Estrada's walk with the bases loaded earned him an RBI by sending Leon Lujan home from third.
        "I do it just 'cause I like baseball," said Estrada, a 4-foot-4 center fielder and an Estancia seventh-grader-to-be.
        Farmington's pitchers gave up four hits, struck out two and walked five. Bears pitching — Patrick and Leon Lujan and Spencer Coburn — struck out two, walked five, hit two batters and allowed nine hits.
        The Santa Fe Xtreme squeaked past the Bears 8-6 on Friday.
        Estancia enjoyed a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Santa Fe then took a 6-3 lead in the second.
        The Bears had three of its eight errors in the second.
        Estancia rallied in the fourth. The Bears scored two runs to narrow the Xtreme's advantage to 6-5.
        The Bears' pitchers — Cabber, Torres and Patrick Lujan — struck out three, walked two and allowed nine hits. At the plate, Estrada was 1-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run.
        "It was fun," said Cabber, a 4-10 rising seventh grader. "I just used fastballs and a changeup. But the errors, they threw us off a little bit."
        Santa Fe pitchers struck out five, allowed five walks and gave up five hits.
        "It was a good game," Estancia coach Leonard Lujan said. "We had a couple of errors that hurt us. But we played well after that the rest of the game. But after that second inning, we couldn't catch up."
        The coach is the father of Bears Stetson and Leon Lujan.
        <b>New Mexico Express</b>
        The New Mexico Express, mostly from the Moriarty-Edgewood vicinity with four augmentees from outside the local area, appeared uncharacteristically lethargic at times in their initial two games of the South Plains competition. After placing fifth at the state tournament, the squad wound up in the regional cellar.
        On Friday, the Las Cruces Bats beat the Express 16-10 in the second round. The game, which was plagued by strong winds, was called after five innings due to a time limit.
        "When you were batting, the wind would get in your eyes," said Express pitcher/right-fielder Justin Woodhouse, who took the mound in the bottom of the fourth. "But it didn't hurt me pitching."
        The wind picked up dramatically in the top of the inning as Woodhouse was about to take his place as the first batter. Then, with two outs just as Brandon Martinez knocked a sharply hit grounder into center field, a prolonged gale struck from north to south, right field to center.
        The Bats' center fielder, squinting and turning his head to avoid the cyclone-like blast and its accompanying dust, didn't even see the ball as it bounded past him. Martinez raced around the bases for a triple as a bright-blue tent that had covered a concession hawking sports paraphernalia blew over the fence and tumbled end over end across the outfield, its metal legs flailing about like an upended stink bug.
        A couple of Las Cruces players attempted to stop the tent's progress before adults raced onto the field and halted the fleeing canopy and collapsed its telescoping supports.
        "I think their second baseman was kind of... well, kind of dumb for trying to catch it — the blown tent," said Woodhouse, a Moriarty Middle School eighth-grader-to-be.
        With the wind continuing to howl, Martinez came home on an error. The Express had an 8-4 advantage.
        The Bats rebounded in the bottom of the fourth with nine runs to take a 13-8 lead.
        "They just caught up," said Martinez, a 5-foot left fielder from Santa Fe. "But it was a fun game."
        For the Express, Juan Martinez was 3-for-4 with two runs and a stolen base. Brandon Martinez was 2-for-3 with two triples, an RBI and three runs.
        R.J. Butler, who had been in somewhat of a slump, was 2-for-3 at the plate. He had two doubles and an RBI, and he scored two runs and stole a base.
        "(Friday) morning, my dad (Express coach Rhett Butler) figured out that I was rolling my hand," said R.J., an Edgewood Middle School rising seventh-grader. "So, I adjusted."
        The four-man Express pitching staff gave up 14 hits, got one strikeout, allowed four walks and hit two batsman. A Bats duo gave up 14 hits, had three Ks and walked two.
        The Santa Fe Sliders put the whammy on the Express in the first round on July 17. The Sliders won 20-5 in a game that was called in the fourth inning via the mercy rule.
        "That was the worst game we played all year," Rhett Butler said.